This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/04/philippines-police-may-have-killed-tens-of-thousands-with-near-impunity-in-drug-war-un

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Philippines police may have killed tens of thousands with 'near impunity' in drug war – UN Philippines war on drugs may have killed tens of thousands, says UN
(about 8 hours later)
Campaign of encouragement by high-level officials may have been seen by police as ‘permission to kill’, says damning report Report says crackdown appears to have resulted in systematic extrajudicial killings
Tens of thousands of people may have been killed in the war on drugs since mid-2016 in the Philippines, amid “near impunity” for police and incitement to violence by top officials, the United Nations said on Thursday. Tens of thousands of people may have been killed during Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines, according to a damning UN report that warns of “impunity” and calls for an independent investigation into abuses.
The drugs crackdown, launched by President Rodrigo Duterte after winning election on a platform of crushing crime, has been marked by police orders and high-level rhetoric that may have been interpreted as “permission to kill”, it said. The anti-narcotics crackdown in the Philippines, launched by the president after he won the 2016 election on a promise to rid the country of drugs, appears to have resulted in “widespread and systematic” extrajudicial killings, the report says.
Police, who do not need search or arrest warrants to conduct house raids, systematically force suspects to make self-incriminating statements or risk lethal force, the UN human rights office said in a report. It adds that rhetoric by the highest officials has potentially emboldened police to behave as though they have “permission to kill”.
There has been only one conviction, for the 2017 murder of Kian delos Santos, a 17-year-old Manila student, it said. Three police officers were convicted after CCTV footage led to public outrage, it said. The report, the UN’s strongest condemnation yet of recent abuses in the country, says there is “an overarching focus on public order and national security”, often at the expense of human rights, due process, the rule of law and accountability.
“Despite credible allegations of widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings in the context of the campaign against illegal drugs, there has been near impunity for such violations,” the report said. “Despite credible allegations of widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings in the context of the campaign against illegal drugs, there has been near impunity for such violations,” the report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says.
Police say their actions in the anti-drug campaign have been lawful and that deaths occur in shootouts with dealers resisting arrest. Since mid-2016 in the Philippines there has been only one conviction for the killing of a drug suspect in a police operation. The report says police regularly raid homes and private property without warrants, and systematically force suspects to make self-incriminating statements or risk lethal force.
The report said some statements from the highest levels of government had “risen to the level of incitement to violence” and “vilification of dissent is being increasingly institutionalised”. Witnesses, family members, journalists and lawyers said that they feared for their safety and described a situation where “the practical obstacles to accessing justice within the country are almost insurmountable”.
“The human rights situation in the Philippines is marked by an overarching focus on public order and national security, including countering terrorism and illegal drugs,” it said. The government denies there is a policy to kill people who use drugs and states that all deaths occur during legitimate police operations.
But this was “often at the expense of human rights, due process rights, the rule of law and accountability”. Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, described the testimonies as heartbreaking. “People who use or sell drugs do not lose their human rights,” she said.
“The government has also increasingly filed criminal charges, including by using Covid-19 special powers laws, against social media users posting content critical of government policies and actions,” the report added. The report also raises alarm over the vilification of dissent, adding that attacks against perceived critics are being “increasingly institutionalised and normalised in ways that will be very difficult to reverse”.
It will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council later in June. The government has increasingly filed criminal charges against people criticising the government online, it says, including by using Covid-19 special powers laws. The UN Human Rights Office also documented that between 2015 and 2019 at least 248 human rights defenders, legal professionals, journalists and trade unionists were killed in relation to their work.
Most victims in the drug war are young poor urban males, the UN report said. Their relatives described “numerous obstacles in documenting cases and pursuing justice”. The report says it could not verify the number of extrajudicial killings during the anti-drugs crackdown without further investigation. It says government figures indicate at least 8,663 people have been killed, but some estimates put the toll at triple that number.
“The most conservative figure, based on government data, suggests that since July 2016, 8,663 people have been killed, with other estimates of up to triple that number,” it said. Amnesty described the report as “a vital step” towards accountability.
The UN cited reports of widespread drug-related killings perpetrated by unidentified vigilantes and a Philippine government report in 2017 that referred to 16,355 homicide cases under investigation as accomplishments in the drugs war. There are growing calls among rights groups for the UN Human Rights Council which is expected to hold a session on the Philippines this month to order a further independent inquiry into abuses in the Philippines, as it has done in Myanmar and Venezuela.
A 2016 police circular launching the campaign uses the terms “negation” and “neutralisation” of “drug personalities”, it said. “Like the UN, we are deeply concerned by the total impunity enjoyed by those who have perpetrated these crimes,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific regional director.
“Such ill-defined and ominous language, coupled with repeated verbal encouragement by the highest level of state officials to use lethal force, may have emboldened police to treat the circular as permission to kill,” said the UN, calling for the repeal of the campaign.
Government figures show that 223,780 “drug personalities” were arrested from mid-July 2016 through 2019, but unclear charges and irregularities in due process raise concerns that “many of these cases may amount to arbitrary detentions.”
At least 248 land and environmental rights activists, lawyers, journalists and trade unionists were killed from 2015 to 2019, the report said. So-called red-tagging, or labelling people and groups as communists or terrorists, has become rife.