New inquiry set up into death of UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/18/inquiry-death-un-dag-hammarskjold


Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN secretary general, who was killed in a plane crash in 1961. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

A fresh international inquiry is to be opened into the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed the UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld following the emergence of new evidence over the past year.

A Guardian investigation in August 2011 and a book published the following month both pointed to eyewitness testimony that the plane was shot down over British-ruled Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, possibly by western mercenaries, and that the assassination was covered up by the colonial authorities.

The commission of inquiry will include a retired British appeal court judge, Sir Stephen Sedley, as well as Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who was formerly chief prosecutor at The Hague war crimes tribunal. The panel will also include a retired Swedish ambassador, Hans Corell, and a Dutch judge, Wilhelmina Thomassen.

The commission's findings will not carry legal status themselves but will be presented to the UN.

[rfranklin]

1. Where was GHW Bush that day?

"I cannot recall."

[DURHAM D]

2. MI5 and CIA did the deed imo.

Last edited Wed Jul 18, 2012, 08:01 PM - Edit history (1)

It was all about the copper.

[trof]

6. Copper?

[DURHAM D]

9. LOL

Yes - it was all about the mini-cooper.

Thanks for the correction.

[HiPointDem]

3. kr. there should also be a new investigation into the assassination of olaf palme.

[frogmarch]

4. Link: "This article has been taken down..."

"This article has been taken down as it breached an embargo. It will be relaunched at midnight BST on 19 July"

~~

I hope I remember to check for it then.

I remember the incident. I was a junior in high school at the time, and it was huge news then.

I wonder who the "western mercenaries" in the article snip refer to.

[xchrom]

5. i remember it so well too.

well western mercs in rhodesia.

so mi5 jumps out at me -- possible cia -- and of course the rhodesian government.

[frogmarch]

8. Here's a link to an opinion piece

about the crash. It seems to have been written by someone whose first language isn't English, but it's still readable.

http://historyofafricaotherwise.blogspot.com/2011/02/dag-hammarskjold-victim-of-west-or.html

snip:

The mission to assassinate the Secretary General of the United Nations has been initiated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Maritime Institute of South Africa (SAIMR) and the British security service, Military Intelligence, Section 5 (MI5) with the active complicity of the Union Miniere du Haut Katanga (UMHK) and was codenamed "Operation Heaven". The head of Operation Celeste was none other than the Chief of the CIA, Allan Welsh Dulles (1893-1969) who said "Dag becomes troublesome and should be rejected."

[xchrom]

10. Oh man - Dulles - there's a blast from the past. Nt

[ananda]

12. King Henry II: Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?

nt

[trof]

7. Damn! I remember that. I was 20.

[LiberalAndProud]

11. I was almost, not quite 3.

I don't remember it so good. It seems that conventional wisdom has it that he was killed by the Soviets, or was that just convenient cold war pablum?

[frogmarch]

13. During that era, I think a lot of

people felt sure the Soviets were involved in it. I remember my World History teacher going on and on about how the Soviets had orchestrated it, because they'd insisted that Hammarskjold had had a hand in the execution of Patrice Lumumba. He was a Congolese Liberation leader and had been backed by the Soviets. The Cold War was a scary time, and the USSR was the boogeyman - with good reason, I think.