Brazilian President,
Ministers Compromise On New Human Rights
Bill
RIO DE JANEIRO
- The Brazilian president and cabinet
ministers agreed Wednesday to try to solve
the conflict in the country over a new
national program bill for human rights.
The consensus was reached when President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Defense
Minister Nelson Jobim and Human Rights
Minister Paulo Vannuchi.
The bill aroused controversy in some sectors
in the government over a clause that
foresees the creation of a Truth Commission
put forward by the government in December
last year to investigate human rights crimes
under Brazil's military rule (1964-1985).
Brazilian military leaders opposed the bill,
saying that the investigations should
involve not only abuses by the military, but
also crimes by the opposition groups.
Vannuchi, who campaigned for maintaining the
bill's original text, said that it had
already been approved by 31 ministries in
the government.
During the meeting, Lula agreed with
Vannuchi to maintain the original bill, but
signed a separate decree advocating the
Truth Commission.
In the new decree, the wording "military
repression" has been changed to "human
rights violation."
The Truth Commission intends to promote the
historical reconstruction of cases of human
rights violation. Among other tasks, it will
ensure assistance to victims and locate and
identify the remains of political
casualties.
The package of measures also includes the
abrogation of laws inherited from the
military period "that are contrary to the
guarantee of human rights or have given
support to several serious violations."
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