Was Hammarskjold assassinated?

19 March 2015 - 02:03 By Philip Sherwell and David Lawer, ©The Daily Telegraph
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Swedish Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold.
Swedish Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold.
Image: AFP

The UN has ordered a new investigation into the mysterious 1961 African plane crash that claimed the life of its secretary-general at a time of high international intrigue and intervention by outside powers as the post-colonial continent was taking shape.

The flight was carrying Dag Hammarskjold, the UN's Swedish chief, on a high-stakes mission to negotiate with rebels in Katanga, a breakaway mineral-rich province of Congo that was backed by Belgian mercenaries and Western governments and business.

Pilot error was officially blamed after the DC6 aircraft crashed in the bush, killing all 16 aboard, in the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).

But there were immediately competing theories: one was that the plane had been shot down, by American agents or European mercenaries, because Hammarskjold was believed to be about to broker a deal opposed by Western interests.

An international commission of retired judges in 2013 called for a new investigation after hearing "persuasive evidence" that the plane had been shot down.

The UN has now announced that it is ordering a review by an independent panel.

The team of experts is expected to travel to the crash scene but they will also need access to intelligence data held by the US, UK and other European states.

Theory #1: Pilot error

Evidence: There were three major inquiries after the crash, two were inconclusive and a third, by the Rhodesian government, blamed pilot error.

Even back in 1961 that conclusion sounded a bit too convenient . Former US president Harry Truman's take? "He was on the point of getting something done when they killed him."

Theory #2: The Americans shot the aircraft down

When turmoil over land and minerals engulfed Congo, Hammarskjold sent UN troops to support Patrice Lumumba, the prime minister. President John F Kennedy was known to regard Lumumba as a destabilising force and possibly a Soviet ally.

Evidence: Two American intelligence officers stationed at listening posts on the night of the crash claim to have heard the plane taken down. One of them said he heard radio transmissions in which a voice said: "The Americans shot down the UN plane". The other said he heard someone say: "It's the plane ... I've hit it. It's going down."

Theory # 3: Mercenaries took down the plane on behalf of European industrialists, perhaps with British help

Motive: Hammarskjold did not just anger the Americans with his intervention in the Congo. Even more incensed were European industrialists who stood to lose control of the country's mines.

Evidence: According to UK left-wing newspaper The Guardian, two top aides to Hammarskjold were convinced that mercenaries had been hired to take out the plane, and that the British government aided in the cover-up.

Theory #4: A Belgian pilot shot the plane down "by accident"

Evidence: Susan Williams, a British academic who wrote an in-depth account of the crash, wrote that a "Belgian pilot called Beukels" claimed to have shot the plane down "by accident".

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