Brasília, 8/20/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has decreed three days of official mourning because of the death of UN special representative in Iraq, the Brazilian diplomat, Sérgio Vieira de Mello.

Lula was informed of Vieira de Mello's death during a press conference with the president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos, and immediately asked all those present to observe a moment of silence. Lula called the terrorist attack that killed the Brazilian diplolmat an act of insanity and sent condolences in the name of the government to his family.

Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, called Vieira de Mello "a hard man to replace," someone who honored Brazilian citizenship and showed that the country does have capable people who can serve the cause of peace and multilateralism. (AB)