MANILA The Philippine foreign minister on Thursday said he would tell a United Nations rights body that the killings in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs were not state-sponsored. <\/p>\n
More than 7,700 people have been killed since Duterte unleashed the drugs war in June, about 2,500 in what police say are shootouts during raids and sting operations. <\/p>\n
Most of the rest are under investigation and activists believe many were extrajudicial killings. Police blame the killings on vigilante groups over which they have no control. <\/p>\n
Perfecto Yasay said he would address the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council, comprised of 47 nations, during a session set to run from Monday until March 24. <\/p>\n
\"Our justice system does not tolerate violations of human rights, does not tolerate any state-sponsored extrajudicial killings,\" Yasay told reporters. \"That's the truth.\" <\/p>\n
Last month, Duterte dismantled police anti-drug units after a South Korean businessman was killed inside the national police headquarters, but vowed to forge ahead with his war on drugs until the last day of his term. <\/p>\n
\"Divisive fear-mongering\" has become a dangerous force in the world, the secretary general of rights group Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, said in a statement this week. <\/p>\n
He described leaders like Duterte, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan as \"wielding a toxic agenda that hounds, scapegoats and dehumanizes entire groups of people\". <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) <\/p>\n
MEXICO CITY Mexico on Thursday expressed \"worry and irritation\" about U.S. policies to two of President Donald Trump's top envoys, giving a chilly reply to the new administration's hard line on immigration, trade and security. <\/p>\n
OTTAWA Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came under increasing pressure on Thursday to deal with asylum seekers illegally crossing into Canada from the United States to avoid a crackdown by the administration of President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n
MANILA A Philippine senator and staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs was in police custody on Friday following her high-profile arrest for drugs offences that she described as a vendetta that would fail to silence her. <\/p>\n
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Philippines to defend Duterte's drug war at UN rights body - Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MANILA The Philippine foreign minister on Thursday said he would tell a United Nations rights body that the killings in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs were not state-sponsored. More than 7,700 people have been killed since Duterte unleashed the drugs war in June, about 2,500 in what police say are shootouts during raids and sting operations. Continue reading