Unfortunately I couldn't post the original article as it's in Danish. Apparently death squads are executing street children in their sleep; claims a Danish free-lance journalist, Mikkel Keldorf (he's on Facebook and quoted in English-language media too). If it was proven true would you boycott the WC, and tell others to do the same? The number of registered ‘disappearances’ in Rio has surged from 3,997 in 2009 to 6,004 last year. Brazil police accused of 'cleansing' favelas before World Cup football carnival rolls into town Heavily armed police have been patrolling the favelas in advance of tournament Rocinha favela is subjected to nightly gun battles between gangs and police Human rights activists accused of operating secret death squads PUBLISHED: 22:45 GMT, 3 May 2014 | It is the stuff of dreams: one of the world’s most beautiful beaches complete with swaying palm trees, crystal blue waters and an endless procession of bikini-clad girls sashaying across the sand. This is the sight that will greet Wayne Rooney and his England colleagues as they step out on their balconies at the Royal Tulip Hotel after arriving in Brazil to prepare for the World Cup. But should they turn just a little to the left, they will face an altogether more disturbing vision: the stinking filth and squalor of the biggest shanty town in South America spilling down the hillside less than half a mile away. The Rocinha favela is a place where crackling gunfire lights up the night sky, and where police death squads and drug gangs battle for control of the sewage-filled streets. There has been an orgy of extra-judicial killing by Brazil’s military police – the result of a government crackdown to ‘pacify’ the favelas before the world’s media arrive. Last week a popular local DJ was murdered by police just feet from Rio’s famed Copacabana Beach, leading to violent demonstrations. On Monday nine buses were set on fire in protest at police brutality. Seven police officers have died in clashes since the start of the year. FIFA plays down violence in Rio ahead of World Cup in Brazil Amazing confession of World Cup security chief: 'FA is freaking out over safety in Rio' Rocinha is a maze of haphazard steps carved into the hillside leading to a muddle of one-bedroom shanty homes made from breeze blocks where 200,000 deprived and desperate Rio citizens live. Stalls sell live chickens next to dead ones and fly-covered fruit and veg. There is a ceaseless cacophony of motorcycle horns, loud music and yelling voices. Inside every shack, no matter how tiny, families crowd around television screens. Eighteen-year-old Amarildo de Souza Jr is among them. His father was snatched by police who mistook him for a drug dealer, then killed him The death last year of Amarildo Sr, a 42-year-old bricklayer, is now a cause celebre. Some 25 officers including the head of the favela’s police force are standing trial. Officers are said to have tasered, strangled and then drowned their victim during a* 40-minute torture session before dumping the body in a nearby forest. His son tells me: ‘Dad would have been just another statistic, except the favela rose up.’ The protest spawned riots across Brazil and led to three deaths when police fired on rioters. Amarildo Jr continues: ‘The case got so much publicity they had to charge the cops. I hope they go to jail but Brazil is a corrupt country. The police have a licence to kill. The World Cup will come and go but the violence will remain.’ Clandestine police ‘body dumps’ have sprung up. One notorious dumping ground – Grumari Forest – has been given the gruesome nickname ‘the microwave’ because of reports of nightly fires and the smell of burning flesh. One witness who spoke on condition of anonymity said: ‘The police cars enter without lights. We hear gunfire. One time we found four bodies riddled with bullets. We found a hand sticking up from the ground.’ When Brazil was awarded the tournament in 2007 the government introduced a programme to ‘pacify’ hundreds of favelas. Officials refuse to reveal the numbers who have died since the ‘clean-up’ operation started, but in Rocinha alone ten men have been killed since January. Now the authorities are promising to ‘secure’ the slums using an elite military police squad called BOPE, a shadowy organisation of highly-trained special forces whose logo is a dagger piercing a skull. Last week Maria de Fatima da Silva, 56, buried her only son Douglas Rafael, 26, a popular DJ and dancer after he was killed by police in the Pavao-Pavaozinho favela which overlooks Copacabana Beach. Police are thought to have mistaken him for a drug dealer. Maria says: ‘The police told me he had fallen and died but when I saw his body in the morgue I found a bullet hole in his back. The only reason I got his body back was that people filmed the cops on cellphones. Otherwise he would have “disappeared” along with all the others.’ She adds: ‘There will be blood on the streets during the World Cup, be sure of it.’ The number of registered ‘disappearances’ in Rio has surged from 3,997 in 2009 to 6,004 last year. Amnesty International spokesman Alexandre Ciconello said: ‘The government is trying to paint a pretty picture for the world saying things have been cleaned up and that Brazil is safe for tourists. But the reality is far darker.’
What a picture of our 'civilisation', especially when you consider how long it had been going on. I read an article once about a solicitor that kicked a street child to death on the main street, and few saw it as anything more than if he'd stamped on a rat. These children aren't angels, but they can't really help the position they find themselves in.
I cannot fathom out why FIFA would want to hold a big event like the word cup in and country that has a scandalous reputation. Its not as if they don't know about the goings on in these countries....
That is disgusting, and if true Mikra I'd boycott the tournament. The World Cup and Olympics should never have been given to Brazil.
Well done for putting this up Mikra, it's been something that has troubled me for some time, I have a friend that has been out there, and what she stated was disturbing to say the least, she would never go back to Rio, seeing the way the street children were treated has left an indelible mark on her for life!.................
This is the bottom line. Football is totally corrupt at the top and that isn't likely to change anytime soon.
I can see there being trouble out there for fans of foreign countries and there is no way i would let any of my family go to a country where the gun culture is the norm. Football is not worth the risk...no anything else...
I'm not on Facebook, but check out this Mikkel Keldorf guy. He's the one who came up with the accusations...
Every time theres a major sporting event in shall we say a less cultured country, stories like this always emerge ,headline for a couple of days then forgotten. .Slightly off topic the 8th person to die whilst working on the construction of one of the stadia happened this week and countless others seriously injured for a pittance of pay ., we as fans or just human beings tend to forget or ignore the true cost in human terms because it's easy to, it doesn't affect us .
Fully agree Dai. I wouldn't go here if somebody offered me a World Cup final ticket for free. If Pele of all people can get mugged in Brazil, then footballing fans in the summer will be easy targets for the criminals.
