NEWS

Duterte wants to kill drug addicts like Hitler killed Jews

Kim Hjelmgaard
USA TODAY

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Friday he would be "happy to slaughter" 3 million drug addicts just like Hitler killed millions of Jews.

"Hitler massacred 3 million Jews … there’s 3 million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” Duterte said Friday after discussing his anti-drug campaign with Vietnamese leaders.

In his comparison of Hitler and the Holocaust to his efforts to stop illegal drugs, Duterte also got the number of Jews killed by Nazis under Hitler wrong.

Historians say that about 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis before and during World War II. Millions of non-Jews were also killed during the Holocaust.

For Duterte, outrageous comments have become the norm

The outrageous rhetoric from one of the most outspoken and gaffe-prone world leaders comes as Ukraine marked the 75th anniversary of the massacre of 33,000 Jews near Nazi-occupied Kiev and as Israel held the funeral of former president Shimon Peres, who died Wednesday from complications following a stroke.

While Hitler's victims were innocent people, Duterte said his targets are "all criminals" and that getting rid of them would "finish the (drug) problem of my country" and "save the next generation from perdition."

75 years ago: 33,771 Jews slaughtered at Babi Yar

Since Duterte's election in July, more than 3,000 people suspected of being involved in the drugs trade have been killed in extra-judicial killings in the Philippines.

He has a proven track record of making offensive and inappropriate comments.

When talking about an Australian missionary who was raped and murdered in the Philippines in 1989 when he was a mayor, he said: "I saw her face and I thought: 'What a pity ... they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first."

In early September Duterte caused a diplomatic row with the United States when he described President Obama as a "son of a bitch," comments he later said he regretted.