Sergio Vieira de Mello

[JasonBerry]

I wanted to make my 1000th post here at DU meaningful....

It didn't take me any time at all to realize that today offers the opportunity to say something meaningful about a man who has led a life which gives "meaning" a new definition.

The bomb today that ripped apart the U.N. offices in the old Canal Hotel in Baghdad has seriously injured a GIANT on the world stage. Sergio Vieira de Mello is a man who has stood fast for human rights and justice around the world. This is a man who has dedicated his entire adult life to bettering the lives of suffering people. Since beginning his career at the U.N. in 1969 he has served as an ambassador to the world looking for hope where there was, in fact, on too many occasions, no real reason for hope.

My hope today is that Sergio Vieira de Mello will survive the blast today and defy the odds once again.

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/hchr/cv.htm

- Jason Berry

[Kellanved]

1. He lost the fight

May he rest in Peace.

[JasonBerry]

9. What ironic timing

I had just hit the "post" button when not a minute later I heard the horrible news that this great man has left us.

I am in shock. He was one of those people who - quietly behind the scenes - did more good than one can possibly imagine.

This is just horrible.

[wndycty]

2. CNN just reported he died

RIP

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. NO i heard his Chief of Staff died but that he was being given water?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. Amen

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. oh dear God...forgive me my hatred of bush*

have mercy

[WilliamPitt]

6. He's gone

[Beetwasher]

10. Fuck

I don't know what else to say. This is fucked up.

[oasis]

7. "Blessed are the peacemakers"

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. Bush*/Bremer is responsible for this outrage...imho

i gotta go...can't handle anymore ...the world is getting very dark
RIP Sergio deMello

[moosedog]

11. It must be stopped ...

All the good people, including the journalists. I wonder why all these important people, that are doing so much for helping good people and bringing about justice, just get taken out. I hope they find out who is behind all this evil. We must expose the evildoers.

[JasonBerry]

12. I understand the sentiment

It gets more difficult with each day to fight on. Sometimes we have to take a break from the madness and just enjoy life. Feel the grass beneath our bare feet. It's best for the world though when it's just a time to recharge our batteries and live on to fight yet another day.

[grasswire]

13. he didn't want to go and didn't want to stay

His spokesman said he didn't want to leave his other work at the U.N. but Kofi begged him to go to Iraq. And he didn't want to stay more than four months. They told him he was so desperately needed there.

The clips of him show a man so obviously full of life. What a loss.

[SoCalDem]

14. He was scheduled to leave in EIGHT days..

That really sucks.. I had a friend get killed in VietNam a WEEK before his tour was up..:(

Such a putrid waste of lives, time, effort and money.. We are imsinuating a way of life into a country that wants NO PART of it..

If we are willing to spend the Billions of dollars they are spending in our name, does ANYONE with even half a brain think that is we had "offered" that financial support to an insurgent force, that THEY would have gotten rid of Saddam for us??

The people there who wanted him gone, had NO money and NO connections.. We could have certainly overthrown Saddam, any time we wanted, if we had been a "proxy"... It never stopped us before in meddling with other countries..

IT IS ABOUT THE OIL....and CONTROL of the Middle east.. Bush would be the happiest man on earth is all the "people" in the middle east disappeared..:(

This is NOT about freedom & democracy..

[JanMichael]

15. What a loss.

One more death to tag on us.

[slackmaster]

16. Or you might consider assigning SOME blame to

The SOBs who built and deployed the bomb.

[JanMichael]

17. Let's see here...Hmm...Nah.

He's there because of a bogus Invasion Slacker, I'm for assigning blame to those that create the situation.

BushCo.

How bout that journalist yesterday, no ambiguity there, sweet eh'?

[alaine]

18. There are no words...

What a loss.

I posted a UNICEF article here a few months ago about how over 1000 Iraqi children had been injured and/ or killed by left over munitions since the end of the war, and to think they were holding a conference about this very subject at the time...it doesn't make sense to me why they would target this building at this time, someone suggested earlier it had to do with the deaths of Iraqi children from U.N. sanctions, but why do this when here when there was something going on that was trying to keep Iraqis from harm. Of all places to target, it doesn't make sense, but as always, there is more to it than is known.

I am so sad about this man's death and the other 19 who were killed.

20 killed in a bus bombing in Jerusalem as well today. Can we go one day without some news of this kind...