RIO DE JANEIRO, 24 August 2003 — The plane carrying the body of the United Nations special representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, landed in Brazil yesterday four days after the Brazilian diplomat was killed in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
The Brazilian Air Force jet landed in the military section of Rio de Janeiro’s international airport, after an earlier flight from Baghdad to Geneva, where de Mello’s widow and their two sons boarded.
After a short military ceremony attended by Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, de Mello’s body is to be brought to City Hall for a vigil where his 83-year-old mother Gilda Vieira de Mello and other relatives are expected to say their farewells.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in Rio earlier yesterday for the funeral which Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will also attend.
De Mello’s family said he would be buried next Monday in Thonon-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, in France on Lake Geneva, close to the Swiss border. De Mello’s wife and children live near Thonon.
De Mello was one of at least 22 people killed on Tuesday when a vehicle laden with explosives blew up in front of the UN headquarters in Baghdad. The investigation into who caused the blast is still underway.
