The United Nations said Thursday the Brazilian general who commanded the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti committed suicide.

Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, 58, was found dead of a gunshot wound Saturday at his hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital.

"The UN Mission in Haiti now says that the official cause of death of Lt. Gen. Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, the late force commander, was suicide," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "That was also the conclusion of the Brazilian investigation."

A senior UN official told The Associated Press on Saturday that the general shot himself in the head.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva led a ceremony in Brasilia, the capital, on Wednesday honoring Bacellar, whose body was then was flown to Rio de Janeiro for burial. He left a widow and two sons who live in the United States.

Dujarric said he had no details on why Bacellar committed suicide.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies January 13, 2006)