UN official: Rody remark ‘deeply disrespectful of right to life’

United Nations special adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng expressed alarm at public comments of President Rodrigo Duterte who cited Adolf Hitler’s killing of Jews before declaring that he would be “happy to slaughter” three million drug addicts.

The UN official said the statement of the Philippine leader was “deeply disrespectful of the right to life of all human beings.”

“Holocaust was one of the darkest periods of the history of humankind and that any glorification of the cruel and criminal acts committed by those responsible was unacceptable and offensive,” said the UN adviser in a statement on Monday sent by UN in Manila.

He said the statement undermines the efforts of the international community to institute strategies to prevent the recurrence of the brutal crimes of Nazi Germany, anywhere in the world.

Dieng called on Duterte, who is known for swearing at leaders who criticized his war on drugs, “to exercise restraint in the use of language that could exacerbate discrimination, hostility and violence and encourage the commission of criminal acts which, if widespread or systematic, could amount to crimes against humanity.”

The UN official also requested Duterte to support the investigation of the reported rise of killings in the context of the anti-crime and anti-drug campaign targeting drug dealers and users to ascertain the circumstances of each death. CBB