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| Brazil's Mission Leaves for Haiti to Probe Bacellar's Death |
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A Brazilian mission of experts in foreign and judicial affairs and criminal investigations left Brasilia Sunday noon for Haitian capital Port-au-Prince to investigate the death of Brazilian Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, official sources said on Sunday. The group in an air force airplane includes a commissary and two experts of the Federal Police, a doctor, a representative of Brazilian Intelligence Agency, a general of the Brazilian Army and an official of the Ministry of the Public Military. The group will join Gonzalo Mello Mourao, head of the North and Carib of the American Department in Foreign Affiras Ministry of Brazil, who arrived in Haiti on Saturday. The airplane will reach the Haiti's capital on 19:40 local time, where the officers will pick up the general's body and carry him to Brazil. Bacellar, commander of the UN peacekeeping forces in Haiti, was found dead on the balcony of his hotel room on Saturday morning. The Brazilian government demanded the United Nations launch a full investigation immediately into the cause of the general's death. A spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Annan was "shocked and saddened" to learn of the incident and that an investigation was under way. Da Matta Bacellar, 57, had served in Brazil's armed forces for almost four decades. He became commander of the UN mission last September, replacing Brazilian Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro who had led the force since its deployment to Haiti in June 2004. His death came as Haiti is struggling to prepare for its first presidential election on February 7 since an armed revolt ousted then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004. (Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2006) |
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