UN Plaza: Treaties of the Future

[Bloggingheads]

[Eastwest]

Nice get Mark.

Thanks to both.

EW

[Mark Leon Goldberg]

Thanks!

[ohcomeon]

Informative and optimistic - a good way to start a week! Thanks to both.

[bjkeefe]

Originally Posted by ohcomeon

Informative and optimistic - a good way to start a week! Thanks to both.

Agreed. I liked hearing the details.

[Wonderment]

FROM CNN:

Protesters took to the fabled Brazilian beaches of Copacabana on Tuesday to draw attention to the 9,000 people they say have disappeared in Rio de Janeiro since January 2007..

The group ONG Rio de Paz staged a cemetery on the sand, with mannequins representing those who have been slain and secretly buried. Demonstrators also constructed facsimiles of ovens that narcotics traffickers and death squads reportedly use to cremate remains of those they have abducted.

"In general, they are assassinated by police," said Antonio Carlos Costa, president of ONG Rio de Paz, "police acting outside of their regular work hours. They are also assassinated by narco-traffickers. The bodies are disposed of in secret cemeteries in the metropolitan Rio de Janeiro area or incinerated alive by narco-traffickers in what they call 'microwaves.' "

Costa pointed out there was a great outcry when 138 political activists disappeared during Brazil's military dictatorship from 1964-'85.

Now, he said, 9,000 people have disappeared solely in Rio de Janeiro in less than two years and "no one says anything." He attributed the apathy to the fact that most of the victims are poor and live on the outskirts of the city.