Duterte tells UN not to meddle in Philippines' affairs

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines

President Rodrigo Duterte has urged the United Nations (UN) not to involve itself in Philippines' affairs, after two of its human rights experts called on him to stop endorsing the killing of drug suspects.

Duterte said Thursday that the UN does not have any business investigating alleged human rights violations by his police officers.

"You don’t come here and investigate the deaths of criminals and those suspected to have been killed by the police when after all we have also lost a sizeable amount of our security forces in government," the Philippine News Agency quoted Duterte as saying.

Duterte’s reaction came in light of opposition Senator Leila De Lima’s statement during the week saying that he may be charged with crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for a spate of drug-related deaths.

Since Duterte vowed in a campaign promise that he would launch a bloody campaign against drugs, over 1,000 people have been killed by both policemen and civilians, according to ABS CBN.

The killings have alarmed human rights advocates, with De Lima set to hold a legislative inquiry next week.

The suggestion that he may be charged came in the wake of two UN human rights experts calling on Duterte to order a stop to the killings, with one of them warning that the Philippine leader's incitement to violence is a crime under international law.

Duterte has repeatedly said he would back policemen who get involved in fatal encounters with drug suspects, even as doubts are now being cast on the conduct of police operations.

Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, has described the president's statements as a "license to kill".

''Directives of this nature are irresponsible in the extreme and amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law. It is effectively a license to kill,” ABS CBN quoted Callamard as warning.

''Intentional lethal use of force is only allowed when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life and should not be used for common policing objectives."

Duterte has said he has ordered a probe into every killing.

The investigation, he said, will not be done by the office of the policeman being probed, but by the Internal Affairs office and or the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Reiterating his earlier order for law enforcers to perform their functions legally, he said that they have to cover their tracks and make sure that they are safe while performing their duties.