Posted on 08/22/2003 7:11:31 PM PDT by Brian S
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq
The US administrator for Iraq wept at a farewell ceremony for Sergio Vieira de Mello Friday as the body of the United Nations' top diplomat to Iraq was loaded onto a Brazilian air force jet bound for Geneva, en route to Brazil.
Vieira de Mello was killed in a suicide truck bombing attack on UN headquarters Tuesday that killed at least 22 other people and left more than 100 injured.
His coffin, draped in a UN flag, was loaded onto the back of the jet by six pallbearers, including his bodyguards, accompanied by two bagpipers.
Vieira de Mello's wife and two children will board the plane during a stopover in Geneva before it flies on to his native Brazil for a memorial service in Rio de Janeiro Saturday.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to leave New York Friday for Rio to participate in the service, the UN spokesman's office said Friday afternoon.
"I am delighted that the UN has decided to stay here and they are going to open tomorrow," a choked-up L. Paul Bremer said after comforting a sobbing UN employee, then embracing Vieira de Mello's adviser, Ghassan Salameh.
"We will not be deterred by any act of terrorism. The rebuilding of Iraq by Iraqi people will go on. It's not going to be stopped by this act or any such act," Bremer said.
Members of the US-picked Governing Council also paid their last respects to the highly regarded Vieira de Mello at the Baghdad airport
Benon Sevan , director of the UN oil-for-food Program, hailed Vieira De Mello as a man who believed passionately in the UN mission.
"Even under the most extreme pain, pinned down under rubble in his office, he said to .... the coalition forces trying to rescue him, 'don't let them pull the mission out'," Sevan said.
"Bowing before you at this very difficult hour, I assure you that no heinous act of terrorism will deter us from carrying out the noble task entrusted to us in the service of the UN We will overcome — we will stay the course," he said.
After a ceremony in Brazil, Vieira de Mello's family will accompany the body for burial in the French town of Thonon-les-Bains, where they lived.
Is that why God made so many of 'em- so you could proclaim them replacable?
I don't know where you get that I am sympathetic to the UN. I am a human though. Not everything is politics. My mother is a UN loving democrat. If she were to die, well- how do you think I'd feel? Would you mock me for my sorrow at my loss? What if it was a dear friend? You know, not everyone who works for the UN is a two horned demon from hell. There are some decent people in the UN who are there because they truly believe they can make a difference like that.
We can curse and sling mud at the living all day long and remain in one realm of ugliness. But when we get to the point where it's "human decency be damned, he didn't share my views!", we have become a grotesque caricature of humanity and we have moved into a realm in which there is no value for the sanctity of life. It is an ugly and despicable place to be.
You might wallow in this pigsty of hate, but I will not. This forum is a community as far as these things go. You can stand up and tell the world "This is what we are!" but I can stand up right after you and say "No, it is not."
Fair enough?
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