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Brazilian president urges Zelaya's return to power

RIA Novosti

04:44 24/09/2009 MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - The international community demands that deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is reinstated, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday.

"The international community demands that Zelaya is reinstated to the presidential post in his country," Lula said.

The ousted president made a dramatic return to Honduras' capital on Monday, taking shelter from arrest at Brazil's embassy and calling for negotiations with the leaders who forced him from the country at gunpoint.

Brazil has requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council citing serious concerns over the current political crisis in Honduras and "the security and the physical integrity of the [Brazilian] embassy premises and personnel." It said it would not tolerate any hostile actions against the embassy.

The de-facto Honduran government, headed by Roberto Micheletti, recently cut communication lines, electricity and water supply to the embassy premises.

The UN suspended cooperation with the country's election commission, saying that fair elections were impossible in the country. Presidential elections in the Central American state are scheduled for November.

An international human rights group, Amnesty International, has situation in the country was "alarming" with multiple cases of police beatings, mass arrests and attacks on human rights activists reported.

"The situation in Honduras can only be described as alarming," said Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International.

"The attacks against human rights defenders, suspension of news outlets, beating of demonstrators by the police and ever increasing reports of mass arrests indicate that human rights and the rule of law in Honduras are at grave risk," she said.

At least one person was killed in clashes between Zelaya's supporters and police that have been ongoing in the capital Tegucigalpa despite a government-imposed curfew, Reuters reported.