Philippines’ Duterte threatens to follow Russia out of ICC
PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to follow in Russia’s footsteps yesterday and pull his country out of the International Criminal Court, incensed at foreign criticism of his deadly drug war.
Russia formally withdrew its signature to the ICC’s founding Rome Statute on Wednesday, calling the tribunal’s work “one-sided and inefficient”.
Speaking in his hometown of Davao city in the southern Philippines shortly before flying to Peru for a regional summit, Duterte said: “They [Russians] may have thought the International Criminal Court is [useless], so they withdrew their membership. I might follow. Why? Because these shameless bullies only picked on small countries like us.”
The Philippines is among 124 countries that are members of the UN-backed ICC, the world’s only permanent war crimes court. Duterte also repeated an earlier threat to pull the Philippines out of the UN, saying the world body had failed to stop wars that had killed thousands of women and children.
He said if China and Russia were to create a new order, he would be the first to join. Duterte won May elections in a landslide victory after vowing an unprecedented crackdown on illegal drugs and killing tens of thousands of drug dealers. More than 4 000 people have been killed since he took office on June 30. About 1 800 were shot dead by police and 2 600 others were murdered by unidentified attackers, according to official statistics.
The killings have drawn criticism from Manila’s key defence ally the US, as well as the UN. Duterte has struck back by calling US President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” and UN chief Ban Ki-moon a “fool”.
He has challenged Ban and international human rights experts to investigate the allegations, insisting his government has done nothing illegal.
Yesterday, ahead of the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Duterte warned his international counterparts not to lecture him on human rights.
“You threaten us as if we are your labourers and threaten to have me jailed. . . . You children of whores, I will take you all down with me,” he said. — AFP