When Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as president of the Philippines in June, he promised to wipe out corruption in the country and introduce tough measures such as the death penalty to fight crime.
But he has gone a step further. He has urged citizens to shoot and kill drug dealers who resist arrest. The result: almost 2,000 people have been killed during a crackdown on illegal drugs in the past seven weeks. As many as 900 of those have been killed by suspected vigilantes.
The UN has called Duterte’s war on drugs a crime under international law.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime have both condemned Duterte's "apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings, which is illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms". Last week, two UN human rights experts said Duterte's directive for police and the public to kill suspected drug traffickers amounted to "incitement to violence and killing". The US has said it is "deeply concerned" by the increase in drug-related killings. And a Filipino senate joint inquiry is being conducted and has called on authorities to explain the unprecedented rise in deaths.
The target of Duterte’s fury is the proliferation of the drug crystal meth or shabu as it is known in the Philippines. Shabu is cheap, easily made and intensely addictive. The Philippines is reportedly home to industrial-scale labs producing tons of the drug which is then distributed throughout Asia. Duterte describes shabu as a pandemic, afflicting millions of his fellow citizens.
Contract killing is nothing new. But sanctioning the killing of traffickers to try to wipe out a drugs trade is new. Police usually use citizens to get information about criminals. To legalize hit squads is unprecedented.
Duterte’s novel approach to drug crime seems to have deterred nearly 700,000 drug users and peddlers who have turned themselves in since the launch of the campaign. Crime rates have also fallen dramatically, perhaps due to this latest method of deterrence. But to be executed by shadowy death squads is a violation of human rights. Drug-trafficking offenses should be judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets. Duterte may defend the extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals as necessary but governments have international legal obligations and should not shield political leaders or others from responsibility for illegal killings.
This is a popular war. Most shantytown residents applaud this tough campaign. Duterte enjoys high levels of support among Filipinos who he says are tired of the scourge of drugs, even if some worry that the campaign is getting out of hand and that innocent victims are being caught up in it.
Duterte's election campaign was littered with obscenities and populist promises but light on details, something very much like Donald Trump. After a period of stability under Benigno Aquino, the Duterte presidency marks a leap into the unknown. However, he has a history. In his previous role as mayor of Davao for 22 years, Duterte built a reputation for blunt speaking and supporting the extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals.
True to form, he sent out an unambiguous message ahead of his election. He promised to kill 100,000 criminals in his first six months in office. Although it is doubtful such a figure will be reached by the end of this year, at least he warned his countrymen that his presidency will be "bloody". Filipinos should expect to see more blood as Duterte will serve a single six-year term.
Duterte won the presidency by a landslide with his hard-line policy to eradicate drugs so it does not appear he will stop what propelled him to the office.
Drugs are a scourge. They destroy lives and punishment should be severe. But governments should fight drugs and other crimes using the laws of the land, not the laws of the jungle.
