One of the most enduring mysteries in United Nations history – the 1961 plane crash that killed Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and all on board as he sought to broker peace in the Congo – will linger on, with a new assessment announced on Friday suggesting that “specific and crucial” information continues to be withheld by a handful of Member States. […]
Over the years, the UN General Assembly has mandated a series of inquiries into the death of Mr. Hammarskjöld and those of his party. The most recent, in December 2022, was led by Mohamed Chande Othman, former Chief Justice of Tanzania, with the formal title of “Eminent Person”. Mr. Othman also led several previous investigations into the fateful crash and the events surrounding it.On Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres transmitted Mr. Othman’s latest report to the Assembly.
According to the UN’s Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, “significant new information” has been submitted to the inquiry for this latest update.
This included probable intercepts by Member States of communications related to the crash, the capacity of Katanga’s armed forces, or others, to mount an attack on SE-BDY and the involvement of foreign paramilitary or intelligence personnel in the area at the time. It also included additional new information relevant to the context and surrounding events of 1961.
“At this juncture, [Mr. Othman] assesses it to remain plausible that an external attack or threat was a cause of the crash. [He] notes that the alternative hypotheses that appear to remain available are that the crash resulted from sabotage or unintentional human error,” Mr. Haq said.
However, Mr. Othman assesses so far that it is “almost certain” specific, crucial and so far undisclosed information exists in the archives of Member States, Mr. Haq said. He noted that Mr. Othman has not received, to date, specific responses to his queries from some Member States believed to be holding useful information.
“The Secretary-General has personally followed up on [Mr. Othman’s] outstanding requests for information and calls upon Member States to release any relevant records in their possession,” Mr. Haq added.
“With significant progress having been made, the Secretary-General calls on all of us to renew our resolve and commitment to pursue the full truth of what happened on that fateful night in 1961.” Läs artikel