United Nations

 NEW YORK, 3 November (UN Headquarters) -- The following statement was issued today by the Office of the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

 In a letter to the Security Council dated 27 October, Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced his intention to appoint Major-General Patrick C. Cammaert of the Netherlands to serve as Force Commander to the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

 The appointment took effect on 1 November.

 Major-General Cammaert served most recently as Commander of the Multinational United Nations Standby Forces High Readiness Brigade (SHIRBRIG) based in Copenhagen, a post which he held since December 1999. 

 Major-General Cammaert joined the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps (RNLMC) in 1968.  Early in his career, he served as military aide to the Commanding General of the RNLMC.  From 1979 to 1981, he served as an exchange officer in the United Kingdom with the Royal Marines.  He subsequently served in a series of posts in Scotland, Aruba, and The Hague, until taking up his first United Nations assignment in 1992 as Commander of the First Dutch Marine Battalion with the United Nations Transitional Administration in Cambodia.

 He later served as Commander of the Forward Headquarters on Mount Igman of the Multinational Brigade of the Rapid Reaction Forces of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995. 

 Prior to his appointment to SHIRBRIG, Major-General Cammaert, who is married with one son and a daughter, served as Chief of Staff of the RNLMC.