Rio, 6/30/2003 (Agência Brasil – ABr) – The government does not have a silver bullet for the problem of violence, says minister of Justice, Marcio Thomaz Bastos. However, he reaffirmed government responsibility for public security and said that he expects all the states to join the Unified Public Security System (SUSP) by the end of August. Bastos is preparing to sign SUSP contracts with all the Northern region states soon.

"What we have are various measures we implemented since taking office. Now what is needed is to understand that public security is our responsibility, not the responsibility of past administrations, no matter what mistakes they made. It is also not exclusively a responsibility of states. The federal government sets the course and does the planning. We intend to continue doing that," said the minister. (AB)