"The United Nations and the international community will not tolerate war crimes anymore"

Reuters Alertnet - "UN demands investigation into Burundi war crimes"

BUJUMBURA, May 26 (Reuters) - The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Burundi on Thursday demanded an investigation into recent mortar attacks and reports of summary executions which it described as war crimes.

Nureldine Satti, the U.N.'s deputy special representative for Burundi, said it was essential for the central African country's peace process to hold to account those responsible for war crimes.

Satti demanded an investigation into mortar attacks that wounded five in the suburbs of the capital Bujumbura on Tuesday night, and recent reports of summary executions in Bujumbura Rural province, a stronghold of the rebel Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL).

"We want to know the truth. The United Nations and the international community will not tolerate war crimes anymore. Any individual, any group responsible for war crimes will be held accountable for its acts," he told a press conference.

He urged the government and the FNL, the only rebel group still fighting the government after a decade of civil war, to cooperate with its investigators to find those responsible.

"The United Nations and the international community will not tolerate war crimes anymore." - We'll believe that when we see it. But is the UN at last admitting that it's been tolerating war crimes in Burundi up until now?

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