Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte railed against the United Nations on Sunday after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs, saying he might leave the organization and invite China and others to form a new one.
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“Maybe we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations.Take us out, you have not done anything”.
The UN’s special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, last week said Duterte’s promise of immunity and bounties to security forces who killed drug suspects violated worldwide law.
“If you are that insulting, son of a bitch, we should just leave”, he said then in Tagalog, according to a translation by CNN affiliate CNN Philippines.
Duterte gained popularity in 1988 when he became the mayor of Davao on the southern island of Mindanao, where he reigned for 22 years over different periods characterised by his strong defence of extra-judicial killings.
He pointed early Sunday to the haunting image of a bloodied child pulled from the rubble of a missile-struck building in the Syrian city of Aleppo to hit United Nations and US inability to stop such deadly conflicts while he said he comes under fire for the deaths of criminals. The U.N., he said, should return Manila’s financial contributions.
About 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9. When were you here the last time? “Nothing. Never. Except to criticize”.
“Claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its worldwide legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings”.
Duterte enjoys high levels of support among Filipinos, who he says are exhausted of the scourge of drugs.
Duterte’s drug crackdown has left more than 500 suspected dealers dead and more than 4,400 arrested since he took office on June 30.
Former justice secretary Senator Leila De Lima is planning to launch an inquiry into the killings – an act that has already drawn scorn from President Duterte, who labelled her an “immoral woman”.
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“My orders are for the police to go out and hunt for criminals”, he said. I tell you, you are an inutile. “I assume full responsibility for what happens”.
