Posted on 08/21/2003 8:35:52 AM PDT by kattracks
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - The body of the U.N. special envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad, will be brought back to his native Brazil for a wake before burial in France, Brazil's Foreign Ministry said.A Brazilian Air Force plane was flying to Geneva, Switzerland, to pick up Vieira de Mello's widow, Annie, and two sons and then on to Baghdad to collect his body, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said late Wednesday.
The plane was to bring the body to Rio de Janeiro, where the slain envoy grew up and where his mother and sister still live. A wake will be held there for Brazilians to pay their last respects.
His final journey will be to the small town of Thonon in France near the Swiss border for burial.
Vieira de Mello made homes in France and Geneva while his work with the United Nations took him to many world trouble spots in a career lasting more than three decades. He was separated from his wife.
He was killed Tuesday when a truck bomb exploded at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, burying him in the rubble of his wrecked office.
At the United Nations Thursday, Secretary of State Colin Powell paid tribute to Vieira de Mello, calling him "a soldier in the cause of peace."
"My heart goes out to his family and my heart goes out to the Brazilian people," Powell said.
08/21/03 11:06 ET
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