Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jul 2016
Source: Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Copyright: The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2016
Contact:  http://www.bangkokpost.co.th/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/39

DUTERTE 'NOT AFRAID OF HUMAN RIGHTS'

MANILA - Human rights are not a concern in Philippine President 
Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, he said, as he vowed to ignore due 
process and compared himself to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

In the latest of a series of tirades, the country's newly elected 
leader doubled down on a promised campaign of widespread killings and 
said he wouldn't listen to "bleeding hearts".

"I will retire with the reputation of Idi Amin," he said in a speech 
yesterday, referring to the late African ruler whose 1971-1979 regime 
was characterised by large-scale rights abuses that killed tens if 
not hundreds of thousands of Ugandans.

"I am not afraid of human rights [concerns]. I will not allow my 
country to go to the dogs," Mr Duterte said, vowing to pardon all 
abuses committed by security forces.

"Why will I give you a [due] process? I am the president. I don't 
give you [due] process," he said.

Mr Duterte was swept to power on May 9 after pledging to end crime in 
the Philippines using the same "shoot-to-kill" methods critics say he 
employed as mayor of the southern city of Davao.

Police yesterday unveiled plans for a large electronic billboard 
outside the force's Manila headquarters to broadcast a running tally 
of drugs suspects who have been arrested or "neutralised" - killed - 
during operations.

The billboard will "give everyday people... the accomplishments of 
their police", community relations chief Sen Supt Gilberto Cruz said.

The billboard, which was ordered by Mr Duterte and the police 
leadership, will likely be completed by September, he added.

Major TV network ABS-CBN said it had recorded 408 "drug fatalities" 
between May 10 and July 15, based on police and media reports.

Images of people killed in police anti-drug operations, or corpses 
found with signs saying things such as "I am a drug pusher" or "I am 
a drug addict", have become daily fare in the local newspapers.

A former addict said yesterday that he had handed himself into police 
as part of an official mass drug amnesty event after two 
acquaintances turned up dead. "I could be killed. That really scared 
me," he said.

- -AFP
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom