On This Day: UN Secretary General dies in mysterious plane crash blamed on British ‘assassination plot’

SEPTEMBER 18, 1961: Former United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold died in a mysterious plane crash on this day in 1961 that was blamed on British assassins.

The Swede, who was described by U.S. President John F Kennedy as “the greatest statesman of our century”, was killed while on his way to peace talks in Africa.

The charred wreckage of the DC-6 aircraft was discovered near Ndola, which was then in the British colony of Northern Rhodesia and now in independent Zambia.

Mr Hammarskjold, 56, had been due to meet a Congolese rebel leader in the town that remains six miles from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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A British Pathé newsreel showed flags being lowered at New York’s UN headquarters where the courageous diplomat had recently stood up to Soviet calls for him to resign.

It also filmed a tribute from Mr Kennedy, who said Mr Hammarskjold’s “dedication to the cause of peace” helped raise the profile of the UN, which was founded in 1945.

The cause of the crash, which left 16 people dead, was never established despite three inquiries – including two by British authorities and one by UN investigators.

And there remains widespread suspicion that the plane was deliberately shot down by either UK, U.S.
Belgian or even Soviet agents in an assassination plot.

Sergeant Harold Julien, an American member of the UN Security Force who survived the crash but died five days later, suggested the aircraft had been under attack.

He told rescuers that Mr Hammarskjold had ordered the plane, which was flying in darkness to avoid being shot at, to suddenly change direction just before landing.

Sergeant Julien then claimed that Shortly afterwards there was an explosion on board, followed by several smaller explosions.

Other witnesses also reported seeing a bright flash in the night sky at around 1am, although the inquiries said this was probably a blast following the crash.

Two dead Swedish bodyguards had also suffered multiple bullet wounds, which investigators said was due to their own amunition exploding in the subsequent fire.

But several ballistic experts have come forward to say bullets that explode in a fire cannot penetrate human bodies.

Furthermore, the British, Americans and Belgians, who had only granted the DR Congo its independence in 1960, all had an interest in seeing peace talks fail.

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The breakaway province of Katanga hosted many privately-owned copper mines, which the government in Leopoldville – now Kinshasa – wanted to nationalise.

And the Soviets were also implicated to a lesser extent because they wanted the UN boss to be replaced by a troika of three representing the East, West and non-aligned.

Mr Hammarskjold, who was only the second Secretary General and had served eight years in the job, had resisted tremendous pressure to quit.

But the greatest burden of suspicion of has long fallen on the Western nations’ secret services.

In 1998, letters were revealed at South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that implicated MI5, the CIA and the former Apartheid government in the crash.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the TRC chairman, said one document claimed a bomb had been planted in the wheel bay and was set to detonate when the plane landed.

The British Foreign Office suggested that these may have been created as Soviet misinformation.

As for the DRC, which had once been the richest country in Africa, it has seen a succession of civil wars and had its mineral wealth plundered by despots.