The UN leader killed in 1961 during peace negotiations in Congo may have been an assassination plot over Western interests in mining. Today’s violence in easter
Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Officials search the crash site after the plane carrying Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjold , Secretary-General of the United Nations, came down near Ndola in Zambia, resulting in his death, September 1961. Hammarskjold was on his way to negotiate a ceasefire with President Moise Tshombe of Katanga.
During his tenure, Hammarskjöld was renowned for his unwavering moral principles and his commitment to strengthening the newly established United Nations, both internally and on the global stage. He played a pivotal role in the first UN peacekeeping missions in Egypt and the Congo, personally intervening to resolve significant diplomatic crises, including the Congo Crisis.
These eyewitness accounts aligned with additional evidence uncovered by Björkdahl, including previously unpublished telegrams from the days leading up to Hammarskjöld’s death on 17 September 1961. These documents revealed the deep frustration of United States and British officials over a UN military operation, ordered by Hammarskjöld, aimed at quelling a rebellion in Congo’s Katanga region — a rebellion supported by Western mining companies and mercenaries.
Björkdahl noted that witnesses also described suspicious activities by Northern Rhodesian security forces on the morning of the crash. Several recalled that soldiers and police had already cordoned off the crash site hours before it was officially declared found. Despite the absence of a definitive conclusion regarding who was behind Hammarskjöld’s death, Björkdahl’s investigation suggests a motive. “It’s clear there were a lot of circumstances pointing to possible involvement by Western powers. The motive was there — the threat to the West’s interests in Congo’s huge mineral deposits,” Björkdahl remarked.
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