All language subtitles for Sergio.2009.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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[guitar music playing]

[woman] Sérgio was a man
that had lived all over the world.

Well, he was a Brazilian.

It's a place where he was a son, he was...

the man from Rio de Janeiro.

He was anonymous.

He could become himself.

Sérgio had a well-worked tradition.

Every time he would land
in Rio de Janeiro,

we would rush to Gilda's house,
to his mother's house,

drop the luggage, dash to the beach,
to his favorite corner,

run straight into the water

and the moment that he would go
and put his head under the water

and emerge up, he would say,
"Ah, yes.

I have arrived."

[man] So, what were you wishing to say?

Well, you're going to speak to the people.

-Really?
-Going to have 35 new staff members...

-I see.
-...where Gary is now, so...

I see. Some spontaneous wisdom.

Huh?

[reporter] Just how you came to be
the High Commissioner?

Oh, my God, but you realize
I can't summarize 34 years

in three minutes.

That's a huge theme.

'Cause you're asking me
to recount my life. [laughs]

But I suppose it's, uh...

it's intended to be inspirational, right?

[reporter] Absolutely.

Hi, good afternoon.

My name is Sérgio Vieira de Mello.

I'm Brazilian and I'm presently

United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights.

I joined the organization
at the age of 21, believe it or not.

Just out of university.

[Sérgio] I was lucky to have served
in East Pakistan,

Cyprus, South America, Bosnia, Lebanon,

Cambodia, Kosovo,
and from there, East Timor.

This organization is the best opportunity
you have in your life

of achieving your dreams.

Never forget the real challenges,

and the real rewards of serving
the United Nations

are out there in the field where people
are suffering, where people need you.

[George Bush] Remember Rwanda or Kosovo,
the UN didn't do its job.

Will the United Nations serve
the purpose of its founding...

or will it be irrelevant?

[reporter 1] The President said last night

that he is prepared to invade with or
without the backing of the United Nations.

[reporter 2] So, President Bush made it
clear, no time left for stately diplomatic

waltzes at the United Nations.

It's now the Texas two-step
from here on out.

So we just met with the President
and he explained

the position of the United States,

which I think you're all aware.

I reminded him of the position of
the Secretary General on this issue.

But I don't think anyone can predict

what the human cost
of such a war would be,

but it will be high by definition.

[distant explosion]

[Tony Blair] The conflict in Iraq

and the removal of Saddam
had been immensely controversial.

It had been deeply opposed by many
within the international community.

It split the UN Security Council.

So I thought it was particularly important
that the UN were in a prime role.

[Samantha Power]
The countries that had fought

so fiercely over whether to go for war,

decided that they had to somehow
kiss and make up.

"Let's agree that we all have an interest
in seeing Iraq stabilized.

Let's send a United Nations mission,

and much more importantly, in a way,
let's send the most charismatic,

most experienced person in the entire
system of conflict management,

conflict prevention, nation building,
refugee care, you name it.

Let's send this guy who's known as a cross
between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy.

Let's send Sérgio."

[Condoleezza Rice] I asked him personally
to take the job in Iraq.

I said, "You're the right person
for this job and I hope you'll do it."

President Bush, I know, had met him
and, I think, rated him very highly.

Um, and, yeah, there was therefore
a general consensus

that if he could be persuaded to do it,
he would be the right person.

[Carolina Larriera] He never wanted
the job in Iraq.

But that week he called me to say

that he had just received
a phone call from New York,

where the Secretary General was asking him
to go and see him.

And I ask him, "Is that to talk
about what? About Iraq?

But you were already clear about
your position vis-à-vis Iraq."

Sérgio, with his friends, was absolutely
adamantly saying, "No way, forget it.

Are you crazy?

I've just got a new job,
and here with Carolina, etc., etc..."

Gradually the interest mounted
and the pressures mounted

and, uh, he clearly became more interested
and, uh...

was finally influenced I think,
by the profile of the issue.

It was the center stage of
international UN action in 2003.

I have asked Mr. Sérgio de Mello
to serve as my special representative.

He will lead the UN effort in Iraq...

for the next four months.

[Power] He went to Iraq
with a cadre of experts

on constitutions, elections, policing,
refugees...

The best and brightest
of international community.

He felt like he had all that he needed
for success,

and the way he defines success was
a speedy end to the occupation,

and a smooth and peaceful transition

to a brighter post-Saddam
independent future.

We see our role as one that supports
the Iraqis to replace

as soon as possible the coalition

and recover fully their sovereignty.

No one likes to be under occupation.

And I often ask myself how would I feel

if I saw foreign tanks in the streets
of Rio de Janeiro, my home town.

I wouldn't like it

and I would want that to come to an end
very, very quickly.

And I would have wanted it not to happen
in the first place.

[guitar music playing]

[engine starts]

[Larriera] Sérgio was exhausted.
It was the month of August.

It was extremely hot in Baghdad.

We got up early. We met
our other colleagues downstairs,

and then, uh, headed all together
to the Canal Hotel.

[speaking French]

He ate breakfast quickly.

He stood up.

The convoy was ready to leave

and he looked very distant.

I could see him,

his forehead was against the window

looking outside

and I knew he wasn't well.
I don't know why.

[Power in English] On August 19th,
he was preparing to issue two statements.

Two open criticisms of the coalition
for their excessive use of force.

He knew the Americans would go nuts,

and yet Sérgio understood
if he didn't take this step,

the United Nations would continue more
and more to just be seen as an accomplice

of the United States.

[Pichon speaking French]

He had a meeting with Paul Bremer.

The convoy was ready to go,
we were all about to leave

and we got a call from
the US Command Center.

They said the meeting
with Bremer was canceled.

[in English] Unexpectedly, the meeting
had been cancelled,

so he ended up remaining in the office

and called me in at lunchtime
to have lunch with him.

I told him that I was going to stay in
and skip lunch and just work through.

Then I knew that in the afternoon he was
having another series of meetings

and we were going to meet
each other again.

[Gil Loescher]
We arrived in Baghdad that morning.

It was a short initial trip
to get a feel for the lay of the land.

We went directly to the headquarters
of the Coalition Provisional Authority

and saw Paul Bremer.

My abiding memory of the interview
was that, at the very end he said,

"You know, the security situation
is improving,

in fact it's, you know, it's,
it's in very good shape."

From there we went to the United Nations.

We wanted to hear from Sérgio what he
thought the UN had been able to achieve.

We were early for the meeting.

Someone came and let us up,
I think it was the third floor,

to Sérgio's office.

[speaking French]

I signaled to Sérgio that it was okay.

So he stood up

and went to sit with his guests.

[in English] Sérgio was at his desk
and was putting papers together,

and then he came over to us
and sat us down.

I was sitting directly opposite him,
just a couple of feet away.

[indistinct conversation]

I think we will be surprised at
the highlight of causalities that we have.

Specifically with the
unexploded ordinance.

And in our landmine impact survey
in the north we found that...

-eighty--
-[explosion]

[indistinct shouting]

-[man] Stay where you are!
-[people screaming]

Stay where you are!

[indistinct shouting]

Stay where you are!

Stay where you are!

Stay where you are!

[indistinct shouting]

[people clamoring]

[man] Tell your people
to stay near a wall, please.

[Pichon speaking French]

The first thing I did was
make sure I was not hurt,

and that I had all my arms and legs.

I couldn't hear.

Then I think, "Oh, my God, my boss."

[Ghassan Salamé] When the explosion
took place, I thought it was a mortar.

Which tells you that even after many years
in Beirut,

you still can be wrong on things.

When Ghassan stood up,

he-- he had some kind of very strange
kind of smile that...

he's okay,

and then immediately he said, "Let us go
and see what's happened to the people."

I took my telephone, took my neck tie,
my jacket, my laptop, my passport,

and I went out and I discovered that...

a lot of people were shouting,
crying, bleeding.

[people clamoring]

[Taher] We could see blood everywhere.

On the walls of the corridor,
body is there...

You don't know if they're alive or not.

And things burning...

The smell of burn, the smell of blood.

[indistinct shouting]

I stood up and I see
Mona Rishmawi across from me

and I see her looking at me

and there's a drip of blood
that is coming down her forehead.

[Mona Rishmawi]
And then I came to the first floor,

my husband was in the first floor.

So I called him, I said, "Andrew? Andrew?"
And miraculously he came out,

I'll never forget this.

And the moment he took my hand,
Carolina said, "Sérgio. Sérgio. Sérgio,"

and she said, "I have to find Sérgio."

[Larriera] I started screaming.

I cannot see anything
because it's all dust.

I couldn't see. I saw this light,
this blinding light all around me,

and, uh...

and suddenly the dust starts to settle,

and I realize that this light is the sun.

The sunlight of 4:00 p.m. Baghdad.

[William von Zehle] We were about
100 meters from the point of the blast.

Bent over to pick up the paper work
and the next thing I knew,

I saw this intensely bright flash

and I had about an eighth of a second
to think what the--

And then when I woke up
I was lying across the room.

Minutes ago, an explosion ripped through
a hotel in central Baghdad,

the headquarters for the UN.
An update live...

[reporter 1] ...by far the most
serious attack that's been,

since US troops took Baghdad.

[reporter 2] First this hour,
terrorism in Baghdad.

Right now at least 14 people are dead,
dozens wounded...

[reporter 3] A bomb exploded
directly below

the office of its special representative
here, Sérgio de Mello.

The UN has been there in what used to be
the Canal Hotel since the early 1990s.

Three hundred UN staff work inside.

It's home to several
UN humanitarian agencies,

all working on the rebuilding of Iraq.

[Pichon speaking French]

I entered and saw Buenaventura,

the assistant,

he was dead.

I entered Jonathan's office,

Rick was there,

also dead.

And after Jonathan's office,

emptiness.

No office.

I called, "Sérgio! Sérgio!"

No response.

I went outside the building

and I climbed around it.

I climbed on top of the rubble

to try to find Sérgio.

And with me, there was an Australian,

Jeff, the military attaché for Sérgio.

[inaudible]

[in English]
I was calling out, stopping, listening.

Move a meter, call out, stop, listen.

There was this other fellow
who was running towards the rubble,

who was in US military uniform.

I said, "Who are you?"
And he said, "My name's Bill."

The gentleman in a blue UN baseball cap
came up and he said,

something to the effect of like,
"Where are the rest of your guys?"

And I said,
"There are no rest of our guys,

it's me and a captain right now."

I want to go in the building and do
an internal reconnaissance and see.

I must be nuts to even think about
going in the building.

But firefighters have this thing,
we run into burning buildings

when everybody else is
running out of burning buildings.

We made our way upstairs
and it was almost unrecognizable.

I'd been up there on many occasions,
for meetings...

As we walked along, I was looking

and at one point I found
a little spot of light down below.

If you looked in there,
I could see two people.

[Loescher] The flash is what I remember.

The ceiling collapsed,
the floor collapsed.

We were thrust down.

I heard someone say, "Oh, shit!"

As if someone had expected it.

I'm pretty sure it was Sérgio.

The next thing I remember is
regaining consciousness

and not being able to move.

I remember looking up, um...

at, at someone...

who was wearing a...

like a fireman's hat or, or helmet,

and, and I sort of waved at him.

It may sound melodramatic,
but honestly from looking at it

I was pretty convinced that
this was gonna be a one-way trip. Um...

You know, I'd seen Oklahoma City
done enough collapse-rescue stuff,

and the building, it was still moving.

Uh, you know, bricks were still falling,

it was, you know, within a few minutes
of the blast.

I was kind of convinced
this was a one-way trip,

and I said, you know, "Tell my wife
and, uh, my daughter I love them."

I took my body armor off
and started to climb down the hole.

I got down to about... [sighs]
where the first floor would be.

At that point I had to turn around
in a space

and basically slide down head first,
so I could get next to him.

And fortunately there was a piece
of reinforcing rod, a rebar,

that was sticking out of a concrete
and I put my shoulder up against that.

It was perfect, where I could
basically lean down

and, you know, touch them.

Um, and that's when
I first introduced myself when I said,

you know, "My name is Bill. I'm
a civilian EMT. I'm from the army unit.

I promise I'm gonna get you guys
out of here alive."

I remember saying my name to that person.

Telling him that my name was Gil.

I remember very little else.

One gentleman said "My name is Gil,"
and he was directly in front of me.

There was another gentleman,
and he said his name was Sérgio.

As we're talking, you know, he starts
to say, I thought he initially said,

"Don't pull me out." And I said, "Don't
worry. We're gonna get you both out.

I promise we'll get you both out."

And he goes, "No, no. Don't let them
pull the mission out."

And at this point,
I'm still not sure who he is.

Then he's asking about,
you know, the other people.

"How many people are killed?
How many people are wounded?

Do we know what happened?"

And suddenly I'm dawning, this guy's
somebody who's, you know, in charge.

It's not just a worker, he's asking
questions as the guy in charge.

And it dawned on me,
"Jesus, this is Sérgio de Mello."

[Gilda speaking Portuguese]

He had such perfect teeth.

He was a happy boy, always laughing,

always in a good mood.

[speaks Portuguese]

People would ask him to sing everywhere.

When he was about three years old

he could sing in four languages.

We moved to Italy.

There he attended a Catholic school.

[Power in English] Sérgio was the son
of a Brazilian diplomat,

so he spent most of his childhood years
abroad, in Europe, mainly.

In Genoa, in Milan, in Rome,

uh, Naples, and even in Beirut.

Through that vagabond life,
this was just second nature to him.

His capacity to just descend
into a new place and look around and say,

"Okay, I'm home."

[Gilda speaking Portuguese]

And then finally he went
to a French school

at the Sorbonne

where he studied philosophy.

[Power in English]
He became activated politically,

partly by the philosophy,
and mainly by what was going on

on the campus of the Sorbonne
at that time.

It was 1968, war in Vietnam was raging,

um, students and workers
throughout France were striking.

And of course in May of '68,

the students ended up
affectively taking over the campus.

Sérgio manned the barricades,
threw stones at the police.

What's amazing about his politics
in those days is,

how dogmatic he is,

how virulent his anti-Americanism,
his anti-imperialism,

even his Marxism or Neo-Marxism is.

I mean, he is a revolutionary to the core.

He graduated from the Sorbonne in 1969.

One of his best friends lived in Geneva,

and Sérgio, looking for work,
went and crashed at his place.

Got some interviews
with international organizations,

and ended up at
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

[McNamara] Those of us who joined in the
'70s really worked on Third World issues.

It was well regarded,

it was expanding rapidly,

it had an interesting mandate
of not just aid, but also protection,

it was politically very active
in the sense,

that it was on hot borders
and conflict areas.

The turning point of Sérgio's relationship
to his new place of employment

was his first field mission,

uh, which was in Bangladesh.

Here Sérgio is tasked as a very young man
to help provide shelter,

to help provide food, um, to try to come
up with some kind of political strategy

by which these people could eventually
return to their homes.

He discovered himself.

He suddenly saw extreme poverty,
enormous refugee flows,

and the ideals that had motivated him
took life, they took flesh.

He realized that he was not
merely a man of thought,

but that if he wanted to
make those ideals real,

he had to be a man of action.

[McNamara] I met Sérgio first time
actually in Swaziland in 1976,

to move the Soweto kids who'd been
attacked by the South African police,

out of Swaziland to Tanzania.

This was a very hot operation,
as you can imagine

the South African security
were all over the place,

but we evacuated them through Mozambique.

Sérgio was the acting UNHCR person
in Maputo.

[Richard Holbrooke] I met Sérgio Vieira
de Mello in Cambodia and Thailand

when the Khmer Rouge
were driven out of power

and a massive refugee crisis ensued.

This is what brought
a whole generation of people

into the international
humanitarian effort.

You're a better agronomist than I am.

[grunts] Voilà.

[Holbrooke] Sérgio was the most dazzling,
charismatic person in that area.

[Sérgio] I better not shower him.

[Holbrooke] How could a guy
this charismatic, this good looking,

be doing this kind of work?

Well, he was one of the bright stars,
no question.

Probably, maybe, the brightest.

He was the master magician,

mediator, manager, massager of egos.

[reporter] Would you mind
spelling your last name?

[chuckles] V-I-E-I-R-A D-E M-E-L-L-O.

The mission was to return between
350 and 400,000 refugees

who were primarily living on
the borders with Thailand in refugee camps

for a prolonged period of time already

to return them ahead of the elections
that were scheduled to take place.

Sérgio was convinced that the only way
to make the repatriation a success

was to work with the Khmer Rouge.

But this was controversial
because...

they were what they were.
They, they...

Their senior leadership had been part
of a genocidal regime.

[McNamara] He had a long fascination
with evil genius.

The mind of evil men
and how they functioned and why.

Especially intellectual evil,
as the Khmer Rouge were.

There was no question it was high risk
and it shouldn't have happened.

It was all done, um, in a bit of a...

an unorthodox way.

There was a meeting place
which was in the middle of nowhere.

We had no idea where we were going.

I remember Sérgio's driver declared him,
basically, insane.

We had to walk through minefields.

There was no radio contact.

And it was an hour and a half
by tractor trailer

to a miniscule kind of
settlement headquarters.

We spent the rest of the day there
and evening and had discussions with them

about the land
and where people could return.

It was just an extraordinary experience.

Sérgio never underestimated, of course,
who he was dealing with

and what their,
their historical baggage was,

but that did not cause him to think
that he shouldn't talk to them.

He wasn't a black or white kind of guy.

[McNamara] War Criminals, My Friends

is what his autobiography
could have been called.

He was rather inclined to see a broader
view, perhaps, than many of us would.

Uh, I would be the dogmatic, uh...

human rights approach
that these guys were war criminals

and should be put on trial immediately.

He told me to stop, get off my high horse.

I think, and it was a breakthrough.

It was the first time that the UN,

and probably foreigners for that matter,

were in touch with the official
Khmer governing structure.

Sérgio managed to convince at least
some leading members of the Khmer Rouge

that cooperation with
the international community

was a more constructive approach,

and more in their self-interest
than sabotage.

More tangibly, he managed to produce
one of the few concrete successes

of a long international

and a very expensive
international engagement in Cambodia...

the return of 400,000 Cambodians
to their homes.

[Bos] I think there was
a huge sense of being vindicated.

I think you can almost see a sense
of satisfaction on his face

that they're able to take their destiny
in their own hands.

May they be blessed with happiness,
lasting peace, and prosperity.

We are all here betting on peace.

We will, as from this morning,

and with deep emotion, escort you home.

Thank you.

From that point forward,
he wasn't just a UN success story,

or a humanitarian success story,

he was an individual that governments
thought about as a problem solver,

as a troubleshooter, as a go-to guy.

As someone that you could put
into harm's way,

have talk to the world's
most dangerous people,

and he could somehow pull
rabbits out of the hat.

[Simões speaking Portuguese]

I already looked at him like 007.

He never dies.

I asked him one time, "Sérgio,

why do you go to all these countries,

that have such conflicts,
that are so dangerous?"

He just laughed

and didn't reply.

-[siren blaring]
-[car horn honking]

[Vance Kuhner] It sounded to me
like a 500-pound bomb

had gone off, and very close.

I went down on one knee

and when I stood back up again,
I looked at my first sergeant and I said,

"Let's go. Let's get in the truck."

My driver said, "Where to go?"
I said, "You see the smoke?

Follow the smoke."

My philosophy of the UN was not 100%.

The UN believes a lot of talking
will solve all the problems,

and they don't.

Sometimes you need to have brute force.

On that day it didn't make any difference.

There were people there
that needed our help,

and my job was to accomplish that.

[Kuhner] I wasn't prepared
for what I'd saw.

Mass chaos.

Wounded people everywhere.

I saw one man, he had a piece of rebar
that was stuck through his cheeks

and he was sitting there
smoking a cigarette.

Absolute insanity.

[people clamoring]

Time was our enemy.

We needed to start moving people.

[Valentine] It looked like
a car bomb came in

and it was setting off all the other
vehicles that were next to it.

We had people that were
crawling out of the building.

So I said,
"Okay, I'll take control of this."

This little section, this little island,

dirt island is gonna be our triage
and staging area right now.

We had to make decisions on who
was gonna live and who was gonna die.

[William] One of the things we have
in civilian medical world

is called the "Golden Hour."

Basically if you can get somebody
to the trauma center

within 60 minutes from injury,

if you can get him there alive, they have
a pretty good chance of surviving.

At least in the Western world.

At this point,
I don't hear anybody calling,

it's just a quiet little womb in there,

it's hotter than you know what.

Both men were covered in brick and debris
from the waist down.

Sérgio was actually
more almost chest high.

You couldn't see that anything
was broken or out of place,

but he was covered completely.

They both had severe
lower extremity injuries.

Gil, you could see,
his left leg was folded up.

Uh, Sérgio, we presumed he's got that much
weight on him, he's got crush injuries.

I was able to start an IV on Gil Loescher.

I could not get to Sérgio de Mello
well enough to get an IV going.

I just physically couldn't get in there
without lying on top of Gil.

I knew we had no heavy equipment,

so I knew the only way we're gonna get
these guys out is the old-fashioned way

so I started taking bricks, you know,
a couple of bricks at a time,

throwing them up in the opening,

go back down,
get a couple more bricks

and just, to try to get
these guys uncovered.

[Valentine] We saw about 185 people,

and we moved 130 of them in 55 minutes
in whatever vehicle we could find,

uh, Deuce and a Half,
5 tons, pick-up trucks.

[Kuhner] MPU's were arriving at this point

and they've set up a 360 degree
security perimeter on the outside.

Sorry, I need you to back up.

We then set to work searching the building
and looking for survivors.

[Valentine] Probably about an hour or so
down the line,

I heard a cry that
there's more people up here.

So I said, "Okay,
I'm going upstairs to check."

I went floor to floor, room to room

till I got to the top floor
and I heard another cry there,

and that's where I met Bill.

About 40 minutes after I arrived,
I hear somebody yelling from up above,

and the guy goes, "Do you need any help?"

And the last thing I wanted was
somebody wo had no training down there,

gonna make more problem,
knock more bricks down,

and I said, "You have any experience?"

and he said "I'm a New York City
firefighter paramedic,"

and I said, "Come on down."

[Valentine] I looked at the hole

and I just said "Holy crap!"

Here would be the third floor...

looking at it from the side.

When it collapsed,
the roof basically went...

And Sérgio's office would've been
somewhere... in here.

The second floor had collapsed
partially down.

They were basically here.
Their heads were down.

Now, they would be next to each other.
So this would, let's say, be Gil Loescher

here in his feet...

To his right behind him, on that diagram,

Sérgio would be basically
in the same position.

Several bodies were actually located
in this area, over here.

That were, the other people
that were in the meeting.

We treat everybody in the EMS the same.

If I could have gotten Sérgio out first,
would I?

All things being equal, maybe.

But if it could have been
the President of United States

and I would've had to get
Gil Loescher out first

physically to get room to pull Sérgio out.

I said "Let me go down,
you've already gone your turn."

My little one-man hole in the ground
became a two-man hole in the ground,

and we spent the next, uh, two,
three hours working together like a team,

uh, trying to get these guys out of there.

[Valentine] I had to climb over
two victims. First victim was a female.

She had, uh, this side of the face covered
with a concrete slab.

Uh, she had what we call agonal breaths,
but still had a pulse.

She had a real severe head injury,
I knew she wasn't gonna be survivable.

I told her to hang on
and I said "Keep your faith,

and I said that God is with you,"
and she squeezed my hand.

So I'm assuming,
because in the medical community

the last thing that goes is your hearing,

so I really believe the lady heard me.

I quietly pray,
and I tell him "Jesus loves you."

I do that automatically.

Some of my co-workers think I'm crazy,
but, you know, that's who I am.

I continue to go down.

I finally got down to the bottom
of the first floor,

and I heard two people, they were talking,
and one was Sérgio,

he was to the left of me and Gil was more
or less straight right in front of me.

He was conscious,
he knew what was going on,

he knew what happened,
he knew where he was.

Uh, he knew his name, he knew how old
he was and where he was from.

Uh, and he told me he was from
Oxford, England.

He was an American working there.

I'm told that I was conscious
for most of that time,

but I don't remember.

[Valentine] I told him, "I'm gonna
continue to work while you talk."

He was telling me about his family,
his wife and his two lovely daughters.

I said, "This is my promise to you...

I will get you out of here alive
if you stay with me."

[Pichon speaking French]

The earth was smoldering.

We were digging with our bare hands.

We had no shovels or equipment.

We kept calling Sérgio's name
over and over.

[Davie in English] My memory was of dirt.

I was surprised
about how much dirt there was.

I remember thinking I'm going to move
a piece of rubble and he will be there.

I then saw a slit.

I put my head in and called out again,
and it was Sérgio.

I just felt wonderful, you know.

He was alive, and, uh,
and we'd found him.

[Salamé] We found a hole through which
we were communicating.

"Sérgio! Sérgio!"

In French... [speaks French]

"We will come and help you. Don't worry."

His first questions of me
after I'd asked of him,

were concern for others in the team,

not of himself or of his circumstances.

"Where is Carolina? Where are the others?
Please look for them."

Um, "Don't stop."

[William] I was not aware that there were
people still working outside of the base

of the opening. I didn't hear anybody.

At this point I was able to
yell out one of my sergeants.

I said, "Robbie, I need a rope.

I need something to haul this stuff out,
I need lights."

I never saw any equipment, because he was
a buck sergeant and as he came through,

now as more and more people
were showing up from the army,

higher ranking, it was like,
"Hey, we need that rope."

You know, Captain would say
"Give me the rope," and he'd say,

"Well, I need it for my first sergeant.

I'm a captain, give me the rope."

You know, "I need it and I'm a colonel,
give me..."

Never got any of that stuff.

At that point both of them
were lucid, conscious.

I'm just trying to keep them talking.

What I was taught was to get their minds
off their injuries.

The survival rate is greater

when we get their mind off
of what's going on at that time.

Kind of put them in another area
in their life.

Get their mind away from Baghdad.

[Holbrooke] A seminal moment
in Sérgio's life came

when East Timor was cut loose
from Indonesia

after tremendous fighting and genocide.

[people clamoring]

We needed a senior UN official
to be in effect the president,

the power in an area which was no longer
part of Indonesia

and not yet an independent country.

Sérgio Vieira de Mello had the drive,
the leadership and the skills to do it,

and it was the biggest test the UN had
ever faced in the nation-building phase.

[Larriera] I never heard
of Timor in my life.

When I was proposed to go there,
I, I could...

I couldn't in a million years
have placed it on the map.

I was an economics officer

working in establishing the traditional
structure of the new government.

I did know Sérgio Vieira de Mello
from Brazil.

My part of the government
knew him as the SRSG.

The Special Representative
of the Secretary General.

Um, one morning I was running
along the beach road,

and I saw this man running with
someone else who looks like a bodyguard.

He passed by and I looked at...

You know, I looked at the two
and I realized this was the SRSG.

And I'm looking at him thinking,

"Well, I am a woman,
here I am running on my own,

why does he need a bodyguard next to him?
What a chicken."

[reporter] The two man who hold East
Timor's immediate future in their hands

enjoy another rapturous welcome
in an East Timorese town.

On this day, Xanana Gusmão has been
crowned king of the Ermera regency.

By his side is the man with the real power
in East Timor today.

Sérgio de Mello is East Timor's
legal leader for the next two years

as it makes its transition
to full independence.

[instruments playing]

Here, Sérgio, a guy who in his early 20s,

you know, had preached
against imperialism,

had thrown stones at Parisian police,

and suddenly he was in charge,
he was the viceroy.

[Peter Galbraith] United Nations
gave Sérgio all the powers of a dictator,

but he never dictated anything.

He set up a consultative council that
included the top East Timorese leaders,

and later a cabinet

which included the East Timorese leaders.

And he never took a decision that
the East Timorese disagreed with.

East Timor will have an elected
representative body

working for the people
to frame a constitution

that is of the people.

This is a momentous achievement.

Democracy looks to be
in a very healthy state indeed.

[Larriera] The real first time
when I talked to Sérgio

was at a formal dinner.

I arrived very early, and, um...

it turned out that the only person
who was there,

the first person
who was there was Sérgio.

No one else was there, so we...
started chatting away.

He told me that he knew
I was from Argentina, and that, uh,

he had spent the first days of his life
in Argentina, in Buenos Aires,

and I was surprised to hear that.

As he was telling me this,
he was drifting away in memories,

until everyone suddenly arrived
and our conversation was cut short.

It was that time, it was that day
that we had really, you know...

established a connection
and liked each other.

He had told me he was separated, you know,

and I assumed that
that was a legal separation.

It was later on that he told me
that he was not legally separated.

But I must say that in the beginning
he was not, you know...

You know,

hundred percent clear from that.

[Power] Sérgio had gotten married
very young to Annie

and I don't think when he had
his two sons that he would've forecast

that so much of his life would be spent
away from his home in France.

He was never a terribly faithful husband.

He had relationships outside his marriage,

um, you know, couple of which were very,
very public.

Uh, in Cambodia,
he had lived with his girlfriend

and worked with her in the mission.

It was clear to everybody
with whom we worked that,

um, we had a relationship.

It was, for me, very difficult
because he was married

and we were clearly serious.

I never met his wife
but I'm sure she knew.

Sérgio had an eye for women
and, uh, enjoyed their company.

A lot.

[Bos] It didn't last.

But we stayed in touch, sort of,
and through friends, uh, mutual friends.

Then I remember receiving an email
from him that he sent

to his closest friends
just before he left for Iraq.

He said, you know,
"I'm so happy that I'm...

moving into a phase in my life
where I'm...

I'm starting to have a personal life,
and I'm looking forward.

This is going to be my last assignment
and then...

I want to have a more normal lifestyle
and start with Carolina."

What I remember from that email
was that he was ready to,

to settle down and start enjoying life.

[Power] With Carolina, he was saying,
"This is the woman I'm gonna marry."

He was wearing a ring with her name on it.

She was wearing a ring
with his name on it.

He started legal proceedings
to end his marriage,

and, uh, with a thought of beginning
a new life with Carolina.

He really wanted to have a second chance
at having a family.

[Galbraith] I think he did regret
not having spent more time with his sons.

On the other hand,
it didn't change his behavior,

and he felt drawn intellectually,

uh, and emotionally to the work
he was doing. He was ambitious.

He was-- His career was
very important to him.

And I think he also felt that
he was doing good.

In that scheme of things,
spending time with his sons

ended up being less, less important.

But the truth is,
had he been a family man,

he would not have done,

he could not have accomplished
what he accomplished.

[singing East Timor national anthem]

[Larriera] All of a sudden,
things just started falling into place.

Yes, independence will take place
and yes, we are in love, and...

You know, life cannot be better

than life at that moment in time.

[Holbrooke] It was his success
in East Timor

that proved that he was
at a unique level.

He inherited this war-torn,
genocide-torn half an island,

had presided over it, built it up,
and handed it off

as an independent country.

[folk music playing]

[Larriera]
After the ceremony was finished,

several parties were taking place.

The President of the World Bank
was toasting with President Clinton,

and many heads of state were in town.

He told me, "Carolina,
I don't want to go to any party.

I just want for the two of us
to be together,

and let's do our own thing.

Why don't we go for a run?"

As we were running along,
the Timorese were recognizing him.

They were saying,
"Whoa, look. Here he comes."

I could see Sérgio
smiling from ear to ear,

waving his hand to the people, you know,

as if he was waving bye-bye to East Timor.

And many times afterwards,
he will bring me back to that moment.

He would take me back to that moment.

[sniffles]

"Tell me you remember that night when we
went running, the taste of independence,

didn't it feel good?
Didn't we do the right thing?"

[speaking Arabic]

Let us examine the stand of the West
and the United Nations in Indonesia

when they moved to divide the largest
country in the Islamic world...

[in English] Osama bin Laden had issued
a statement saying that, uh,

jihadis all over the world should take up
arms not only against United States,

but against the United Nations.

[in Arabic] Under no circumstances
should any Muslim or sane person

resort to the United Nations.

[in English]
And the grounds for that appeal

was that the United Nations had helped
dismember Indonesia,

the largest Muslim country in the world,

and that it had pried away, uh, East Timor
from this Muslim motherland, Indonesia,

and bin Laden was sending the signal
the UN is a target.

[helicopter hovering]

[inaudible]

[siren wailing]

It's not an unusual thing for
the United Nations to be, uh, targeted

when our objective in that country,
I think,

which should be recognized by all,

is to just help Iraqis
get back on their feet.

[reporter] A Special Representative
of the UN, Sérgio de Mello,

was there in the compound
when this truck bomb detonated

right below his window.

We still don't have any conformation
about the extent of the injuries.

We're still searching out more information
about that. We are...

[Valentine] I told ranking officers,

I'd said, "Get me the heavy equipment,
bull dozers, cranes...

Just find me anything."

[William] Finally, somebody threw down
a woman's purse,

and it was tied with a string

which looked like the kind of cord
that you use on a set of drapes,

that they had tied together and that
became what we used to haul the bricks up.

So I'd fill it with a half a dozen bricks

and these guys would haul it up
to the third floor,

throw it somewhere
and they'd drop it back down

and we'd throw a few more bricks in.

And this just kept going on and on.

That went on for hours
until there was enough room

for me to move Gil or Sérgio
a little bit out of the way.

Sérgio did move a little bit,

but every time I moved him,
he was in agony,

and every time I moved him,
the dirt and the walls were shifting.

So I really had no means
of supporting the walls up,

because I didn't have two by fours,
or four by fours or anything like that.

But this stuff didn't come fast enough.

[William] There was no unity in command,
no unity of effort.

Basically, you know, fire service
in America, Canada, Western Europe

they're going to have shoring equipment,
they're gonna have things that we can use

to stabilize the building to get them out.
We had nothing but our hands,

a ladies purse and a string.

At the base of the rubble pile, there were
a couple of people milling around.

One was a female.

She was missing a shoe.
She had torn dress.

I don't know what language she was
speaking, to be quite honest with you,

but it wasn't English.

She was told a number of occasions
to go to the casualty collection point,

but she kept milling around.

[Larriera] I tell the soldiers, "Come on,
you know, help me. Let's get him out.

Let's get some shovels
and start digging the debris out."

And he tells me, "There are no shovels."

"Well, okay, let's do it, you know,
with this piece of steel."

He said, "No, no, no. We need to wait
for equipment to come."

"But where is equipment?

Who the hell is in charge?"

[Rice] I got a phone call saying that, uh,

Sérgio de Mello had perhaps been
very seriously wounded.

That he was trapped and that they
didn't know how serious the situation was.

But then a few minutes later,

someone said, "Well, no,
he'd been speaking,

and had been talking to people
outside the building."

And I remember just a sense of relief
that, uh, perhaps this was all right.

[Bremer] The President called and he said,
"Well, please find out what happened."

And my Chief of Staff pulled me aside
and he said,

"We don't know what's happened
with Sérgio."

Um, "The last we heard he was alive,

but, you know, we just don't know
what's going on.

Um, he's trapped somewhere in the rubble."

Short time ago I spoke
with Ambassador Bremer,

directed him to provide
all possible assistance

to the rescue and recovery effort

at the United Nations headquarters.

[indistinct chatter]

[man] Heads up.

You ask questions
or you want to hear from me?

-[reporter] Both.
-Yeah?

[Rice] The President immediately
took to him.

He was eloquent.

He was committed.

He drew you in
in the conversation with him.

You just knew that this was somebody
who could command a room.

[Sérgio speaking Portuguese]

Secretary General,

distinguished members of the Council,

friends,

I believe we have reason to be optimistic

about the future of Iraq.

But we have little margin for error.

[in English] The United Nations' presence
in Iraq remains vulnerable to

any who would seek to target
our organization.

Our security continues
to rely significantly

on the reputation of the United Nations,

our ability to demonstrate meaningfully
that we are in Iraq to assist its people

in our independence.

[Power] Sérgio hadn't wanted to go
to Iraq in any deep way.

I mean, he liked being at the center of,
uh, the action, always.

He liked being the center of attention,
always.

But he was beginning to build
a new life with Carolina

and exhausted from East Timor,

coupled with the fact that he opposed
the war in Iraq, to begin with,

but as soon as the question was posed,
Sérgio did not feel like he could say no,

and of course tried to make the best of,
uh, not an ideal situation.

[McNamara] I never forget him writing
his speech for his landing in Baghdad.

I think he didn't have the press
that he expected

because Bremer had called a press
conference for his own at the same time,

so that sort of sabotaged a little bit,

but he was pretty aware
of a historic event,

and I think also pretty aware

that he had an awful mandate
from the Security Council.

It wasn't a political management mission.

It wasn't a humanitarian mission.

It was a compromised mission
under the US occupation.

But if anyone could have
achieved something

in that political hotchpotch mess
of a situation,

it would've been Sérgio.

Hi.

[Rishmawi] The first thing
he wanted to do is to listen.

He went to Basra, Mosul, Erbil,
all over. All over.

He was very attentive to how normal
Iraqis were living day by day.

Water, electricity.

He saw it very much
as a question of human dignity.

What I do if I don't have money?
What I do?

I stole. Became a thief.

-No, don't do that. I understand--
-No, I am...

I am a graduate from a university.

[Salamé] Well, he didn't know much,
but he did not pretend to know much.

That was something that
you'd immediately like about him that...

he was willing to listen, to learn.

We had an advantage.

Everybody is in principle
willing to talk to us,

which was not the case with the Americans.

[Sérgio] I am here to listen to you.

I am here to learn.

[interpreter speaking in Arabic]

[Sérgio] Tell me frankly, how you believe
the United Nations, myself,

and my colleagues can be helpful to you.

[speaks Arabic]

[applause]

[Larriera] Sérgio worked non-stop.

He was eternally optimistic that, uh,

he and his team, single-handedly,
and perhaps naively, um,

could turn the tables around.

[Bremer] We've had a very good
first meeting with Mr. de Mello here,

going over a very wide range of issues
on which we can work together

to help in our common objective which is
producing an independent, democratic

peaceful Iraq,
and I think we have a very good sense...

Sérgio saw nothing incompatible
with trying to help the UN

by helping the Iraqis, which
in turn would help the United States.

There wasn't any press briefing
foreseen in our program.

[Holbrooke] He was not an accomplice

to the terrible mistakes
of the Bush administration.

He was doing what he could
for the Iraqi people

in a typical Sérgio fashion.

He was paying too little attention
to the fact

that he was at great personal risk

precisely because the more effective
he was

the more he would be perceived
by the enemies of the US

as serving American interests.

[reporter] Mr. de Mello,

is there a real role to the United Nations

in the political process in Iraq

or it's just a cover to the American...

American occupation?

Thank you. First of all, my friend,
and answering your second question,

the UN, its Secretary General,

and Sérgio Vieira de Mello,
Representative of the Secretary General,

are no tool and no cover
for anyone, all right?

We are an independent organization.

Secretary General Kofi Annan and myself
are independent from anyone.

So don't suggest for a second that we are
there supporting the United States

or the coalition, all right?

Once in the street, there were
small pieces of paper in blue.

Like, square ones in blue,

uh, that says "Al-Qaeda is now here,"
or something like that.

Someone had been reportedly seen taking
down the numbers of the license plates

of cars coming in and out of the compound.

[William] As an anti-terrorism specialist,

I try to look at it from the terrorist
point of view and I was thinking that,

you know, "If I was a terrorist,

it would be so easy to drive a truck
loaded with explosives down the driveway

and detonate it right next to the UN
and blow it up."

I recommended strongly that they put in
a large reinforced gate

at the entrance
to the Canal road driveway,

but it was a very busy road
and they were concerned the traffic

trying to get into the parking lot
would queue up,

and they'd have accidents
and it would just be a mess and...

I reported back that I thought, you know,

it'd be better to have a few
fender-bender accidents

than have somebody drive a truck up
the driveway and blow up the building.

In lieu of the gate that I'd recommended,

the 2nd Cavalry had supplied them

with a Bradley armored fighting vehicle
and a crew,

and they were basically
the valet parking.

Later on, I noticed the vehicle was gone

and there was nothing there except a roll
of concertina wire across the driveway,

and I was, like, "Uh-oh."

When I spoke to somebody at the UN,
I said "What happened to it?"

And they said, "Oh, Sérgio ordered it
moved." I'm, like, "Oh, Jesus."

He was trying to tone down the American
presence at the UN compound,

so it didn't look like the UN was,
you know, part of the coalition forces.

[Nesri Tehayneh speaking Arabic]

The UN is ruled by the Jews
and the Americans

and its crimes are flagrant
in the Arab and Islamic world.

Zarqawi told me he needed to hit
a big target - to recruit followers.

Zarqawi said that the UN

was a nest for secret services
and American spies.

He said he needed to attack the UN

and kill that criminal Sérgio.

On that Monday, he told me that he...

he really needed something
to look on to the future.

We needed to get going
and start planning immediately

on our next steps, on our next move.

And really our next move had been
to go back to Brazil.

Monday night he said,
"Carolina, let's book the flights

and make sure that
we have a clear exit strategy.

Because I need to be thinking
that I'm going back to Brazil,

I'm going back to Rio."

We were six weeks away
from leaving Baghdad.

[William] They say time flies
when you're having fun.

Well, I certainly wasn't having fun
but time was flying.

And the golden hour, it came and went,
we didn't even realize it.

I'm tired, my legs and arms were cramping.

We were driven, basically.

We were determined that these guys
were not gonna die in this hole.

I tried to get them into their,
what I felt was their religious belief.

[William] At one point Andre wanted
to pray with Sérgio

and he was still lucid enough to say
if prayers...

You know, this is not the time,

uh, which I think kind of [chuckles]
upset Andre a little bit.

I asked him, you know, you got to have
faith, you have to believe,

and he said, "Believe? Damn, God.
God did this to me," you know.

"Curse God." He was using some other words
that I will not say,

um, and I was trying to tell him,
"God didn't do this to you, man.

You have to have faith this strong

to believe that God could
get you out of here.

I'm you savior, in a sense.

You have to believe in me."

I've never had that experience.

In 35 years, nobody's ever said,
"Hey, let's stop and pray."

What's so wrong with praying
with somebody, you know?

It, it, uh... It wouldn't have hurt.

And Sérgio wanted no part of that,
so, you know...

And he was... [chuckles]

expletive deleted "no," you know.
He didn't want any part of that.

I'm not a big prayer guy either.
I was, like, I don't know if I...

tactfully or untactfully said,
"We haven't got time for this shit.

Prayer's great, we'll pray when
we get him out. But let's get him out."

[Larriera] There are some soldiers
that told me to clear the area.

I said, "No, no, no, I'm going there
because I hear that Sérgio's there."

And the soldier comes to me and says,

"No, you know, you have to clear the area.
You have to step back."

And I said, "No, no."

After a period of time
I started to figure out that

maybe there was something going on
between her and somebody in there.

She was close with him or something,
I don't know.

I could see she wanted to get up,

and I though about it for a second
and I said, "You know what?

Let them talk to each other."

I gave her my hand, I let her come up,

she put her head on the hole
and started talking.

I put my ear and my mouth
very close to the hole

and I, I say...

[speaking Spanish]

Sérgio, are you there?

And a very weak voice says, "Carolina,
my love, I'm in pain, I'm here.

I love you."

And I tell him I love him too...

to be strong...

and I'm going to get him out.

At this point, Gil is reacting to some
verbal stimuli, but not much.

You can't get really more than
a word or two in reply.

We got to get him out,
we know we got to get him out,

we got to get him out now.

But the problem is he's still pinned
from his lower legs.

Where Sérgio was,
Gil had to be removed first.

I said, "Buddy, you know,
I've done the best I can,

and if I don't get you out now,
we're never gonna get out."

So he said, "Do what you have to do,

and I just wanna live
and I wanna go home."

My memory of it is that, you know,
I'm just not going to give in.

I'm not going to die. I have...

a lot to live for, you know. I...

You know, I thought...

[voice breaking]
immediately of my family.

[sniffles]

A decision was made and, uh,
we all agreed on it,

and the most important thing was
Gil was ready for it.

The only thing they found me
was an old rusty wood saw

and my trusty paramedic scissors.

I said, "I'm gonna start sawing away.

If you have to scream out, scream out.

If the pain is unbearable,
let me know and I will stop

and give you some more pain medicine."

I don't remember any of that.
I've... blacked that out.

[Valentine] I started to cut
through his first leg.

I had to kind of separate his screaming
from what I had to do,

'cause I knew it had to be done.

Even with morphine,
even being deeply in shock

and basically reacting only to pain,

it was pretty gruesome work. Um...

He screamed. I mean, you probably
could've heard the screams in, you know,

the green zone.

We felt terrible,
but we knew if we didn't do this,

he would die where he was, because
we physically couldn't get him out.

I pulled tighter on the tourniquet,

and I told him I'm gonna go
to the second leg.

He didn't answer for a while,
for a few minutes, I thought I'd lost him.

What I believe what happened was,

the pain was so bad that it
literally just knocked him out.

So, in a way,
that was probably a blessing.

I started to cut into the second leg
and he woke up again,

and he started to moan and he just said,
"Andre, I feel that,

but go ahead and do it and finish."

Um, and I did. I finished cutting
the second leg,

pulled tighter on the tourniquet,
and I bandaged it.

[William] We finally got a Sked.

It's an acronym for something
and I have no idea what it is,

but it's this plastic roll-up thing

that when you unroll it and lace the sides

it forms a semi-rigid stretcher.

[Valentine] I got him in the best I can,

and the team up on top was just waiting
on me to say go ahead and go.

They pulled, and they pulled,
and they pulled.

The reinforcing rod was blocking
one part of the small opening

and the body was blocking the other.

We tried to pull the SKD past it,
it wouldn't fit.

Since we never got the hacksaw,
we couldn't move the reinforcing rod.

So the only other way to get Gil up was to

remove the body that
was pinned in the rubble

part way up.

So I had the unenviable task of, uh,
using my combat knife again to, uh,

cut the body in half
so they could haul it.

[exhales] And if you think
cutting a leg off was fun...

Uh, now even though the victim
was dead and obviously deceased...

it was still hard work.

[Valentine] And they finally got Gil up.

I looked at him and I said,
"Gil, you're free, you're home now.

I'm gonna give you to my other guys
and they will take you to the doctors."

[Loescher] My family was my anchor.

I probably knew instinctively that
if I got out of there...

[inhales and exhales]

that they would, uh...

[sighs] see me through my recovery.

He was close to death
when they got him out there.

His vital signs were, like,
60 over 40 for blood pressure,

uh, and they did a hot load

into one of the medivac helicopters
and flew him away.

I spotted this man.
I rushed to him and I asked him,

"Please, I need your help.
I need your help.

My Sérgio is in the rubble,
and he is going to die if...

if we don't help him out."

He told me, "I have news for you.

Do you see that helicopter,
the black copter that just left off?"

And I said, "Yes, yes."

"That is passing by now?
That's probably...

the helicopter with him.
But I have bad news for you,

and you have to be strong.

To free him out we had to cut his legs

and he is in a very bad shape.

One of his arms is also
in very bad shape."

I said, "Okay, it doesn't matter.
Is he alive?

I don't care about his legs, is he alive?"

"Yes."

[Valentine] His mind was starting to go.
He wasn't talking much anymore.

He was... You could hear his breathing
was a lot more erratic

and, and, uh, irregular and stuff,

and I just went over there
and I continued to encourage him,

I tried to, uh, hold his hand,

and you know, lay next to him
and put my head on him,

uh, so he'll know that
somebody was there.

I went back over to talk to Sérgio,
tell him we'll get you out next,

he didn't reply to me. Shook him,
he didn't reply to me.

Felt for a pulse, and there wasn't one.

We weren't gonna get him out, and that
kind of hit me like a ton of bricks.

[Larriera] I, I felt there is something
wrong. I know there was something wrong.

I hear on the back...

someone saying Sérgio's dead.

Sérgio's dead. [sobs]

[Larriera sniffles]

No.

No.

[softly] I wanted to die.

[Larriera sighs]

He failed me. He really failed me.

I really believe God sent two miracles.

Bill and myself, we were his angels,

and he failed both of us.

And it hurt real bad.

I'm mad at him,
but I'm also hurt for him,

because he didn't believe in me.
He didn't believe in a miracle.

We only asked him to stay alive,
have the will to survive,

have the faith to survive
and he didn't want to.

Maybe he's misconstruing
where he's saying...

you know, basically don't worry about me,
get everybody else out first.

Maybe he's construing that
as not a will to live.

I look at that as being pretty selfless.

I don't think that's a lack of will
to live, I think that's, you know,

I think that's a pretty damn good thing.

I told him, "I promise I'm gonna
get you out." And I didn't.

I felt almost, like,
he knew I lied to him.

To this day, it's probably the thing that
bothers me the most is that

I truly felt that I'd get
both of these guys out alive.

[Bremer] A soldier covered with sweat
and dirt came over and he said,

Mr. Ambassador, I'm very sorry,
we tried to save Sérgio,

but he's dead.

Now the press were clamoring
for an interview.

I could not say that I knew
Sérgio was dead because

I couldn't have his family find out
by my making a statement on television,

so I basically lied.

[reporter] Excuse me, sir.

Sérgio Vieira de Mello apparently also
has been injured in this attack...

Yes, that's right. As of this time,

my dear friend Sérgio
is somewhere back there.

Uh, it may well be that
he was the target of this attack.

The truck was parked in such a place,
here in front of the building

that it had to affect his office
which was in the second floor above us.

What strikes me about the rescue
is just the utter indignity

of Sérgio being left under the rubble
for three and a half hours,

for them to be relying upon
a lady's handbag and a curtain rope?

Are we kidding?

This is the United States.

And the degree to which
the political planners of this war failed

not only Sérgio and the UN officials
and others who were killed that day,

but also their own soldiers who put
their lives on the line in that way.

Terrible. Terrible.

[Davie] He was lying on his flag,
in the rubble.

The United Nations flag.

The, uh, the team...

above then, uh, pulled...

and, uh, slowly we were
able to take him up, uh,

up the shaft.

Gaby was up there and some of his other,
uh, bodyguards, and, uh, and they...

took one of the stretchers and, uh,

and laid him on... Sorry.

[speaking French]

We put him on a stretcher.

We looked at him and we thought,
"Everything he did in the world...

for this."

Impossible to understand.

[in English] We were standing up there
in the second floor and the body came,

and, uh, it was put on a...

[inhales deeply]

[exhales deeply] on a...

Uh, and I recognized him. His face was...

entirely intact.

And he looked handsome as usual,
I remember.

[somber instrumental music playing]

[Simões speaking Portuguese]

I received a call

that he had died.

I felt like crying, screaming

but my Grandmother was here

and she didn't know.

She didn't know anything.

So I controlled myself
as much as possible,

went to the bedroom and cried for a bit

then pulled my head together
and took care of it.

[speaking Portuguese]

That was when my world collapsed
inside my head.

[voice breaking] To have a son like that

with such good qualities

and it ends like that.

I miss him immensely.

[Pichon speaking French]

Now, I can't say I've come out
of the tunnel,

but I'm walking.

And often I go to the Cemetery of Kings

where Sérgio's body is buried

and I talk to him.

Now he's up in there in the sky

and certainly still trying to
save some people up there.

I know one day I'll meet him again.

But I really can't forgive the people
who did this to him.

[speaks French]

[in English]
I was really impressed with his stoicism.

Never asked about himself,
he asked about others, you know.

Never asked for anything for himself
in the way of pain medicine.

He was always asking,
"Take care of the others,"

and I thought somebody should know that.

I didn't know who to contact,
I didn't know where he was from.

I just knew his boss was Kofi Annan.

So that night on my broken
and battered laptop computer,

I wrote a letter to Kofi Annan.

19th August, 2003.

[sniffles] You know, I'm not gonna get
through this.

"Subject: Sérgio Vieira de Mello.

As you are painfully aware,
at approximately 1630 today local time,

a horrible disaster occurred

[voice breaks] at the UN headquarters
in Baghdad.

I was the first US soldier to arrive on
the scene, and the sight was catastrophic.

Unfortunately, Mr. de Mello passed away.

While there is no good way to die,
it says a lot about a man's character

when his last thoughts are for his family,
his co-workers,

and his country, or in this case, the UN.

I'm truly sorry we could not

have kept our promise
to get him out alive.

The UN is fortunate to have people
of this caliber working for them.

I salute all of them

and hope that your mission in Iraq
will conclude successfully.

Mr. de Mello was a humanitarian
of the first order.

He will be hard to be replaced."

[Kofi Annan] Today we share
our shock and sorrow

at the loss of people we loved.

All of them leave a huge void.

Raid, Leen, Ihsan, Emaad, and Basim,

Rahim, Ranillo, Rick, Reza,

Jean-Sélim, Christopher, Martha,

Fiona, Nadia,

finally, Sérgio, my dear friend.

Why did you never seem tired

while even working 18-hour days?

Why did you never look crumpled

even after an 18-hour flight?

Why were you never sick?

Why were you never grumpy?

And you were the only top official
in the UN known to everyone

by his first name.

Even to those
who didn't know you personally

you were always just Sérgio.

[Power] It is heartening
that around the world,

whether in the United Nations missions

or in humanitarian organizations
or in governments,

you do have individuals
who ask themselves

what would Sérgio do.

The one answer that they know
he would give is,

"Get out of the capital
and go out into the world

and figure out what's happening.

Figure out what's making people tick.

Respect the dignity of the human beings
whose lives are at stake here.

Don't treat them as a model
if there is a mass.

Engage the bad guys.

Be a man of action,

but also never stop being
a man of reflection."

[Larriera] I wish I could have
an elastic time.

To be able to go back to the past
and stretch out some special moments

to a maximum.

Now we know where that, uh,
those times are finished and, uh...

and... they won't happen again.

When I finally made it back to Brazil,
I went to this spot.

The spot where we will always arrive

every time we would hit the ground
in Brazil,

and go straight into the water at the sea.

I really felt the strength of his spirit
and the kindness of his spirit

were right there.

That's where I feel that...
that Sérgio is now.

And where I feel that, uh, he really,
really rests forever.

[Sérgio] My message is very simple.

Never forget that the real challenges

and the real rewards of serving
the United Nations

are out there in the field,

where people are suffering,
where people need you.

So, good luck.
Welcome to the organization,

and here we are to help you
in any way we can.

All the best.

[indistinct talking]

Okay.

[applause]

[inaudible]

[indistinct talking]