Rio, 8/25/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - After lying in state for most of the weekend in Rio de Janeiro, the body of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was flown to Geneva yesterday afternoon. The coffin was visited by an estimated 1,000 people, among them president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.

According to Mello's widow, Annie, he will be buried in the Cemitére des Roix in Geneva, probably on Wednesday (August 27). She thanked the Brazilian people for their show of solidarity and said her husband was a citizen of the world, with a Brazilian heart, and that he had decided to be buried near his family in Europe.

Masses are scheduled for Sergio Vieira de Mello at the Igreja da Ressureição, in Copacabana, Rio de Janeira, and at the Church of Santa Agnes, in New York. Both services will take place tomorrow, August 26. (AB)