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Philippines Should Investigate Rodrigo Duterte for Murder, U.N. Official Urges

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, center, during a visit to Singapore this month. Mr. Duterte has said that he killed people when he was mayor of the city of Davao.Credit...Wong Maye-E/Associated Press

GENEVA — President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines should be formally investigated by judicial authorities in his country for murder after he claimed to have personally killed people suspected of committing crimes, the top human rights official at the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, was responding to comments that Mr. Duterte made at a news conference on Friday in which he said that he had shot and killed “about three” men during his years as mayor of the southern city of Davao.

Those killings would “clearly constitute murder,” Mr. al-Hussein said in a statement on Tuesday. “It should be unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer.”

Mr. Duterte, 71, has said that as mayor he roamed Davao on a motorcycle and killed people to encourage the city police to take strong action against criminals. He has previously said that the three men he shot were suspected of rape and kidnapping.

But Mr. Duterte’s actions violated the Philippine Constitution and international law, Mr. al-Hussein said, and by encouraging others to follow his example, Mr. Duterte might also have committed incitement to violence.

The Philippine president’s comments stoked further controversy over the crackdown he unleashed on drug addicts and dealers after taking office at the end of June. Since that antidrug campaign began, about 2,000 people have been killed by the police, and there have been more than 3,500 unsolved killings.

Children as young as 5 have become victims of this “appalling epidemic of extrajudicial killings,” Mr. al-Hussein said, expressing surprise that there had been no sign of prosecutions of those responsible.

Mr. Duterte drew condemnation from rights activists and religious leaders this month for pledging to restore the death penalty in the Philippines and to execute up to six criminals every day.

On Monday night, Mr. Duterte lashed out at an American aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which said it had deferred a decision on renewing assistance to the Philippines because of significant concerns about the rule of law and human rights in the country.

“Shut up, shut up,” Mr. Duterte said at an awards ceremony for government workers that was attended by the new American envoy, Sung Kim. Mr. Duterte said the decision to review financial aid was “an insult.”

“Go home, I do not need your aid,” he said, adding that China would provide billions of dollars more in financial assistance.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: U.N. Official Urges Murder Inquiry Into Filipino President. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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