UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon named on Tuesday Major General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz of Brazil as the new Force Commander of the peacekeeping UN Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Santos Cruz, 50, will succeed Lt. Gen. Jose Elito Carvalho Siqueira, also of Brazil, who was appointed to the post in January 2006.

The Secretary-General communicated his intention to appoint Santos Cruz in a letter to the Security Council, which established MINUSTAH in 2004 after an insurgency forced elected President Jean- Bertrand Aristide to go into exile.

The mission has a mandate to promote a secure and stable environment, support the political process and monitor and uphold human rights.

Source: Xinhua