Duterte: ICC, EU want me behind bars for 'genocide' of 'bunch of criminals'
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday night berated anew the International Criminal Court, saying the Hague-based tribunal and the European Union want to “impose their values" on his country and send him to jail.
In a speech, Duterte said the EU, which the hypersensitive leader had repeatedly slammed in the past for expressing concern over the spate of killings under his signature war on drugs, is “into international governing.”
The president’s latest tirade against the EU came after he pulled the Philippines out of the ICC amid strong calls for an external probe into his deadly narcotics crackdown.
“What’s your problem claiming --- ? Who are you to run my country? That’s the problem with the European Union,” Duterte said.
“They create an ICC, European community and they try to impose their values and the way they think how criminal is categorized and classified and want to impose it,” he added.
“It’s a neo-colonialism.”
Duterte, who is notorious for his defiance of international pressure, was elected by a landslide in 2016 on a brutal law and order platform.
Human rights watchdogs say most of the fatalities in the government’s anti-narcotic drive are extrajudicial killings committed by cops.
Early this year, the Philippines notified the United Nations secretary-general of its decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, a month after the court announced it would conduct a preliminary examination into a communication filed by a lawyer accusing Duterte of crimes against humanity.
The tough-talking president’s move was a dramatic turnaround from his previous vow to “rot in jail” or be indicted by the ICC for unleashing his bloody war on drugs.
In the same speech on Friday, Duterte said the ICC supposedly wants to place him behind bars for “genocide” of “bunch of criminals.”
“Me killing 4,000? I won’t have even a time to sit for a s***, if that is the case. It will keep me busy 24 hours,” he said. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral
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