Source : NZ Herald
Pandemonium broke out in the shadow of Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium yesterday as riot police raided an old museum that authorities want razed ahead of the 2014 Football World Cup, but where a few indigenous people have squatted for years.
Officers in full riot gear stormed the complex as a tense, hours-long standoff between the police and about two dozen Indians appeared near a peaceful conclusion.
The Indians had accepted the Government's offer to leave the compound in exchange for land in northern Rio de Janeiro, and most had already left the site when the officers charged in.
An elderly man in a feather headdress lay collapsed on the sidewalk after police pulled him kicking and screaming from the compound. Officers fired tear gas and pepper spray, and detonated stun grenades in the thick of the crowd.
"It was a show of unnecessary force," said Marcelo Freixo, head of the state legislature's Human Rights Commission, his eyes streaming from clouds of tear gas.
