Military police operation in Complexo do Alemão, Brasil – November 2010 (Credit: Agência Brasil -ABr)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
UNITED NATIONS – NEW YORK – Amnesty International has characterized the bloody Jacarezinho police massacre in Rio de Janeiro that left 25 people dead “reprehensible and unjustifiable”. The UN’s human rights office (OHCHR) on Friday called for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into a major police operation in a favela in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
‘It’s completely unacceptable that security forces keep committing grave human rights violations such as those that occurred in Jacarezinho today against residents of the favelas, who are mostly Black and live in poverty.”
-Jurema Werneck, executive director of Amnesty International Brazil
The operation started in the early hours of Thursday when police officers on the ground and in helicopters overhead opened fire across the Jacarezinho neighbourhood – in a operation allegedly aimed at suspected drug traffickers. In addition to the deaths, an unknown number of people, including bystanders and those inside their homes, were also wounded.
#Brazil: After possibly the deadliest police operation in a decade, we call for a broad & inclusive discussion about the current model of policing in favelas, where the poor and marginalized populations are trapped in a vicious cycle of lethal violence 👉 https://t.co/m1j5EQx5Yp pic.twitter.com/MwnvYqKPC9
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) May 7, 2021
“The number of people killed in this police operation is reprehensible, as is the fact that, once again, this massacre took place in a favela. The Rio de Janeiro state prosecutor’s office must conduct a prompt, exhaustive, independent, and effective investigation into these atrocities, following international standards so that the agents of the state who ordered, committed or participated in this massacre are held accountable and face justice.”
-Jurema Werneck, executive director of Amnesty International Brazil
OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville said that the incident appeared to have been the “deadliest such operation in more than a decade” in Rio de Janeiro.
“[It] furthers a long-standing trend of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force by police in Brazil’s poor, marginalized and predominantly Afro-Brazilian neighbourhoods, known as favelas.”
There are also reports that after the incident, Colville called on the Office of the Prosecutor to conduct an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident in accordance with international standards, particularly in line with the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death. , the police did not take steps to preserve evidence at the crime scene, which could hinder investigations into this lethal operation, the spokesperson said. Colville said that it was “particularly disturbing” that operation took place despite a Federal Supreme Court ruling last year, which restricted police operations in Rio’s favelas during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Lethal force should be used as a last resort and only in cases where there is an imminent threat to life or of serious injury.”
Colville called on the Office of the Prosecutor to conduct an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident in accordance with international standards, particularly in line with the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death.
