After Sacking ICC, Burundi Bars UN
The Government of Burundi on Thursday refused to cooperate with a U.N. inquiry into months of political violence after announcing plans to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Government officials say the accusations of abuses by UN officials were part of a political plot.
This is coming shortly after the Burundi government announced plans to withdraw from the ICC.
Burundi last month began the process of withdrawing from the global tribunal which was set up to try the most serious crimes when local legal structures fail.
READ: South Africa to Withdraw from International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court said in April that political violence had killed about 450 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
Opponents said President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term violated the constitution and the terms of a peace agreement that ended a civil war in 2005.
The United Nations announced the inquiry this week to identify perpetrators in the central African state, which has been characterized by clashes and killings since protests erupted in 2015 against the president’s decision to seek a third term.
“We are not involved in the investigation to be carried out by this commission,” Burundi’s Human Rights Minister, Martin Nivyabandi, told journalists on Thursday.
“We are not refusing to cooperate with human rights institutions (on all matters) … we will continue to cooperate on other issues but will not be part of the investigation.”
The United Nations released a report by independent experts in September identifying government officials suspected of ordering political opposition to be tortured or killed.
Bu the government immediately banned the experts from entering Burundi saying that the allegations were politically motivated.
Human Rights Minister, Nivyabandi said that the September report was “politically oriented” and warned, “there are some international organizations whose goal is to destabilize some governments in Africa.”
(NAN)
