Amnesty International will publicize report on police violence in Brazil

Paulo Montoia

Reporter - Agência Brasil

São Paulo - During the course of 2006, Amnesty International plans to present its report entitled "They Come In Shooting - The Policing of Socially Excluded Communities in Brazil," on police violence in Brazil, in various European, Latin American, and US cities. The full text of the 52-page long document, which was released internationally on Friday (2), is available on the website: www.amnesty.org.

The presentations will include the participation of two Brazilian women, Elisabete Silvério, from São Paulo, and Elisabete Maria de Souza, from Rio de Janeiro, who became human rights activists after being victimized by police violence.

According to the Amnesty press office, the intention is not to taint the image of Brazil abroad. The document is part of an international campaign to persuade governments all over the world to adopt policies to control weapons sales in their countries.

The press office goes on to inform that Brazil is a good example for this type of campaign because of the profusion of firearms in the country. Amnesty data for 2005 indicate that around 17 million small arms exist in Brazil today, and 15 million of them are not in the hands of institutions responsible for the country's public safety. 9 million of the 15 million are illegal, and it is possible that 4 million belong to criminals.

Translation: David Silberstein