On Friday, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte floated the idea of holding a Holocaust-esque extermination of all the drug addicts in the country. Duterte has been a staunch anti-drug advocate and has earned the ire of global officials for his controversial methods of dealing with the issue.
Since he was elected to office in June, Duterte has launched a frightening campaign to tackle drugs in the country, with suspected drug users being killed at an alarming rate. The New York Times reported more than 1,120 drug suspects had been killed as part of Duterte’s initiative, although Phillippine officials claim the number is even higher. Duterte said his hope would be to deal with all the offenders at once, and he evoked Hitler and the Holocaust as examples:
“Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there is three million, there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them. [Doing this would] finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.”
Duterte’s rogue quest to rid his country of drugs and crime has been met by global officials with some shock. He had threatened to leave the UN after his drug war was questioned and didn’t earn any fans by hurling an insult at President Obama before the two were set to have a meeting. Duterte has maintained he is doing what he has to do. He also thinks that painting him as a villain is unfair. But if folks want to use the Holocaust as a blueprint to solve an issue, that may be an apt title.
(Via The New York Times)