reducing cell phone is for people to stop buying stolen phones having what's in the street or here into city we all know that when you go to the market you can buy a phone without a box and without a receipt and where do you think it came from you don't have to be a genius to know that these are probably stolen phones. while the new measure seeks to punish the sale of stolen phones at street markets most actually end up at indoor elec tronics markets like this one t.v. cameras however are not welcome inside. we're not allowed to film where secondhand electronics are sold so we're going to have to hide the camera and go undercover you can find just about anything you're looking for here it's an open secret that most of these goods are stolen. i asked one vendor if i could get into any legal trouble for my purchase he guaranteed me there would be no problem. ironically there were several police officers present some of them doing

a bit of shopping themselves critics of the new measure say authorities are going after the wrong people. this is a populist policy that will only have an impact in the media there of a questionable as speaks regarding the policies such as banning the sale of stolen funds st kitts as if that is the only place you can buy one more than 5000 people registered their mobile devices with the city within the 1st week of service authorities estimate that 2000 cell phones are stolen every day in mexico city alone many are now opting to purchase a 2nd dummy phone just in case of a robbery i read up and i just see to mexico city the south african singer. activist johnny clegg has died at the age of 66. clegg was one of the few white artist to defy segregation laws and openly criticize the apartheid government during the 1970 s.

and eighty's nicknamed the white zulu he was famed for blending traditional african rhythms and western music styles it was dog that was the pancreatic cancer 4 years ago but continued to perform around the world until is death. one of the world's most famous theater festivals is underway in the french city of europe's refugee crisis is a major theme this year. a 14th century pope's palace dominates the southern french city of avignon and provides a spectacular backdrop for one of the world's oldest and most prestigious theatre festivals. with nearly 2000 performances an offense it's a feast the theatre lovers was for surveillance and i love this best of all it's the 4th time that i've come it's an amazing atmosphere people talk to each other in the capitals and the lines to this commemorate what we love above all are the street performances you get lost in the streets and nothing is planned. to festivals director says he chose to focus on the theme of exile and refugees in the

festival is not just a big list of beautiful shows itself so a place. where people tried to think the world we're living in and so the refugee crisis is also a big issue for europe so we in this festival this year we talked about europe and with. celine pernelle turned her experience as a volunteer working with migrants in the so-called jungle camp in cali into a play that condemns french police brutality and celebrate solidarity to dunedin and if you don't attempt to defend i wanted to give migrants identities names to people who have families who've taken terrible journeys and when you meet people face to face it changes the way you think. that's going. to festivals focus on exile and refugees has inspired a number of plays about europe that examine issues such as identity immigration and

rising nationalism including one play with a special cameo appearance by former french president i can for all all those in office at the height of europe's refugee crisis and 2015 in. a border isn't a dream a border can either scare you or reassure you. this decades old festival in an ancient city to tackle contemporary issues and in thrall audiences is the key to success natasha al-jazeera having no. time for a quick check of the headlines on al-jazeera could finally be on the path to a new way of government after a deal was signed between the military and protest leaders they were agreed to form a power sharing body that many hope will eventually lead to civilian rule if.

the transitional military council is reach an agreement with the freedom and change forces you have witnessed the signing of the document it is a huge achievement representing a step towards an all inclusive agreement among all the forces in sudan in a new era and paves the way for the upcoming step of the console the dacian and celebration and reinstatement of the constitutional document for the transitional period it's a glorious moment yemen's with the rebels say they once again target saudi arabia's design airport with drones it's a 2nd attack in less than a day who they say they have disrupted operations at the airport riyadh does not confirm the attack the u.s. government is imposing its strongest sanctions to date on me and mas military leaders they target me and mosque commander in chief and several other senior officers in response to the mass killing of muslims in 2017 that crackdown led to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to neighboring bangladesh washington says the government hasn't taken any action against those responsible for human rights

abuses. the european parliament has narrowly elected. as president of the european commission. the german defense minister will become the 1st woman to hold the post when she replaced. in november. the u.s. house of representatives has voted to condemn president trump's racist comments against for minority congresswoman trump told them to go back to where they came from for republicans back to the democratic resolution a new york police officer will not face charges for killing a black man he was trying to arrest the justice department made the announcement on tuesday 5 years after eric bana died in a chokehold his family say they are dismayed by the decision last words i can't breathe a rallying call the black lives matter movement former peruvian president ali hundreds ledo has been arrested in the united states for extradition on corruption charges he's the latest politician caught up in latin america's largest ever corruption scandal centered on the brazilian construction giant or the british.

well those were the headlines the news continues on al-jazeera after the stream special counsel watching. problems besides the instability is corruption we listen. to each station president. we meet with global newsmakers and the stories that matter. ok and i'm really you're in the stream today in the philippines what's the human cost of president with rico to tell drug war wisconsin a geisha is of human rights abuses and what's being done about them are you personally impacted by the philippine war on drugs we want to hear what you have to

say on this issue let us know via twitter or in our live you tube chat. i mean. right and you are in the. thousands of crime suspects have been killed in philippine president the dream go to 10 days war on drugs over the past 3 years but rights groups believe the number of casualties is much higher than the 6000 some deaths the government admits to amnesty international says the killings disproportionately affect poor communities about to crimes against humanity last week the un human rights council voted to investigate alleged abuses in the country those abuses include extrajudicial killings disappearances and police coverups authorities say those killed were crime suspects who were armed i am resisting arrest the philippines human rights commission says there could be more than $27000.00 deaths from extrajudicial

killings the government denies that figure and supporters insisted strong campaign is necessary to reduce crime and they say that it's necessary to reduce crime so. in this episode will learn about the people impacted by this 3rd series policies and ask whether the nation's approach towards fighting drug crime needs reform but with us to discuss this in manila carlos condé a researcher with human rights watch also in manila. political and security analyst with the think tank asia pacific pathways to progress and in hong kong al jazeera correspondent jim. we reached out to the government for a representative to join our program as well but they declined our request so welcome to all of you and i want to start with our community because at the top of the show we asked people for their experiences if they've been impacted by this war on drugs we heard responses so this is in the process who writes on twitter if it

had not been for deterred drug war my brother would have been a drug addict until now he goes on to say my brother was fairly incarcerated by authorities there also reported cases of killings here at our place where we are due to the administration's anti-drug campaign and that's because some drug addicts have illegal possessions of firearms which give the police the right to protect their lives so a viewpoint that may not hear often at least outside of the philippines what do you make of his take on this drug war because he seems to think it's excess. well it's hard to make judgment of his personal experience but just based on my experience as someone's covered the drug war from the very beginning i'd like to say that it's very hard to measure. the sentiment of people when they live in a climate of fear we we it was obvious from the very beginning there was always an

issue of security safety physical security in so many neighborhoods across the country this is why when the president promised during the campaign and we've covered the can be quite extensively his campaign in particular i produced a documentary on president the terry dispraise eventually campaign and another documentary of his 1st $100.00 days he promised to end the presence of illegal drugs narcotics for within the 1st 6 months of his office so this campaign this promise presidential campaign promise is actually really essentially what propelled him to power and really what got him the presidency i guess a year after he sat in office he kind of admitted that he's not going to be able to fulfill that promise and more than 2 years on as the drug war continues so-called drug war continues he himself admits that it's not going to be he's not going to be able to stop the presence of illegal drugs here so yes there are so many people who

feel that their lives have been transformed positively by the war on drugs but from my experience i have also been witness to this so many families who have also suffered because of you know the kind of loss that they've had you know losing somebody they love somebody they knew because of the so-called war on drugs so there are many different narrative but it's hard to determine that when everybody lives and do this climate of of fear and and you know and so it's we have to respect that a lot of people do feel the same similar but from my experience of covering their war drugs that's kind of a minority perspective cause i just about to get in there let me just play some of . whom started off supporting the war of drugs he's from the philippines and then she had a tragedy in her home. and then she changed her mind have listen to her in the culture pick up of the fact that. i'm not up on the bomb on them but i was even saying that the tears of the families of those killed seem to fake but when that

happened to us i felt the pain they were feeling which we were now experiencing but . they are known by my direct and i was really supportive of what was happening in the drug war if it doesn't happen to your family you won't wake up to the truth singing. the has. that's something i think that sentiment is something that we're seeing increasingly happening in the philippines because of the impact of the drug war and just to go back to what the mela said about the killings on the family i mean this is something that the researcher for human rights watch has been spending considerable amount of time on trying to determine how. the killings the violence affected children particularly in poor families is that and so far what i've seen from doing this and of course there are others who are doing this and

particularly journalists as well but what i've seen is that it's just some of them bearable. i think to watch to hear them. recount what happened to. the killing of their father their brother and more importantly what happens afterwards to be a lot of lost lives a lot of the children of stuff going to school a lot of them. basically just started working some of them a lot of them started living on the streets in the streets because no one could take care of them anymore so you know this drug was it may seem justifiable because of the many intractable problems that we've been facing for decades now but these drug warehouses. in the copper scruffy. you know it has dominated generation of filipinos so i think you can. see that particularly the poor one and that is exactly where community is picking up on so geo here on twitter says it's not really the before paying the highest price but rather only the poor are paying the

price figure drug lords are still free to roam around while the poor become collateral i wrote an essay for this for my human rights class last week he writes and a turkey is becoming one knows most of it so there is an extreme example right there except extreme analogies that he's making right there that i don't think all the people in our community would agree with but the point he's making about who this a fax lucio what do you make of that point that this is mostly and mainly affecting the poor sure. the drug war is there is this being campaign launched by the government opinion poll busy shows the public support for the war since there are 17 of them to be most argue this war is after the there in support of the way the a.t.f. moved to a meeting where the conduct of the drug war. recently in the midterm

elections you have former or the face of the drug war former police chief ronald but saw the light also winning the 5th spot. in the contest or. despite paving go. low making. credentials and the surface of the brutal raising remain high actually surprisingly even in a class this week. the 4 who were described were among. the demographic that suffered the most from the drug war so if i may you find me. there but really we need to i think you should use the mind of other people these simple on your extreme popularity of a president said justification or justified excuses and some thousands of murders

that were seen i mean no one is disputing that he is popular he is extremely popular because filipinos have grown sick and tired of the old ways of doing politics in the country and he presented himself as the solution to many of our problems not just on the drugs but to confuse popularity the widespread support and worse an endorsement or justification for the drug war i think it's just extremely. curious and i think that's just not. it just flies in the face of the many sufferings of the people that we're seeing. i want to know i am not in any way. or we're just a part of his popularity or were you know the excesses in the views of the. things like those. really mar the complaint and actually look forward to the next 3 years to actually move forward their help and the more that we have lived

a good aspect. and probably right may become more humane and try to rein in this in the excesses of police and law enforcement behind an illegal drug operation i think and to actually end the survey and to do that if i may i just want to push you along a little bit because the numbers even though the dispute or for the number of civilian deaths these are the numbers and the instances of human rights alleged abuses as well at the u.n. human rights council say we need to be investigating what is happening in the philippines on the war on drugs jamila do you want to take us into what exactly are they able to do if anything. well i'll leave that up to carlos was been part of you know has been closely following the un human rights in the regions over the past few months but what i can just say when we talk speak of the popularity of the president so many surveys in the past actually do say that

that the general filipino public do approve of the need for the campaign against drugs however not everybody and majority of them do not agree with the killings that have been committed by police and that the majority of those who have been surveyed do feel that they may be a victim to extrajudicial killings so that's quite telling when we speak of popularity when we speak of surveys we need to do and look into the context of the questions and the kind of answers that were given by those who have been surveyed i just wanted to add to that based on my coverage of the government's reaction of you know foreign international organizations coming in to investigate they have always been dismissive of organizations coming in to investigate you can rights watch and this international perhaps the e.u. they have always said that this is basically interference and that much has is

being done to prosecute those. people or government officials in question so i think that reaction when they that your human rights council decision came out and the reaction of the government was quite expected they were dismissive and they were even actually contemplating on cutting diplomatic ties with iceland i mean that was a statement released yesterday by the government spokesperson. i would time go we just got this come and live in and here you are there carlos i'll give this to you because we just got this coming in live on you tube this is going to loop flores who says polls are easy to manipulate and this is picking up on the point that you are making with lucio about opinion polls and support and popularity. they're easy to manipulate especially in a country that doesn't have strong election systems the question is whether or not filipinos believe drug use and addiction has gone down with this. what do we know about drugs and addiction well if you if you listen to the government they're

contradicting basically because they're saying that drug use in the philippines remains the same and in fact they're saying that it's. probably illegal drugs and use. actually worse and so you know it's kind of a conundrum to many of us but just to go back to the popularity before attack of the u.n. human rights council. keep in mind the government has exploited and misused and used to the hilt this issue about the popular art of the president of the excuse everything that has happened in this country and you hear that a lot of times in many of your conversations in many of my conversations we people from different members of the international community but just on the solution i think is a very crucial step this is this is a small step but a very crucial step for accountability as we've been saying because the local or the domestic human rights accountability mechanisms have not been working the guard what you hear from the government it's not been working and that's precisely why

the u.n. human rights council need to act now what will happen after this i mean we will leave it to the office of the high commissioner for human rights to do what is necessary or what she thinks she could do but the un human rights council does not lack for options on how to determine the situation on the ground so you really do that and you will by the next session in june 2020 are expected to put to submit a report to the council and and to see whether future significant actions can be taken in moving forward and this request for action doesn't just come from outflank of the philippines it comes from inside of the philippines have a listen to one woman one activist to. have a look. more than 2 years ago in manila the net cost to your son was killed by armed men but she believes they were linked to the police minette blames president of the so-called war and drugs for her son's death and she's become an

activist speaking out against the campaign. extradition killings should and the government should instead serve the filipinos according to government data more than 6000 people have been killed over the past 3 years an average of 6 every day. so this is a new hatred of the us reporting and you can see from within the philippines it's not just outsiders who are upset with the number of civilians who are dying but as people within the philippines how do you make sense of that because i know early you would talk about the popularity of the president but you also have activists saying this one drugs has to stop. sure so the drug war as of earlier has become abusive. really also. even the death toll has been a contest the figure of government saying that it's in the vicinity of 6000 rights

which you say it's over there are some the police were saying no because. those in the legitimate and big growth operations with those bets or homicides under investigation so listen there is a if i'm just really very direct than there are too many civilians who are dying as a little girl the youngest. that we believe to have been caught up in a drug raid we're going to show pictures of her funeral here she was 3 years old caught up in a drug raid there was a teenager who again was caught up in a in a raid as well and also pictures of his friend or so you can we can debate the stats but there are civilians innocents who are dying what do you do about that within the philippines what's the present about that. well sure there are collateral damages to the campaign and i think government should bride who we

assure the public that moving forward this campaign is with us the main with this level of support then to reassure the public that such incidents when we. will need to be gated and those involved in such a should be used to that if they were found to do so. then they had to be prosecuted. we will recall some policemen involved in the killing of minors. where brought to justice. and people really demanded dad and the family of the big and. so i think alongside the pain to go through this once the internal forensics within the. lancing so the police and they stand. there are. police officers involved in

the drug trade and this complicates the execution of the drug so i think governments should demonstrate serious work with the elements and. gone beyond i think right now we've gone beyond. i think the p.n.p. have demonstrated its underpinning is a need. investigate itself i think right now with all these debts i think. asking the police to mitigate the drug war asking the government to do you know to deal with this colossal collateral damage is i think a very low you know what we're asking right now what the human rights defenders want what the victims want is accountability you know there has to be a 2 year demonstration account to be. you know the case about the 17 year old. that you sold it in the conviction of people whose office is not just one of the

house of the house of documents it's pretty 16 now that is not 5 all. that accountability is coming so and the government itself the philippine national police they have all been trying to frustrate every attempt to investigate and you know to ensure continuity domestic so i think at this point the philippine government the philippine national police department of justice they have humans treated and really really accountability from the from the perpetrators of killings and we're just talking about the killings by the police ok so let me just say the pm pay i guess the mention the pm piece an acronym is the philippines national police make so i want to share $2.00 takes on this is the 1st one is from romona on twitter who says that this anti-drug campaign the so-called drug war has produced results with the surrender of he gives the number here of 1000000 drug dependence of course we can independent independently verify that he says the difference

though can be felt in communities where petty crimes were rampant before the crackdown the depressed area in the city where i reside had drugs being sold openly in the streets before this so that's one take on this but on the opposite side of this spectrum from someone who says reform it needs to happen is r.j. and he says the u.n. human rights council of this resolution on this drug war campaign is an initial step to bring justice to thousands of deaths since he came to power the pressure from the international community and the call for the protection of human rights in the course of the government's blatant disrespect brings the situation in the court of public opinion jim i'll bring you back in here because he mentions public opinion what do you think public opinion is of this e.u. in investigation and especially given that the president has already said that you know he is against it. well it's hard to say exactly.

yet what it's too early to basically figure out what is public opinion of this because i think it just came out about less than 2 weeks ago but you know if we're looking at a situation where people have have basically been reading up every day and watching everything news about the drug war and and and we seen basically that majority of people are much are busy with the very basics having to you know find food for the table jobs the concept of you know fundamental freedoms basic freedoms human rights these these concepts are abstract in many ways this is why this is when government agencies do come in and need to come in to perform do duties and this is where like our carlos carlos believes and all other n.g.o.s believe where the government feel to act i meet you you cannot expect the public to be the one to to react and give

the kind of opinion when it comes to issues like this because there is a need for institutions to function properly to support and protect the public and i think this is what is the basis basically of the human investigate u.n. investigation they said philip in government us failed to act and this is why we need to come in and investigate and it's important to remember that this is not the only international court possibly investigating president of the could there is war on drugs the international criminal court is also looking at the possible the probability of a case if there is any merit of possible crimes against humanity committed there have been more than 50 communications submitted by different civil society groups so the international criminal court so that's also something that needs to be this needs to be watched out for and also on the local level the supreme court has already ordered the p.n.p. to submit. a lot. and thousands of police reports need to submit to the supreme court a spy. give its investigation but for what i know and please correct me from wrong

these it's not been submitted right jim and i did philippine national police if i may because it was we you brought this up it's difficult to know where are we in the war on drugs and tens of stats and there's a report that came out just this month is from the armed conflict location and event project just have a look so we can really crystallized what are we talking about lucy a call this collateral damage i call this people diag we have the drug suspects account for almost 75 percent are civilian deaths 18 percent of fate teletubbies in the philippines are former or current government officials this last statistic it's so illuminating that the state forces a responsible for about 60 percent of civilian targeted events that means attacks or wait for the 40 percent are also vigilantes which gives you an idea of what it might be like to live in the

philippines in 2019. jimmy i'm sure this will not be the last time we talk about the war on drugs in the philippines thank you for helping us do that today we appreciate your time. take everybody. what went wrong in society that opened up the space for the image get out that age is the european parliament that's not accountable and it's impossible for the people to bear that is for link up our people don't want to take. that lead that it's all for the strong man our song woman while getting the growth the projection isn't this bold because the model doesn't work europe's forbidden colony episode 2

on al-jazeera. and her husband gavin were sleeping when 4 teenagers broke down the back the teenagers described as being of african appearance a still on the run before all of this happened i wasn't scared out of black people or people of color. whatever the focus on african gang crime began in march 26th jane when violence broke out at the moon the festival a federation square in the center of melbourne to gird shoot of africa you know people coming together and now there was a far cry granted because of my role in all and feel a lot.