Human Rights Watch: President Duterte Criminally Liable Over EJK

President Duterte Criminally Liable Over EJK. Human Rights Watch Says

President Rodrigo Duterte together with his men is criminally liable for Extrajudicial Killings (EJK), according to the Human Rights Watch (HRW).

On Thursday (March 02, 2017), Human Rights Watch released its 124-page report entitled “License to Kill,” which discussed Duterte’s anti-illegal drug campaign amid EJK incidents in the Philippines. The human rights group said that the president and its men were criminally liable for those killings.

More than 7, 000 alleged drug suspects have been already killed since the president took his office last June 30, 2016. Some of the victims were killed during police operations, but most of them were shot by an unidentified person. Most victims were found in poor communities.

Criminally Liable

Mr. Duterte has already vowed to eliminate illegal drugs from the country even before he took the presidency. He aims to reduce the crime rate in the country during his 6-year term as president of Philippines.

Peter Bouckaert, report’s author accused that Duterte ordered the killings, so he and his men were criminally liable for crimes against humanity. Bouckaert stayed in the Philippines from November 2016 to January 2017 to get a specific information regarding the EJK cases.

Bouckaert conducts interviews with family members and witnesses to vigilante killings. He also analyzed police reports and concluded that some police were also the vigilantes because police involved in the killings are wearing civilian clothes.

“Our research also shows that the so-called unidentified gunmen are involved in these killings were also working in cooperation with the police and are often policemen themselves.” said by Bouckaert quoted by Inquirer.

The report’s author also said that their reports show that police were shooting unarmed suspects. He also said that police were planting evidence at the crime scenes. These killings were terrorizing poor communities.

What can you say about the report of Human Rights Watch?  Just feel free to leave your comments and reactions for this article.

Leave a Comment