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OAS PERMANENT COUNCIL CONDEMNS ATTACK
ON UN’S BAGHDAD HEADQUARTERS

  August 27, 2003

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States today strongly condemned the recent attacks on the United Nations offices in Baghdad, Iraq. The attack killed several international civil servants, among them the UN’s special envoy, Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, and Iraqi civilians.

On behalf of the Council of member state Ambassadors, Chairman Ambassador Raymond Valcin of Haiti expressed condolences to the UN, to the Brazilian government and to the families of the victims.
Brazil’s Ambassador Valter Pecly Moreira thanked the Permanent Council for honoring the memory of Vieira de Mello, whose “absolute dedication to the cause of peace, democracy, freedom, and human rights” Pecly Moreira underscored. He also thanked the Council for the sympathies conveyed by the Chairman, concerning this week’s tragedy at the Brazilian space agency, in which some 21 people died when a space rocket exploded.

Reference: E-167/03