{UAH} More than 700 killed in less than three months in Filipino drugs crackdown
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Robert Atuhairwe/Sekajja,
The blood-soaked maniac Rodrigo Duterte must be stopped. Blood-letting
is not the way to fight crime. How many people will he kill before the
world wakes. I already the world what to expect if this maniac was
ever elected President. Filipinos will soon realise they have jumped
from the frying pan into the fire itsellf. A ruthless and murderous
police force that has tasted blood will never again agree to be
quarantined in the barracks. They will always hanker for blood.
The bankruptcy of the Philippines elites and oligarchies hcontinously
lead the country to ruin and great suffering. Thats why the communists
must continue with their stuggle for national salvation. No one else
but the communists can save this country that has already suffered so
much
Bobby
Philippines More than 700 killed in less than three months in Filipino
drugs crackdown
Human rights groups call on UN to denounce killings in which suspected
users and dealers have been executed by police and vigilantes without
trial
The killings have taken place under drug control measures proposed by
President Rodrigo Duterte. Photograph: Malacanang photo
bureau/Handout/EPA Damien Gayle
@damiengayleTuesday 2 August 2016 16.45 BST Last modified on Tuesday 2
August 2016 17.31 BST
More than 700 suspected drug users or dealers have been summarily
executed by police or vigilantes in the Philippines in less than three
months, say human rights campaigners, who are calling on the UN to
denounce the killings.
Human Rights Watch, Stop Aids and International HIV/Aids Alliance are
among more than 300 civil society groups that have signed joint
letters to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), calling on them to break their
silence over the alleged killings.
"We are calling on the UN drug control bodies to publicly condemn
these atrocities in the Philippines. This senseless killing cannot be
justified as a drug control measure," said Ann Fordham, executive
director of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), which
coordinated the letter.
"Their silence is unacceptable, while people are being killed on the
streets day after day."
Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, won an electoral
landslide in May after pledging to fill funeral parlours with drug
dealers. He told Filipinos on the day of his inauguration last month:
"If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as
getting their parents to do it would be too painful."
More on this topicPhilippines police boast of 30 drug killings since
Duterte was sworn in on Thursday
Since 10 May – the day Duterte was announced the winner of the
presidential poll – at least 704 people have been killed because they
were suspected to have been involved with drugs, according to
monitoring by journalists at ABS CBN News, a Filipino news network.
One influential Philippine senator has called for an investigation
into the killings. In a speech before the senate, Leila de Lima, a
former justice minister, said: "We cannot wage the war against drugs
with blood. We will only be trading drug addiction with another more
malevolent kind of addiction. This is the compulsion for more
killing."
De Lima, who has also headed the Philippines' national human rights
body, said police were summarily killing even innocent people, using
the anti-drug campaign as an excuse.
A statement issued last week by the citizens' council for human rights
accused Duterte and his officials of abandoning due process and human
rights in their zeal to fight the war on drugs. "Units of the
Philippine national police, under the command of his close associate
General Ronald ("Bato") de la Rosa, have turned many low-income
neighbourhoods in the country into free-fire zones," it said.
"The bloody encounters taking place daily have polarised the country
between those who support the president's quick and dirty methods of
dealing with drugs and crime, and those who regard them as illegal,
immoral, and self-defeating."
The killings appear to have been carried out by police, who attribute
the violence to suspects who "resisted arrest and shot at police
officers", and vigilante groups emboldened by Duterte's promises of
impunity.
In one case last month, eight suspected "drug personalities",
including a woman, were shot dead by police in a pre-dawn raid in the
town of Matalam, about 900km (559 miles) south of Manila. On the same
day in Manila, police said they found a man lying dead with his entire
head wrapped in packaging tape and his torso covered with a cardboard
sign reading: "I Am A Pusher."
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jennelyn Olaires, 26, cradles the body of
her husband, Michael Siaron, who police said was killed on a street by
a vigilante group, in Pasay city, Metro Manila, Philippines. The
cardboard sign near his body reads: "Pusher Ako", which translates to
"I am a drug pusher." Photograph: Czar Dancel/Reuters On another night
in the capital, six people were assassinated in a single night by
gunmen on motorcycles. One of the victims' wives was photographed
cradling his dead body in an image which has become emblematic of the
Filipino drug war.
Jennelyn Olaires, the wife of Michael Siaron whom police said was
killed by a vigilante group, told Reuters her husband had not been a
drug dealer but that he was addicted to drugs. She said the
29-year-old made money by riding a pedicab – a bicycle with a sidecar
– and did odd jobs. He even voted for Duterte in the 9 May election.
"I don't need the public's sympathy. I don't need the president to
notice us," Olaires said. "I know that he doesn't like this kind of
people. But for me, I just hope that they get the true offenders."
The IDPC's letters ask the UNODC and the INCB to call on Duterte to
immediately end all his incitements to kill people suspected of
dealing drugs and act to fulfil all international human rights
obligations, including rights to life, health, due process and a fair
trial.
Related:
More on this topicPhilippines' 'Duterte Harry': the would-be president
accused of using vigilante squads
Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said:
"International drug control agencies need to make clear to
Philippines' president Roderigo Duterte that the surge in killings of
suspected drug dealers and users is not acceptable 'crime control',
but instead a government failure to protect people's most fundamental
human rights.
"President Duterte should understand that passive or active government
complicity with those killings would contradict his pledge to respect
human rights and uphold the rule of law."
A spokesman for the INCB said that a response to the IDPC's open
letter would be considered over the next few days. The UNODC said that
it had received the letter and that it would be reviewed.
The most widely abused drugs in the Philippines are methamphetamine
hydrochloride, known locally as shabu, and cannabis, which can easily
be grown in the country's rural parts. In 2014, 89% of drug seizures
involved shabu while 8.9% involved cannabis, according to the
Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency.
Before he was elected president, Duterte was a lawyer who earned a
reputation as an authoritarian figure while he mayor of the southern
city of Davao. His campaign pledges included the reintroduction of the
death penalty by hanging, as well as offering bounties for the bodies
of drug dealers.
During the campaign, Duterte said 100,000 people would die in his
crackdown, with so many dead bodies dumped in Manila Bay that fish
there would grow fat from feeding on them. After his election win,
Duterte also launched a seemingly unprovoked attack against the UN.
"Fuck you UN, you can't even solve the Middle East carnage ...
couldn't even lift a finger in Africa [with the] butchering [of] the
black people. Shut up all of you," he said.
--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
The blood-soaked maniac Rodrigo Duterte must be stopped. Blood-letting
is not the way to fight crime. How many people will he kill before the
world wakes. I already the world what to expect if this maniac was
ever elected President. Filipinos will soon realise they have jumped
from the frying pan into the fire itsellf. A ruthless and murderous
police force that has tasted blood will never again agree to be
quarantined in the barracks. They will always hanker for blood.
The bankruptcy of the Philippines elites and oligarchies hcontinously
lead the country to ruin and great suffering. Thats why the communists
must continue with their stuggle for national salvation. No one else
but the communists can save this country that has already suffered so
much
Bobby
Philippines More than 700 killed in less than three months in Filipino
drugs crackdown
Human rights groups call on UN to denounce killings in which suspected
users and dealers have been executed by police and vigilantes without
trial
The killings have taken place under drug control measures proposed by
President Rodrigo Duterte. Photograph: Malacanang photo
bureau/Handout/EPA Damien Gayle
@damiengayleTuesday 2 August 2016 16.45 BST Last modified on Tuesday 2
August 2016 17.31 BST
More than 700 suspected drug users or dealers have been summarily
executed by police or vigilantes in the Philippines in less than three
months, say human rights campaigners, who are calling on the UN to
denounce the killings.
Human Rights Watch, Stop Aids and International HIV/Aids Alliance are
among more than 300 civil society groups that have signed joint
letters to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), calling on them to break their
silence over the alleged killings.
"We are calling on the UN drug control bodies to publicly condemn
these atrocities in the Philippines. This senseless killing cannot be
justified as a drug control measure," said Ann Fordham, executive
director of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), which
coordinated the letter.
"Their silence is unacceptable, while people are being killed on the
streets day after day."
Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, won an electoral
landslide in May after pledging to fill funeral parlours with drug
dealers. He told Filipinos on the day of his inauguration last month:
"If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as
getting their parents to do it would be too painful."
More on this topicPhilippines police boast of 30 drug killings since
Duterte was sworn in on Thursday
Since 10 May – the day Duterte was announced the winner of the
presidential poll – at least 704 people have been killed because they
were suspected to have been involved with drugs, according to
monitoring by journalists at ABS CBN News, a Filipino news network.
One influential Philippine senator has called for an investigation
into the killings. In a speech before the senate, Leila de Lima, a
former justice minister, said: "We cannot wage the war against drugs
with blood. We will only be trading drug addiction with another more
malevolent kind of addiction. This is the compulsion for more
killing."
De Lima, who has also headed the Philippines' national human rights
body, said police were summarily killing even innocent people, using
the anti-drug campaign as an excuse.
A statement issued last week by the citizens' council for human rights
accused Duterte and his officials of abandoning due process and human
rights in their zeal to fight the war on drugs. "Units of the
Philippine national police, under the command of his close associate
General Ronald ("Bato") de la Rosa, have turned many low-income
neighbourhoods in the country into free-fire zones," it said.
"The bloody encounters taking place daily have polarised the country
between those who support the president's quick and dirty methods of
dealing with drugs and crime, and those who regard them as illegal,
immoral, and self-defeating."
The killings appear to have been carried out by police, who attribute
the violence to suspects who "resisted arrest and shot at police
officers", and vigilante groups emboldened by Duterte's promises of
impunity.
In one case last month, eight suspected "drug personalities",
including a woman, were shot dead by police in a pre-dawn raid in the
town of Matalam, about 900km (559 miles) south of Manila. On the same
day in Manila, police said they found a man lying dead with his entire
head wrapped in packaging tape and his torso covered with a cardboard
sign reading: "I Am A Pusher."
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jennelyn Olaires, 26, cradles the body of
her husband, Michael Siaron, who police said was killed on a street by
a vigilante group, in Pasay city, Metro Manila, Philippines. The
cardboard sign near his body reads: "Pusher Ako", which translates to
"I am a drug pusher." Photograph: Czar Dancel/Reuters On another night
in the capital, six people were assassinated in a single night by
gunmen on motorcycles. One of the victims' wives was photographed
cradling his dead body in an image which has become emblematic of the
Filipino drug war.
Jennelyn Olaires, the wife of Michael Siaron whom police said was
killed by a vigilante group, told Reuters her husband had not been a
drug dealer but that he was addicted to drugs. She said the
29-year-old made money by riding a pedicab – a bicycle with a sidecar
– and did odd jobs. He even voted for Duterte in the 9 May election.
"I don't need the public's sympathy. I don't need the president to
notice us," Olaires said. "I know that he doesn't like this kind of
people. But for me, I just hope that they get the true offenders."
The IDPC's letters ask the UNODC and the INCB to call on Duterte to
immediately end all his incitements to kill people suspected of
dealing drugs and act to fulfil all international human rights
obligations, including rights to life, health, due process and a fair
trial.
Related:
More on this topicPhilippines' 'Duterte Harry': the would-be president
accused of using vigilante squads
Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said:
"International drug control agencies need to make clear to
Philippines' president Roderigo Duterte that the surge in killings of
suspected drug dealers and users is not acceptable 'crime control',
but instead a government failure to protect people's most fundamental
human rights.
"President Duterte should understand that passive or active government
complicity with those killings would contradict his pledge to respect
human rights and uphold the rule of law."
A spokesman for the INCB said that a response to the IDPC's open
letter would be considered over the next few days. The UNODC said that
it had received the letter and that it would be reviewed.
The most widely abused drugs in the Philippines are methamphetamine
hydrochloride, known locally as shabu, and cannabis, which can easily
be grown in the country's rural parts. In 2014, 89% of drug seizures
involved shabu while 8.9% involved cannabis, according to the
Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency.
Before he was elected president, Duterte was a lawyer who earned a
reputation as an authoritarian figure while he mayor of the southern
city of Davao. His campaign pledges included the reintroduction of the
death penalty by hanging, as well as offering bounties for the bodies
of drug dealers.
During the campaign, Duterte said 100,000 people would die in his
crackdown, with so many dead bodies dumped in Manila Bay that fish
there would grow fat from feeding on them. After his election win,
Duterte also launched a seemingly unprovoked attack against the UN.
"Fuck you UN, you can't even solve the Middle East carnage ...
couldn't even lift a finger in Africa [with the] butchering [of] the
black people. Shut up all of you," he said.
--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
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