Justin Trudeau praised for raising human rights abuses in Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war
Quiet diplomacy by Donald Trump will not stop the killings in the Philippines
An international rights group praised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday for publicly expressing concerns about the Philippine president’s deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, saying the “quiet diplomacy” adopted by US President Donald Trump and other world leaders will not stop the drug killings.
Trudeau told reporters in Manila on Tuesday that he raised concerns about rights abuses and extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign when he met the Philippine leader ahead of an annual summit with Southeast Asian counterparts.
Trudeau was the only one among 20 heads of state who travelled to Manila for the summit meetings who publicly said he conveyed concerns to Duterte about the drug crackdown.
Asked to comment on Trudeau’s remarks, Duterte said he was angered and insulted.
Phelim Kine of US-based Human Rights Watch said Trudeau’s decision to speak publicly about his comments to Duterte was “deliberate, strategic and principled.”
More than a year into Duterte’s crackdown, in which thousands of people have died, “no foreign leader, including Donald Trump and Asean heads of state, can reasonably be still under the illusion that soft-pedaling concerns about the ‘drug war’ will prod Duterte to stop the killings and take meaningful moves toward accountability,” Kine said.