Brazil's human rights record suffered a setback this...

Brazil's human rights record suffered a setback this year due to an upsurge in police brutality and the government's failure to act against it, the non-governmental Global Justice Center (CJG) warned. The military police in the state of Sao Paulo killed 489 civilians in the first half of this year, 77.2 percent more than in the same period in 1999, reported CJG director James Cavallaro. At that rate, the total number of civilian deaths at the hands of the military police in Brazil's most populous state will climb to 1,000 by year-end, up from 664 in 1999 and 525 in 1998, the activist indicated. In the past 10 years, the Sao Paulo military police have killed 6,672 civilians. A study by the Sao Paulo police internal affairs unit revealed that 51 percent of the victims were shot in the back, while 23 percent had five or more bullet wounds - clear signs of summary execution, according to Cavallaro. The same trend is seen in Rio de Janeiro, where efforts aimed at bringing about a less violent and corrupt public security force policy were abruptly brought to an end in March 2000 when police pressure led to the cutting off of reforms designed by sociologist Luis Eduardo Soares. The government's tendency to respond with repressive tactics to social problems was also revealed by a rise in the number of activists from the landless movement thrown into prison, who totalled 258 from January to September 2000.