BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AFP) – More than 60 national and international rights groups have slammed a measure making homosexuality a crime punishable by jail, which was signed into law last week in Africa’s Burundi.

They called on President Pierre Nkurunziza to go back on his promulgation of the parliamentary bill, which was not officially announced though confirmned yesterday by an aide.

The groups, including international heavyweights Human Rights Watch, said that under the new criminal code promulgated by Nkurunziza on April 22, “same-sex sexual conduct becomes illegal for the first time in Burundi’s history.”

According to the law, “whoever has sexual relations with a person of the same sex is punished by a prison sentence of three months to two years and a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 (CFA) francs, or one of these penalties,” a joint statement said.

“We consider the law to violate the rights to privacy and freedom from discrimination protected by Burundi’s Constitution and enshrined in its international treaty commitments,” it added.

“We deeply regret that the Burundian government has made a decision that writes human rights violations into law (and) will hamper Burundi’s attempts to fight AIDS, by further marginalising an at-risk population.

“We respectfully remind the government of Burundi that according to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, arrests on the basis of sexual orientation are, by definition, human rights violations. We will carefully monitor any arrests made on the basis of this law.

“We urge the government of Burundi to act promptly to decriminalise homosexual conduct.”

In a separate statement Human Rights Watch quoted Scott Long, director of the group’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Programme as saying that “Burundi has taken a disappointing step backward by legalising discrimination.

“The government has fallen back on custom’ and culture’ to justify this repressive step – but there can be no justification for stripping some of Burundi’s people of their fundamental rights,” he added.

The lower house of Burundi’s parliament in March reversed a Senate vote that rejected an amendment to the new criminal code that would make homosexuality punishable by a jail sentence of up to two years.

On March 6 thousands of Burundians took part in a government-organised demonstration to protest the senate’s decision not to criminalise homosexuality.