UN and Burundi will start preparatory talks on post-conflict Truth Commission

The United Nations Operations in Burundi (UNOB) will initiate preparatory talks in the coming weeks on a mixed Truth Commission and a Special Chamber within its court system on crimes committed during past ethnic conflicts, as agreed by the Bujumbura Government, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said.

"These discussions will focus on the nature of the Truth Commission and the Special Chamber proposed in the assessment mission report and on the negotiation and national consultations processes," he wrote in a letter to the Security Council earlier this week.

President Pierre Nkurunziza and the newly appointed Minister of Justice, Clotilde Niragira, have indicated their intention to nominate a small committee to liaise with the United Nations on the details of the proposed legal framework, he said.

On the basis of the preliminary results of the consultations, a UN team would be dispatched to Burundi to negotiate the practical implementation of the legal framework involved, he added.

The Security Council, in its enabling resolution in June, said the context of the court was "the need, for the consolidation of peace and reconciliation in Burundi, to establish the truth, investigate the crimes, and identify and bring to justice those bearing the greatest responsibility for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Burundi since independence, to deter future crimes of this nature, and to bring an end to the climate of impunity, in Burundi and in the region of the Great Lakes of Africa as a whole."