Pubdate: Wed, 17 Aug 2016
Source: Fraser Coast Chronicle (Australia)
Copyright: APN News & Media Ltd 2016
Contact: http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/contact/feedback/
Website: http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5381

PEOPLE PUSH BACK OVER 'WAR ON DRUGS'

PROTESTS are growing in the Philippines over President Rodrigo 
Duterte's brutal campaign against the drug trade.

Estimates of the numbers killed by police and vigilantes since Mr 
Duterte emerged as president-elect after the May 9 election vary 
between 650 and 1000.

The bloodied bodies of alleged drug dealers and users have been left 
on streets and in gutters, often with cardboard placards proclaiming 
their involvement in the drug trade.

Rights groups have condemned the killings and there have been 
protests recently at several schools and towns.

"We have an extremely alarming situation in the Philippines right 
now," Phelim Kine, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia 
division, told The WorldPost.

"There has been an extremely worrying surge in police killings of 
suspected drug dealers and users, and along with that we've seen a 
very sinister up-tick in killings of alleged criminal suspects by 
shadowy vigilante killers."

A Philippine Senate committee is set to investigate the killings 
later this month.

President Duterte has repeatedly encouraged the killings and remains unmoved.

Up to 600,000 people, most of them drug users, have turned themselves 
in to authorities, according to officials.

On Monday, Philippine senator Leila de Lima said the drug-related 
deaths in the country could constitute crimes against humanity.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom