Villagers' anger over London shooting

Weeping relatives and friends of a Brazilian shot and killed in London after being mistaken for a terrorist protested today in their small farming town, saying an apology by British Prime Minister Tony Blair didn’t go far enough.

Hundreds marched slowly along cobblestone streets, holding up banners denouncing British police as the real terrorists and demanding the arrest of the officers who fired the shots.

Other placards were adorned with snapshots of Jean Charles de Menezes, urging Blair to send his body home so it can be buried.

“Apologies don’t help, we want justice,” they chanted, stopping briefly to offer a prayer for the 27-year-old electrician who left Brazil to work in Britain so he could return home with enough savings to start a cattle ranch.

Gonzaga’s mayor, outraged over news Menezes was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder, called the killing an “assassination”.

“It’s easy for Blair to apologise, but it doesn’t mean very much,” said Mayor Julio de Souza. “What happened to English justice and England, a place where police patrol unarmed?”

Many were angry that there is still no word on when the body might be shipped back to Gonzaga, a central Brazilian town of 6,000 where young men often head to the United States and Europe to finance a better life back home. Menezes was killed last Friday, and Brazilians traditionally bury their dead no later than 24 hours after a person dies.

“If they didn’t want him alive, why can’t’ they send him back?” asked Leide Menezes, a cousin of the electrician, said from a sound system broadcast from the bed of a pickup truck to the crowd.

“We don’t want apologies, he’s ours and he should be here,” added Maria Jose Carvalho, who has two sons working abroad in the US.

Other cousins were upset that Blair’s apology included a defence of British police, who he said were working under intense pressure to prevent more terrorist attacks.

“His apologies aren’t easing our pain,” said Arialva Pereira, one of Menezes’ cousins. “He’s not saying anything about punishing the police who did this, it’s more like he’s supporting them.”

The march ended in front of the town hall, where the Brazilian flag hung at half mast in front of town hall and townspeople hung a large black sheet from the second floor as a sign of mourning for Menezes, killed in a London subway station as police investigated a wave of botched bombings the day before and the deadly transit bombings of July 7.

Witnesses said Menezes was wearing a heavy, padded coat when plainclothes police chased him into a subway car, pinned him to the ground and shot him dead.

While Menezes’ relatives said he was working legally in Britain and had no reason to fear police, the British Broadcasting Corp. said Menezes’ visa had expired, suggesting a reason for why he ran.

Souza said the root cause of Menezes’ death was Blair’s decision to back the US-led invasion of Iraq. That prompted the wave of terrorist attacks, the mayor said.

“Gonzaga has nothing to do with terrorism and now it’s been hit,” Souza said. “Jean could have come back here and become a father, but now we’ll never have a chance to have him with us again.”

Menezes, called “Jim” y English friends, was believed to have been on his way to repair an alarm when he was shot, according to a cousin in London, Alex Pereira.

The killing probably won’t stop Gonzaga natives from going abroad, said Regiani Castro, a 25-year-old who started a farm supplies store after working in Massachusetts for five years.

“They’ll be scared, but they’ll keep on going because that’s the only way to guarantee your future here,” he said.