[Imc-atlanta-video] Fw: Please ACT NOW! Massacre in brazil: part3
Indymedia reporter needs HELP
robochik
robochik at riseup.net
Thu Feb 24 15:15:52 PST 2005
To: mitchelcohen at mindspring.com
From: mitchelcohen at mindspring.com
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 18:35:23 -0500
Subject: [metrogpcc] Please ACT NOW! Massacre in brazil: part3
Very Important!
Our friend Brad (from IndyMedia Center in NYC and EarthFirst!) has been
arrested in Brazil as he documented the slaughter of a homeless encampment
in the town of Goiania. Below is part 3 of this story, which is happening NOW.
He asks that we contact the Brazilian Mission to the UN and Embassy. The
Contact info is below.
- Mitchel Cohen
********************************
From: "brad ." <zradley at hotmail.com>
please contact or visit the embassy nearest you with several friends and
make trouble.
tell them to stop the bulldozing, stop the cover up, start an international
investigation
Brazilian Consulate General in New York
1185 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), 21st Floor New York, NY
10036 Phone: (917) 777-7777
After the message come son, Dial 0 and you'll be switched to an operator.
Ask politely
where you might leave a message regarding the assault on the homeless
encampment in Goiania, Brasil.
If you are not in New York, you can find contacts for your local consulate
(if you are in a major city in the states) by going to the following website:
www.brazilhouston.org/ingles/jurisdic.htm.
At the bottom of the webpage is the Brasilian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
You may want to contact them first and then the consulate nearest you.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
part3
i was lost -- there were rows and rows of detainees and more being
marched hands over head in a line -- clusters of women with small
children and elderly trickled out unescorted and were shown to waiting
buses-- i had been handed over to a plai ns clothes policeman who
finally found my digital photo camera -- the idea of losing another
camera in one day put me in a panic -- i told him just to take the card
out and give me back the camera again and again -- he went through
every little pocket and had all these scraps of paper i had forgot to
throw away with phone numbers and addresses of people who had nothing
to do with anything and put my passport and my camera in a separate
plastic bag with these things -- i kept asking if he could cut off the
plastic cuffs and replace them -- he just wandered away with my bag
after placing a guard right over my head -- a couple dogs were on the
lose and one came close and he kicked it -- the militarty police kept
yelling insults and kicking people who were sitting on the ground --
the pain in my back was making it hard to sit but if i relaxed at all
it would push on my hands andthe pain would shoot into me -- the hard
brazilian sun was beating down and i was sweating hard -- i looked up
and there was a local companero from indymedia pointing at me -- he
wasnt even in cuffs -- they came over and he started explaining we were
together -- what an incredible relief -- i wasnt alone -- soon another
was discovered -- his video camera had also been stolen -- they cut off
my cuffs and my whole body sighed -- we were separated from the mob
scene and placed in neutral territory baking in the sun between the
prisoners and a tent where the hard core military police were in the
shade celebrating their victory -- they would come marching out in
formation singing songs -- it was twisted i looked in some of their
eyes and there was just darkness -- it was like they had no souls, cold
hard steel killers-- i saw other undercover police with a computer and
some really young ones getting into a car -- there was a lot of talk of
infiltration the days before -- time crawled -- eventually we were
placed on a bus with all the other prisoners -- i coulnt figure out
which was worse for us, being isolated or lost in the herd -- but with
the other imcistas i was calmed -- at the police station it was mayhem
-- paperwork took forever -- we were led to an area turned into a
medical station -- there were pools of blood on the floor starting to
turn black at the edges -- people were getting stiches for head wounds
-- i saw a guy with bandages all over his head caked in blood -- he
described a bullet passing through his scalp -- he was refusing more
medical treatment --- he looked scared -- there was movement everywhere
and every available space was utilized with scores of prisoners -- it
was a much more mellow scene -- there was a journalist who spoke
english and i told her i was beaten and they stol e my camera but no one
say it on the news -- i got a medical check and slowly slowly we made
our way to the federal police -- i was the only foreigner -- as we
drove out there were other imcistas outside trying tofigure out were we
were off to -- there were crowds of young people who had gone to school
that day and were gloomily waiting for their parents -- looking at them
they could be from anywhere, any class and country, all clean and in
their nice clothes with book bags -- we sped away -- at the federal
police the snails pace continued as they argued about my visa -- i had
a tourist vias but they said i was working as a journalist -- we
explained that my work with the imc was completely unpaid -- they said
they were going to cut me loose with a court date in june -- ok -- then
they wanted to go copy all the photos in my camera -- this took about 3
hours and suddenly i was buzing a way out of there and ready to pass out ----
so many stories to tell -- i only have written about what i saw so far
but now i need to write about the witness accounts -- people said they
saw bodies being dragged to the water wells and dumped, they saw bodies
thrown into burning buildings -- no one knew how many were still
missing -- all night there were military ambulances leaving the
encampment -- all night imc volunteers were at the hospitals and these
ambulances never arrived -- a massive orchestrated coverup was underway
while i collapsed that night -- people working in the hospitals were
afraid to talk with us -- they were already bulldozing houses -- in the
jail so called leaders were being selectivle pulled into special
holding for interogation -- children still looking for their parents --
streams of refugees -- there was no government plan what to do with
these people -- the next morni ng there was a gathering called for at
the catholic church -- i asked if the police would be there waiting and
a friend said never, after what happened the day before, this was the
center of the city -- there was a sound system and people scattered
everywhere in and out of the church sleeping -- most of them didnt even
have a change of clothes -- i talked to many who had their money, their
identification and their cell phones stolen -- everyone was hungry --
was takijng pictures and say a gathering near the alter and it looked
like they were distributing food -- i walked up and there were two open
caskets -- it was more than i could handle -- they were floating in
pools of flowers and surrounded by loved ones crying -- little children
didnt seems to understand -- one had pictures of he and his wife,
hisnew home in the encampment, them on a vacation -- so proud and full
of life -- the other had strange marks on his hand and everyone told me
they were the initals of the policeman who killed him -- some kind of
weird trophey marking -- i was spilling out and dizzy i stumbled away
and cried -- they could have been anyone, they could have been me --
the police said they died shooting eachother and the corporate media
repeated it unquestioned -- the two official deaths -- outside there
was a huge line waiting to report missing people -- their faces -- i
turned away -- there was some distribution of clothing and soap and
bread but it was a mad house people pushing and desperate clutching
babies -- i went with a friend who said she was getting food at the
market for the church kitchen -- i went to a safe house to rest a while
and people came running in to tell me about the attack -- undercover
police had infiltrated the rally that started at the church and had
grabbed on of the so called le aders to arrest him -- the people werent
having it and started to fight for their companero -- the undercovers
pulled out their guns shooting in the air and were barely able to flee
the scene running into a forming block of military police who were
suspiciously near by in large numbers -- the community was there for a
funeral -- despite the gunplay they assembled for a march carrying the
caskets to a huge park then buses took them to the cemetary -- after
the funeral the buses went to the mayors office and everyone camped out
for hours -- a storm was brewing black clouds in the distance and the
wind kicked hard -- there were different proposals on the loudspeaker
and people decided to go to two gymnasiums set aside for housing --
what a dark night
to be continued...
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...economic forces which appear unchangeable are
actually in our hands. Those invisible forces which reward
wealth and size must be drawn out into the light of day
and seen for what they are --- made by people and
changeable by people...
FRANCES MOORE LAPPE, Food First News, Issue 15
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