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Philippines’ Duterte threatens to ‘burn down’ UN

Sunday, 25 December 2016 8:16 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 25 December 2016 10:44 AM ]

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (photo by AFP)

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, known for his colorful rhetoric, has threatened to “burn down” the United Nations headquarters in New York over mounting international criticism of his crackdown on suspected drug dealers.

“You go and file a complaint in the United Nations, I will burn down the United Nations if you want,” Rodrigo Duterte said when asked about the country’s reported human rights violations, as quoted by media on Saturday.

Addressing military personnel at an army base during a December 18 trip to the country’s southern city of Zamboanga, the tough-talking president said, “I will burn it (the UN) down if I go to America.”

Over 6,000 people have been killed in the country’s drug war, according to a December 19 government report. Duterte has been under fire for the harsh crackdown.

On Thursday, the Philippine leader repeatedly described UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, as an “idiot” after the UN official earlier suggested launching an investigation into Duterte’s own accounts of killings when he was the mayor of Davao and the “shocking” number of deaths during the ongoing anti-drug war.

Duterte had claimed earlier he had personally killed people when he was Davao’s mayor to set an example for police.

“It should be unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer,” Zeid al-Hussein said in a statement. “The killings committed by Mr. Duterte, by his own admission, at a time when he was a mayor, clearly constitute murder.”

In September, Duterte, who assumed the presidency in July, rejected a meeting scheduled with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and even threatened to leave the UN after the world body criticized his “war on drugs.”

Duterte has used offensive language to describe world politicians who make comments he does not like on numerous occasions.

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