Burundians Demand
Homosexuality Be Criminalized

Tens of thousands of people from Burundi, an impoverished East African nation, demonstrated Friday in their capital of Bujumbura to demand the outlawing of homosexuality, reports Agence France-Presse.

The demonstration, which drew up to 20,000 people, follows the government's failure to implement a law that would have criminalized homosexual acts. On February 17, senators voted through a draft criminal code law that abolished the death penalty, but rejected an amendment that outlawed homosexuality.

At Friday's protest, Jeremie Ngendakumana, the ruling party's chairman, said, "[We are] protesting today to support the [view of the] majority of Burundians that homosexuality should be punished by law. Homosexuality is a sin. It is a culture which has been imported to sully our morals and is practiced by immoral people."

Before the senators rejected the antigay amendment, the lower chamber of the nation's parliament adopted the amendments in November that sought to penalize homosexuality by up to two years in jail.