Burundi’s parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to recognise the statutes of the United Nation’s permanent war crimes court, state radio reported.
The transitional national parliament adopted a law recognizing the authority of the International Criminal Court, by 152 votes to none, the assembly’s president Jean Minani said.
”The law completes the one adopted here last week, against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burundi,” said Therence Sinunguruza, Burundi’s minister for external relations.
It must still be signed into law by President Pierre Buyoya.
Last week, parliament passed a bill that put genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes onto Burundi’s criminal statutes.
Burundi’s own truth and reconciliation commission is due to come into effect on May 1, to look into crimes committed since independence in 1962.
Like its neighbour Rwanda, Burundi has long been torn apart by ethnic conflict which has seen hundreds of thousands killed in sporadic massacres.
In 1993, armed groups drawn from the Hutu majority rose up against the Tutsi-dominated government and army.
A decade later, the war smoulders on and more than 300 000 have been killed.
More than 600 people have been sentenced to death in Burundi’s for violent crimes committed since 1993. – Sapa-AFP