tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/dag-hammarskjold-31318/articlesDag Hammarskjold – The Conversation2022-02-09T14:02:18Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1765972022-02-09T14:02:18Z2022-02-09T14:02:18ZWhite Malice: how the CIA strangled African independence at birth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445362/original/file-20220209-13-1t2q9l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Patrice Lumumba, left, first Prime Minister of independent Congo in 1960. The CIA celebrated his death. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Historian <a href="https://research.sas.ac.uk/search/fellow/185/dr-susan-williams/">Susan Williams</a> grew up in Zambia. Like other scholars of her generation raised in former settler societies of southern Africa, she empathises with the continent’s people.</p>
<p>Williams’ widely acknowledged new book, <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/white-malice/">White Malice – The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa</a>, adds to her track record, testifying to this engagement. Almost a forensic account, its more than 500 pages (supported by close to 150 pages of sources, references and index) are as readable as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-le-Carre">John le Carré</a> novel. </p>
<p>But make no mistake: Williams ruthlessly reveals through factual evidence the unsavoury machinations of the American <a href="https://www.cia.gov/">Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)</a> in Africa during the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Cold-War">Cold War</a> until the late 1960s. While scholarly analyses of this era have increased, the literature mainly focuses on how geostrategic aspects had an impact on international policy. In contrast, this is the first detailed account disclosing a Western dirty war through detailed quotes from original documents and by those involved.</p>
<p>Published in 2011, her investigative research titled <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/who-killed-hammarskjold-2/">Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa</a> made history. The evidence strengthened suspicions that the plane crash that killed the United Nations Secretary General and 15 others on 17/18 September 1961 near Ndola, in then <a href="https://www.history.com/news/dag-hammarskjold-death-plane-crash">Northern Rhodesia</a>, was no accident. As continuously updated by the Westminster branch of the <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/">United Nations Association</a>, the disclosures triggered <a href="https://theconversation.com/speaking-truth-to-power-the-killing-of-dag-hammarskjold-and-the-cover-up-65534">new investigations</a> by the UN.</p>
<p>In 2016 Williams published <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/spies-in-the-congo-2/#:%7E:text=Spies%20in%20the%20Congo%20is,to%20build%20its%20atomic%20bomb">Spies in the Congo: The Race for the Ore that Built the Atomic Bomb</a>. The focus was on <a href="https://www.mindat.org/loc-4328.html">Shinkolobwe</a>, the world’s biggest uranium mine, in the Congolese Katanga province. Of crucial geostrategic importance, in the 1940s it supplied the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-manhattan-project">Manhattan Project</a>, which produced the first atomic bombs, which devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Shinkolobwe remained the main resource in the American nuclear arming of the 1950s.</p>
<h2>White Malice</h2>
<p>Williams’ new book seems like the third in a trilogy. Its title, White Malice, captures the racist arrogance of power, unscrupulously destabilising and (re-)gaining control over sovereign states as a form of colonialism by other means. </p>
<p>Not by coincidence, the book revisits the circumstances of Hammarskjöld’s death and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Katanga-province-Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo">relevance of Katanga</a>. More room is devoted to a step-by-step account leading to the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/L/bo20598433.html">elimination of Patrice Lumumba</a>, the first prime minister of an independent Congo.</p>
<p>Another major focus is on Ghana since independence <a href="https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/was-the-gold-coast-decolonised-or-did-ghana-win-its-independence">in 1957</a>. Documenting the continental role of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah">President Kwame Nkrumah</a>, it explains why and how he was removed from office. His role in promoting <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313574089_Kwame_Nkrumah_and_the_panafrican_vision_Between_acceptance_and_rebuttal">pan-Africanism</a> was equated with an anti-Western attitude. </p>
<p>All this is tied together by the interventions by the CIA and its predecessor, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Office-of-Strategic-Services">Office for Strategic Services</a>, often in cahoots with the <a href="https://www.sis.gov.uk/">British MI6</a>. The detailed accounts offer insights into the secret operations then. The display of mindsets and their consequences do not require theory or analytical comment. The facts speak for themselves. </p>
<p>Both agencies shared access to the encrypted messages used in confidential communication by Hammarskjöld and other high-ranking UN officials. As quoted by Williams (p. 290), the CIA celebrated this as “the intelligence coup of the century”.</p>
<p>The UK and the USA have still not disclosed insider knowledge concerning the deaths of Hammarskjöld and his entourage. Their secret agents were also involved in deliberations to kill Lumumba. Though they weren’t directly participating in his abduction, torture and execution in Katanga, it suited their agenda.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Book cover shows a map of Africa with its western parts in a sniper's sights." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Nkrumah was luckier. A state visit to Beijing saved his life, when in his absence the <a href="https://www.eaumf.org/ejm-blog/2018/2/23/february-24-1966-dr-kwame-nkrumah-overthrown-as-president-of-the-republic-of-ghana">military coup took place</a>. Nelson Mandela was also “spared” by being imprisoned for most of the next 30 years. His <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/trials-and-prison-chronology">arrest in South Africa in 1962</a> under the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/suppression-communism-act-no-44-1950-approved-parliament">Suppression of Communism Act</a> was based on information provided by the CIA (p. 474). </p>
<h2>Western mindset</h2>
<p>Williams quotes (p. 77) a high-ranking CIA agent to illustrate the overall Western mindset. He declared in 1957:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Africa has become the real battleground and the next field of the big test of strength – not only for the free world and the communist world but for our own country and our Allies who are colonialist powers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The strategy included replacing independent nationalist leaders with <a href="https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anthos/vol2/iss1/5/">“big men”</a> – autocrats who based their power on Western support, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mobutu-Sese-Seko">Mobutu Sese Seko</a>. A track record in or commitment to democracy and human rights was not a prerequisite.</p>
<p>In contrast, leaders like Guinea’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sekou-Toure">Sékou Touré</a> were considered enemies. Arguing for a referendum rejecting continued dependency from France, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/28/obituaries/ahmed-sekou-toure-a-radical-hero.html">declared in 1958</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Guinea prefers poverty in freedom to riches in slavery (p. 74).</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Cultural operations</h2>
<p>CIA operations were not confined to plots ending in brute force. Some were cultural programmes, unbeknown to many artists and scholars who received CIA sponsorship.</p>
<p>This included stipends to South African writers in exile, such as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/eskia-mphahlele">Es'kia Mphahlele</a> and <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902011000100004">Nat Nakasa</a>, as well as the sponsoring of cultural festivals and conferences in Africa. Williams (p. 64) quotes the future Nobel laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/soyinka/biographical/">Wole Soyinka</a>, who after discovering that he had unknowingly received CIA funds <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/soyinka/biographical/">declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we had been dining, and with relish, with the original of that serpentine incarnation, the Devil himself, romping in our post-colonial Garden of Eden and gorging on the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a spectacular disclosure (pp. 324-331) Williams presents details of CIA-funded concerts by <a href="https://npg.si.edu/exh/armstrong/">Louis Armstrong</a>, touring 27 African cities in 11 weeks during late 1960. This included a concert in Elisabethville, the Katanga breakaway province of Congo, at a time when Lumumba’s end was near. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/12/louis-armstrong-and-the-spy-how-the-cia-used-him-as-a-trojan-horse-in-congo">According to Williams</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Armstrong was basically a Trojan horse for the CIA … He would have been horrified.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Facts, not fiction</h2>
<p>The US’s <a href="https://www.ushistory.org/us/53a.asp">obsessive anti-communism</a>, which escalated in the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy, at times took lethal forms when governments or leaders were considered to be obstructing Western interests. </p>
<p>A sense of guilt or remorse remains absent. Mike Pompeo says it all. Then CIA director from January 2017 to April 2018 and Donald Trump’s <a href="https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/pompeo-michael-r">Secretary of State</a>, “celebrated immorality”, as Williams drily comments (p. 515). “I was the CIA director,” Pompeo boosted in a quoted speech in 2019:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The story, unlike John le Carré’s, is definitely not fiction. CIA operations, at times in collaboration with other Western intelligence agencies, were pursuing a hegemonic agenda with lasting impact.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Detailed accounts from original documents offer insights into the secret operations of the CIA in Africa.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583072021-07-02T22:55:45Z2021-07-02T22:55:45ZDag Hammarskjöld: a defiant pioneer of global diplomacy who died in a mystery plane crash<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405580/original/file-20210610-19-1uob08a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons </span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This piece is part of a new series in collaboration with the ABC’s Saturday Extra program. Each week, the show will have a “who am I” quiz for listeners about influential figures who helped shape the 20th century, and we will publish profiles for each one. You can read the other pieces in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/guess-the-game-changer-106624">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The idea of a global institution has captivated thinkers since Immanuel Kant in the 18th century. But a body set up to create and maintain world peace and security needs the right people to make it work. </p>
<p>When the United Nations was created in 1945, old sentiments — seen in the disbanded League of Nations — threatened to prevail. Would the UN and its leadership simply comply with the great powers of the day?</p>
<p>Dag Hammarskjöld was the UN’s second secretary-general from 1953 to 1961. He showed that defiant independence in this role was possible. </p>
<h2>Political upbringing</h2>
<p>Hammarskjöld was born in Jönköping in south-central Sweden in 1905, the fourth son of Sweden’s first world war prime minister Hjalmar Hammarskjöld. </p>
<p>In 1953, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1961/hammarskjold/biographical/">he reflected</a> on his family’s influence on his career. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>From generations of soldiers and government officials on my father’s side I inherited a belief that no life was more satisfactory than one of selfless service to your country — or humanity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After doing degrees covering literature, linguistics, history, economics and law, he entered the Swedish civil service in 1930, ending up in Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In the late 1940s he represented Sweden at the newly formed United Nations. </p>
<h2>A new secretary-general</h2>
<p>In 1953, he succeeded Norway’s Trgve Lie as UN secretary-general — easily securing enough votes for the job. At this point, the international state system was in crisis. The Cold War and the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24916040">Iron Curtain</a> threatened the paralyse the entire organisation. </p>
<p>Hammarskjöld’s <a href="https://academic.oup.com/lril/article/1/1/166/1022549">approach</a> and lasting legacy was to develop the secretary-general’s political role. He took executive action, which filled power vacuums as the colonial system broke apart after the second world war. </p>
<p>Two concepts underpinned this approach. The first was intervention to maintain international order — thereby transforming the UN from a static international body to a more engaged one. </p>
<p>These interventions including “preventative diplomacy” - trying to stem conflict from developing and spreading — fact-finding missions, peacekeeping forces and operations, technical assistance and international administration. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Former UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405338/original/file-20210609-14857-1uqk56u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C1979%2C1362&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405338/original/file-20210609-14857-1uqk56u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405338/original/file-20210609-14857-1uqk56u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405338/original/file-20210609-14857-1uqk56u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405338/original/file-20210609-14857-1uqk56u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405338/original/file-20210609-14857-1uqk56u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405338/original/file-20210609-14857-1uqk56u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Hammarskjöld was heavily influenced by his family’s background in public service and politics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Fledgling states could rely on UN assistance till they were self-functioning. Doing so <a href="https://academic.oup.com/lril/article/1/1/166/1022549">would preserve</a> the independence of decolonised countries and forge an international system with “equal economic opportunities for all individuals and nations”. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/714842/files/A_4390_Add-1-EN.pdf">Hammarskjöld explained</a> in 1960, the UN was ideal for this task.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a universal organisation neutral in the big power struggles over ideology and influence in the world, subordinated to the common will of the Member Governments and free from any aspirations of its own power and influence over any group or nation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, the second key concept was a firm commitment to neutrality when maintaining international order. This was considered a vital element for an international organisation dedicated to global governance. </p>
<p>In practice, Hammarskjöld negotiated the release of United States soldiers captured by the Chinese volunteer army during the Korean War and attempted to resolve the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/suez-crisis">Suez Canal Crisis</a> of 1956. He was also instrumental to facilitating the withdrawal of US and British troops from Lebanon and Jordan in 1958. In such conduct, he defined the secretary-general’s office in international diplomacy and conflict management and ensured the lingering role of peacekeeping operations.</p>
<h2>Making waves — and enemies</h2>
<p>But the expansion of this type of intervention by the UN was not welcomed by the traditional powers. Reflecting on the role played by Hammarskjöld during the Suez Crisis, Sir Pierson Dixon, British Ambassador to the UN, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/lril/article/1/1/166/1022549">observed</a> the secretary-general could no longer be considered a “a symbol or even an executive: he has become a force”. </p>
<p>As historian <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/who-killed-hammarskjold-2/#:%7E:text=Susan%20Williams&text=Shortly%20after%20midnight%20on%2018,bring%20peace%20to%20the%20Congo.">Susan Williams</a> writes, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Hammarskjöld sought to shield the newly-independent nations from the predatory aims of the Great Powers. His enemies included colonialists and settlers in Africa who were determined to maintain white minority rule. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In September 1961, Hammarskjöld was on a peace mission in the newly independent Congo. But while flying from Leopoldville, former capital of the Belgian Congo, to Ndola in Northern Rhodesia (present day Zambia),
his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/12/former-raf-pilot-shot-down-un-chief-dag-hammarskjold-1961-plane">plane crashed</a>. Everyone on board, including the secretary-general, was killed. </p>
<h2>Unsolved mystery</h2>
<p>The crash has never officially been recognised as a political assassination. But there have always been deep suspicions, making it one of the great unresolved mysteries of the 20th century. </p>
<p>As former US president Harry Truman <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/12/former-raf-pilot-shot-down-un-chief-dag-hammarskjold-1961-plane">told reporters</a> immediately after the crash, Hammarskjöld </p>
<blockquote>
<p>was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him.’ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hammarskjöld’s legacy was so profound as to encourage a range of theories as to why he died. In 1992, Australian diplomat George Ivan Smith and Irish author Conor Cruise O’Brien, both UN officials in 1961 in Congo, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/aug/17/archive-dag-hammerskjold-crash-death-1961">opined</a> the secretary-general had been shot down by mercenaries in the pay of European industrialists. </p>
<p>In her 2011 book, <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/who-killed-hammarskj-ld-by-susan-williams">Who Killed Hammarskjöld?</a> Williams examined the possibility of an assassination or a botched hijacking. Noting details were still murky, she concluded: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>his death was almost certainly the result of a sinister intervention.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Peacekeeping, neutrality, independence</h2>
<p>To this day, Hammarskjöld’s legacy endures through the continued deployment of UN peace keeping operations <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/military#:%7E:text=United%20Nations%20military%20personnel%20are%20the%20Blue%20Helmets%20on%20the%20ground.&text=We%20work%20alongside%20UN%20Police,security%20forces%20promote%20lasting%20peace.">with the aim</a> of promoting “stability, security and peace processes”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-own-1945-moment-what-do-rising-china-us-tensions-mean-for-the-un-146835">'Our own 1945 moment'. What do rising China-US tensions mean for the UN?</a>
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<p>His shaping of the general-secretary position is also marked: an international, neutral figure tasked, however successful, with using preventative diplomacy, promoting peace and securing an environment where states can develop on their own terms. </p>
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<p><em>Correction: an earlier version of this article incorrectly quoted Susan Williams to say Hammarskjöld’s death was “most certainly” the result of a sinister intervention. It has been amended to “almost certainly”. The piece has also been amended to correct Truman was the former US president at the time of the crash, not the current president.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Binoy Kampmark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hammarskjöld lasting legacy was to develop the secretary-general’s political role, as the UN found its way through the Cold War.Binoy Kampmark, Senior Lecturer in Global Studies, Social Science & Planning, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1313132020-02-11T11:58:28Z2020-02-11T11:58:28ZProbe into the death of UN boss 60 years ago needs South Africa’s help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314234/original/file-20200207-27564-dm1ezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dag Hammarskjöld died along with 15 others when his plane crashed in Zambia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Democratic South Africa has skeletons in the closet that it needs to address. One of these is the death of <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1961/hammarskjold/biographical/">Dag Hammarskjöld</a>, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) in a plane crash shortly after midnight on 17 to 18 September 1961. The plane went down as it approached Ndola, a mining town in Northern Rhodesia (today’s Zambia) bordering the Congo.</p>
<p>On board were 15 other people. Hammarskjöld planned to meet Moïse Tshombe, leader of the secessionist Katanga province, to find a solution to the conflict in the Congo. All but one, Hammarskjöld’s bodyguard Harold Julien, died. He succumbed to his injuries six days later in a local hospital. He could have been saved if treated properly. His eyewitness report was also neglected.</p>
<p>Foul play has never been eliminated. Hammarskjöld had engaged in crucial negotiations bringing the secession of the Katanga province to an end. This was followed with concerns by Western interests. His engagement in the <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/dag-hammarskjold-the-united-nations-and-the-decolonisation-of-africa/">decolonisation of Africa</a> provoked dismay among the white minority settler regimes. The crash, therefore, immediately provoked suspicions that it was not an accident. As recently as <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/pdf/ham_245_Final_UN_report_071019.pdf">September 2019</a>, António Guterres, the current UN Secretary-General stated in a letter to the General Assembly:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It remains our shared responsibility to pursue the full truth of what happened on that fateful night in 1961. We owe this to Dag Hammarskjöld and to the members of the party accompanying him. However, we also owe this to the United Nations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>New evidence substantiates the early suspicions of possible foul play. This means a UN Secretary-General and those in his company were possibly the victims of an attack in air. This ought to be verified.</p>
<p>Apartheid South Africa had interests in the region and followed closely the events unfolding in the Congo. It must be taken for granted that there are records, which offer additional information to verify assumptions. But access to classified documents needs a state’s active support.</p>
<h2>New investigations</h2>
<p>Fifty years after Hammarskjöld’s death, the Zambian-born scholar Susan Williams published a <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/who-killed-hammarskjold-2/">book</a> which pointed to omissions, flaws and failures of the earlier investigations. It triggered a new inquiry conducted by an independent commission of jurists. It submitted <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldcommission.org/index.html9">a report in 2013</a>, which concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is persuasive evidence that the aircraft was subjected to some form of attack or threat as it circled to land at Ndola. … the possibility that the plane was in fact forced into its descent by some form of hostile action is supported by sufficient evidence to merit further inquiry.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://theconversation.com/speaking-truth-to-power-the-killing-of-dag-hammarskjold-and-the-cover-up-65534">official investigations</a> by the UN resumed. The United Nations Association Westminster Branch <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/">in London</a> has provided regular updates on developments since then.</p>
<p>In 2017 the former Chief Justice of Tanzania, Mohamed Chande Othman, was appointed as Eminent Person, tasked with further investigations. He concluded in his <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/pdf/ham_150_Othman_report_251017.pdf">first report</a> that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>(an aerial attack) would have been possible using resources existing in the area at the time (and) that there is likely to be much relevant material that remains undisclosed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Justice Othman identified “the continued non-disclosure of potentially relevant new information in the intelligence, security and defence archives of member states” as “the biggest barrier to understanding the full truth” about what happened.</p>
<p>He stressed that it depends on the UN member states to become active in the search for further evidence in their national archives. The burden of proof had, therefore, shifted to them. They should show that they have conducted a full review of records and archives in their custody or possession, including those that remain classified, for potentially relevant information.</p>
<p>In support of Othman’s report, Guterres in 2017 <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/pdf/ham_150_Othman_report_251017.pdf">recommended</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>that relevant member states appoint an independent and high-ranking official to conduct a dedicated and internal review of their archives, in particular their intelligence, security and defence archives, to determine whether they hold relevant information.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/72/252">UN General Assembly</a> extended Othman’s mandate in early 2018. He presented his <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/pdf/ham_245_Final_UN_report_071019.pdf">second report</a> in September 2019.</p>
<p>New information, Othman concluded</p>
<blockquote>
<p>highlights the fact that there were many more foreign mercenaries in and around Katanga, including pilots, than had been considered by earlier inquiries.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These had the logistics and necessary conditions (suitable planes and airfields) to intercept with the plane approaching. For Othman </p>
<blockquote>
<p>it remains plausible that an external attack or threat was a cause of the crash.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>New information also confirmed that the crash site was discovered much earlier than officially reported – and testifies to the deliberate neglect of the only survivor. As Othman notes, this</p>
<blockquote>
<p>calls into question the acts of various governments directly after the crash and leaves open the issue of why the earlier crash discovery time was not reported.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Othman based his conclusions partly on reports of the independent, high-ranking official appointed by several UN member states. But, states such as South Africa, the US and the UK, where most discoveries could be expected, did not comply. </p>
<h2>A challenge to South Africa</h2>
<p>South Africa subsequently assigned a high-ranking official at its foreign relations department in <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/pdf/ham_245_Final_UN_report_071019.pdf">May 2019</a> with the task to look into potential sources, which could offer new information. But no report has so far been submitted.</p>
<p>On delivering his most recent report, Othman recommended: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>that an independent person is appointed to continue the work;</p></li>
<li><p>that key member states again be urged to (re)appoint independent high-ranking officials to determine whether relevant information exists within their security, intelligence and defence archives;</p></li>
<li><p>that a conclusion be reached over whether member states have complied with this process;</p></li>
<li><p>that key documents be made public.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In December 2019 another <a href="https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/74/248">Swedish draft resolution</a> was adopted to extend Othman’s mandate, with a record number of 128 co-sponsoring countries, including South Africa, out of the UN’s 193 member states. Once again, the resolution was not supported by the US and the UK.</p>
<p>It is one thing for the US and the UK to be unwilling to assess and disclose classified material. It’s quite possible that they want to avoid any embarrassment. </p>
<p>But South Africa has no reason to want to hide anything. There were plausible reasons for the apartheid regime’s refusal to cooperate with the probe into Hammarskjöld’s death. But these no longer stand under a democratic government.</p>
<p>It is inconceivable that the country’s archives contain no information on what happened at Ndola. Concerned about apartheid, Hammarskjöld had visited South Africa in early 1961. South African agencies and individuals played an active role in the region. This needs to be more closely investigated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is Director emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. He was a member of the Hammarskjöld Inquiry Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barney Pityana is affiliated with The 70s Group, an independent gathering of South African political activists from the 1970s. It aims to contribute to informed political and economic thinking in society. </span></em></p>Does South Africa have skeletons in the closet over the death of the UN Secretary-General?Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaBarney Pityana, Professor Emeritus of Law, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1154722019-04-22T08:43:42Z2019-04-22T08:43:42ZIt’s a century since an international civil service came into being. Why it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269519/original/file-20190416-147483-19wln3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The UN Security Council at the headquarters, in New York. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Peter Foley</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year marks a century since a formal international civil service was introduced into the world. The first time this particular breed of professionals came into existence was at the signing of the Versailles Peace Conference during 1919 and the subsequent establishment of the League of Nations in January 1920. </p>
<p>The United Nations (UN) will mark the occasion <a href="https://www.un.org/pga/73/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2019/03/26-March-International-Day-of-Multilateralim.pdf">later this month</a> when it discusses the challenges of multilateralism committed to a rules-based world order. </p>
<p>For global governance, an international civil service matters. Simply because it would be impossible to promote and maintain a rules-based world order without it. </p>
<p>An autonomous civil service is crucial for operations within the global governance system – an idea conceptualised a 100 years ago at the League of Nations. Already then, international civil servants were expected to be loyal to the aspirations of the international community and to remain neutral and independent of any authority outside their organisation. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030047313">Eric Drummond</a>, a British diplomat involved in the drafting of the League of Nations Covenant and the first Secretary General of the League of Nations (1919-1933), played a crucial and pioneering role in conceptualising an independent international civil service. But it was Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN’s second Secretary General (1953-1961), who elaborated the concept. He set lasting standards that survive to this day. </p>
<p>An independent civil service was a huge part of Hammarskjöld’s arsenal. As his numerous statements and speeches document, his terms in office were guided by strong and coherent ethics concerning the independence of the international civil service.</p>
<p>At the core of his ethics were integrity, loyalty to the principles of the UN Charter, independence from any national or regional interests and the courage to uphold these values. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/dag-hammarskjold-the-united-nations-and-the-decolonisation-of-africa/">new book</a> I pay tribute to Hammarskjöld’s commitment to these principles as they applied to self-determination on the African continent.</p>
<p>The main focus is on the interpretation and implementation of the principles adopted by the UN member states through his diplomacy during the Cold War era. I present arguments and evidence why frameworks for governance, their interpretation and implementation matter.</p>
<h2>The UN and decolonisation</h2>
<p>Decolonisation on the African continent gained momentum during the 1950s. The UN became an important forum for the growing demands for self-determination. As Secretary General, Hammarskjöld played a prominent role as events unfolded. These culminated in the Congo crisis of 1960/61. Faced with the secession of the Katanga province and Belgian destabilisation threats soon after independence, the Congolese government requested the UN to intervene. This resulted in one of the biggest UN interventions ever.</p>
<p>Hammarskjöld’s role in the process is at the centre of the analysis. It examines the scope and limitations his office provided under the existing unequal power relations of the post-World-War-II order.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269542/original/file-20190416-147480-ign5e6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269542/original/file-20190416-147480-ign5e6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269542/original/file-20190416-147480-ign5e6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269542/original/file-20190416-147480-ign5e6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269542/original/file-20190416-147480-ign5e6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269542/original/file-20190416-147480-ign5e6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269542/original/file-20190416-147480-ign5e6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269542/original/file-20190416-147480-ign5e6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His support for the struggles for national sovereignty shows that individuals and their running of office do matter. This is true even though the policy of big powers imposes limitations on them. </p>
<p>When Hammarskjöld and 15 others in his company died in a plane crash near the Northern Rhodesian mining town of Ndola in the night of September 17/18, 1961, the adjacent white settler-minority regimes were visibly relieved. And despite the world-wide recognition and appraisal, the secret services of all big powers had closely followed his attempts to bring the Katanga province back into the Congolese territory.</p>
<p>Reassessing Hammarskjöld’s anti-hegemonic stance suggests that there were more than enough parties satisfied that he could not bring his mission to the planned end. After all, the secessionist Katanga province was under firm control of Belgian and other Western mining companies. It was the biggest supplier of uranium for the US nuclear arms race. As a mineral-rich resource of global relevance it was of highest geo-strategic interest. </p>
<p>The hitherto unclarified causes for the plane crash remain a matter of <a href="https://theconversation.com/speaking-truth-to-power-the-killing-of-dag-hammarskjold-and-the-cover-up-65534">renewed investigations</a>. These were triggered by the <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/who-killed-hammarskjold-2/">book</a> of Susan Williams, Who Killed Hammarskjöld?. </p>
<h2>Why global governance and leadership matters</h2>
<p>My book argues that despite all the limitations, values matter for a global governance body seeking to solve – or at least contain – conflicts through multilateral diplomacy. It highlights the battles over the power of definition by different interest groups in the era of decolonisation and the East-West conflict as well as the potential role and influence of an individual in charge of the UN Secretariat.</p>
<p>It recognises Hammarskjöld as an outstanding international civil servant, who believed in the spirit and word of the UN Charter and the virtues of a service guided by loyalty to its values and principles.</p>
<p>Individual leadership is important. But I also emphasise the limitations such an office and its incumbent have. The study also critically reflects on some of the failures and flaws during Hammarskjöld’s time as Secretary General. After all, while he set the bar very high and remains widely respected, he was far from unfailing.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I argue, his term ended with his integrity intact. This was evident from the fact that towards the end of his time in office he was portrayed through a lens of suspicion and mistrust in the West and open calls for resignation in the East. Revealingly so, the newly independent states remained to a large extent supportive. For them he was “their” Secretary General.</p>
<p>A hundred years after the creation of an international civil service, Hammarskjöld deserves to be remembered for leading by example.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is Director emeritus and Senior Advisor of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. </span></em></p>An international civil service matters for global governance. Without it, it would be impossible to promote and maintain a rules-based world.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1099252019-01-23T20:44:02Z2019-01-23T20:44:02ZDo truth and reconciliation commissions heal divided nations?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254630/original/file-20190120-100295-1mvujy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this October 1998 photo, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu dance after Tutu handed over the final report of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Pretoria. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Zoe Selsky)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As long as unresolved historic injustices continue to fester in the world, there will be a demand for truth commissions.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there is no end to the need.</p>
<p>The goal of a truth commission — in some forms also called a truth and reconciliation commission, as it is in Canada — is to hold public hearings to establish the scale and impact of a past injustice, typically involving wide-scale human rights abuses, and make it part of the permanent, unassailable public record. Truth commissions also officially recognize victims and perpetrators in an effort to move beyond the painful past.</p>
<p>Over the past three decades, more than 40 countries have, <a href="http://www.trc.ca/">like Canada,</a> established truth commissions, including Chile, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Philippines, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/trc">South Africa</a> and South Korea. The hope has been that restorative justice would provide greater healing than the retributive justice modelled most memorably by the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nuremberg-trials">Nuremberg Trials after the Second World War.</a></p>
<p>There has been a range in the effectiveness of commissions designed to resolve injustices in African and Latin American countries, typically held as those countries made transitions from civil war, colonialism or authoritarian rule.</p>
<p>Most recently, <a href="http://www.trc.ca/">Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> addressed historic injustices perpetrated against Canada’s Indigenous peoples through forced assimilation and other abuses.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254631/original/file-20190120-100261-l171he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254631/original/file-20190120-100261-l171he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254631/original/file-20190120-100261-l171he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254631/original/file-20190120-100261-l171he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254631/original/file-20190120-100261-l171he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254631/original/file-20190120-100261-l171he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254631/original/file-20190120-100261-l171he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair embraces residential school survivor Madeleine Basile after she spoke at the release of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation commission in December 2015 in Ottawa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Its effectiveness is still being measured, with a list of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/truth-and-reconciliation-94-calls-to-action-1.3362258">94 calls to action</a> waiting to be fully implemented. But Canada’s experience appears to have been at least productive enough to inspire <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-other-countries-have-tried-to-reconcile-with-native-peoples/article24826144/">Australia and New Zealand </a> to come to terms with their own treatment of Indigenous peoples by exploring similar processes.</p>
<p>Although both countries have a long history to trying to reconcile with native peoples, <a href="https://www.hrc.co.nz/news/truth-and-reconciliation-state-abuse-survivors-right-thing-do/=">recent discussions</a> have leaned toward a Canadian-style TRC model.</p>
<h2>South Africa set the standard</h2>
<p>There had been other truth commissions in the 1980s and early 1990s, <a href="https://www.beyondintractability.org/casestudy/brahm-chilean">including Chilé’s post-Pinochet reckoning</a>. </p>
<p>But the most recognizable standard became South Africa’s, when President Nelson Mandela mandated a painful and necessary Truth and Reconciliation Commission to resolve the scornful legacy of apartheid, the racist and repressive policy that had driven the African National Congress, including Mandela, to fight for reform. Their efforts resulted in widespread violence and Mandela’s own 27-year imprisonment.</p>
<p>Through South Africa’s publicly televised TRC proceedings, white perpetrators were required to come face-to-face with the Black families they had victimized physically, socially and economically.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tw5aTObdO5Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Source: Facing History and Ourselves.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There were critics, to be sure, on both sides. <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1997-09-08-1997251022-story.html">Some called it the “Kleenex Commission”</a> for the emotional hearings they saw as going easy on some perpetrators who were granted amnesty after demonstrating public contrition.</p>
<p>Others felt it fell short of its promise — benefiting the new government by legitimizing Mandela’s ANC and letting perpetrators off the hook by allowing so many go without punishment, and failing victims who never saw adequate compensation or true justice.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-memories-of-the-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-still-ache-107721">Why memories of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission still ache</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These criticisms were valid, yet the process did succeed in its most fundamental responsibility — it pulled the country safely into a modern, democratic era.</p>
<h2>Saving humanity from ‘hell’</h2>
<p>Dag Hammarskjöld, the secretary general of the United Nations through most of the 1950s who faced criticism about the limitations of the UN, once said the UN was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34310354">“not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.”</a></p>
<p>Similarly, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was not designed to take South Africa to some idyllic utopia. After a century of colonialism and apartheid, that would not have been realistic. It was designed to save South Africa, then a nuclear power, from an implosion — one that many feared would trigger a wider international war.</p>
<p>To the extent that the commission saved South Africa from hell, I think it was successful. Is it a low benchmark? Perhaps, but it did its work.</p>
<p>Since then, other truth commissions, whether they have included reconciliation or reparation mandates, have generated varying results.</p>
<p>Some have been used cynically as tools for governments to legitimize themselves by pretending they have dealt with painful history when they have only kicked the can down the road.</p>
<p>In Liberia, where I worked with a team of researchers last summer, the records of <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2006/02/truth-commission-liberia">that country’s truth and reconciliation commission</a> are not even readily available to the public. That secrecy robs Liberia of what should be the most essential benefit of confronting past injustices: permanent, public memorialization that inoculates the future against the mistakes of the past.</p>
<h2>U.S. needs truth commission</h2>
<p>On balance, the truth commission stands as an important tool that can and should be used around the world.</p>
<p>It’s painfully apparent that the United States needs a national truth commission of some kind to address hundreds of years of injustice suffered by Black Americans. There, centuries of enslavement, state-sponsored racism, denial of civil rights and ongoing economic and social disparity have yet to be addressed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dealing-with-hate-can-americas-truth-and-reconciliation-commissions-help-73170">Dealing with hate: Can America's truth and reconciliation commissions help?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Like many, I don’t hold out hope that a U.S. commission will be established any time soon – especially not under the current administration. But I do think one is inevitable at some point, better sooner than later.</p>
<p>Wherever there is an ugly, unresolved injustice pulling at the fabric of a society, there is an opportunity to haul it out in public and deal with it through a truth commission.</p>
<p>Still, there is not yet any central body or facility that researchers, political leaders or other advocates can turn to for guidance, information and evidence. Such an entity would help them understand and compare how past commissions have worked — or failed to work — and create better outcomes for future commissions.</p>
<p>As the movement to expose, understand and resolve historical injustices grows, it would seem that Canada, a stable democracy with its own sorrowed history and its interest in global human rights, would make an excellent place to establish such a centre.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bonny Ibhawoh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Wherever there is an ugly, unresolved injustice pulling at the fabric of a society, there is an opportunity to haul it out in public and deal with it through a truth commission.Bonny Ibhawoh, Professor of History and Global Human Rights, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1024112018-08-30T14:02:40Z2018-08-30T14:02:40ZHonouring Annan, McCain and others: why eulogies have blind spots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234283/original/file-20180830-195301-tq9f9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A United Nations staff member pays tribute to Kofi Annan during a ceremony at the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/ Salvatore Di Nolfi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an old adage says: <a href="https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder.html">“beauty is in the eye of the beholder”</a>. So it should not come as a surprise that prominent people are sometimes remembered selectively when they are dead. </p>
<p>Perspectives have blind spots. We often appreciate or dislike others because of how we relate to them through our spectacles, coloured by the values we treasure. There is a wide zone between fact and fiction. The truth is that the interpretation of others’ legacies often reveals a great deal about us and our values. And is often less about the complexity of the lives of those with whom we engage.</p>
<p>I have experienced such a balancing act in my engagements with Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, before he met his untimely death in a <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/who-killed-hammarskjold-2/">plane crash at Ndola</a>, in then Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia), in 1961.</p>
<p>As the world’s highest international civil servant, Hammarskjöld provoked divided opinions. Some saw him as a tool of Western imperialism for the assassination of the Congolese leader <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/792-the-assassination-of-lumumba">Patrice Lumumba</a>; others praised him as being <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/8873047/hammarskjold">close to a saint</a>.</p>
<p>Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general who recently passed away, said that Hammarskjöld was his <a href="https://www.daghammarskjold.se/event/dag-hammarskjold-21st-century-kofi-annan/">role model</a>. The obituaries that followed Annan’s death led me to reflect on the two men, the legacies they left, and how imperfectly high profile people are remembered after they’re gone.</p>
<p>Politicians and diplomats are a special breed. We owe it to them and to us, to find an adequate way of engaging with their legacies in a format that avoids the superficial praise song and highlights the contradictions when entering the power games of policy. </p>
<h2>Kofi Annan</h2>
<p>There wasn’t much of a balancing act when it came to remembering Annan. Many eulogies had few critical undertones for <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-08-19-kofi-annan-a-man-who-cared-for-humanity/">“a man who cared for humanity”</a>.</p>
<p>Some managed to address his <a href="https://theconversation.com/kofi-annan-a-complicated-legacy-of-impressive-achievements-and-some-profound-failures-101791">complicated legacy</a> while others were courageous enough to emphasise his shortcomings as Secretary-General, including his refusal “to acknowledge any meaningful sense of personal or institutional responsibility” for <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/kofi-annans-unaccountable-legacy">some major debacles</a>. </p>
<p>But these remained the odd ones out. Others were quick to list his merits, which outweighed the shortcomings as <a href="https://theconversation.com/kofi-annan-a-man-who-paid-his-dues-to-global-peace-and-security-101837">a man who paid his dues</a>.</p>
<p>Many obituaries conceded the impact of his influence on <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-08-21-kofi-annan-a-geopolitical-obituary/">the global stage</a>. But acknowledgements missed mentioning at least two other Africans, who during Annan’s terms played an important role in the agenda-setting he is praised for. Lakhdar Brahimi was crucial in promoting more <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/brahimi_report.shtml">effective peacekeeping operations</a>; Francis Deng made major contributions towards the UN’s <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/sovereignty-as-responsibility/">“Responsibility to Protect” agenda</a>.</p>
<p>Like others – think of former US-President Jimmy Carter’s track record as human rights advocate and his <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/22/jimmy-carter-lives-in-an-inexpensive-house.html">modest lifestyle</a> – Annan’s merits lie more in his time after office. Most prominently in his role as one of the <a href="https://theelders.org/kofi-annan">Elders</a>. </p>
<p>He was a noteworthy mediator, most spectacularly in <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Kofi-Annan-and-Kenya--Hero-to-some-and-villain-to-others/1056-4718852-3xqgmw/index.html">Kenya</a>. Commendable is also his recent commitment towards a solution for the plight of the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/former-secretary-general-kofi-annan-urges-un-to-push-for-rohingya-return-to-myanmar/a-40950080">Rohingya in Myanmar</a>.</p>
<p>What might explain the overtly positive eulogies to Annan is that there were moments of human dignity and decency, in which the opportunity was seized to set a morally acceptable example. This seems to have also been the case when it comes to John McCain, American politician and military officer <a href="https://theconversation.com/obituary-john-mccain-who-survived-torture-and-ran-for-the-us-presidency-97020">who recently passed on</a>. </p>
<h2>John McCain</h2>
<p>McCain was widely celebrated in the established media as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mccain/senator-john-mccain-ex-pow-and-political-maverick-dead-at-81-statement-idUSKCN1LB00C">war hero and maverick</a>. He was also deemed an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/aug/26/an-american-hero-the-life-of-john-mccain-video">American hero</a>, whose “principles and belief in bi-partisanship” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/27/john-mccain-paradox-america-principled-moral">made him unique</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234285/original/file-20180830-195304-1tdht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234285/original/file-20180830-195304-1tdht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234285/original/file-20180830-195304-1tdht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234285/original/file-20180830-195304-1tdht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234285/original/file-20180830-195304-1tdht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234285/original/file-20180830-195304-1tdht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234285/original/file-20180830-195304-1tdht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late former US Senator John McCain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/CJ Gunther</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But moments of personal integrity were at times deeply ambiguous. His defending Barack Obama as “a decent man” and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/aug/27/john-mccain-remembered-defending-obama-from-racist-questions-video">“family father”</a>, was far from dismissing racism. It only exonerated his contender and should not make up for McCain being willing to compromise his declared principles in his bid for <a href="https://theconversation.com/john-mccain-dead-at-81-helped-build-a-country-that-no-longer-reflects-his-values-97054">presidential power</a>. </p>
<p>The conservative values praised as a sign of integrity, elevating him into <a href="https://theconversation.com/obituary-john-mccain-who-survived-torture-and-ran-for-the-us-presidency-97020">“a class of his own”</a> should not distract from McCain’s role as a war monger who did not care for human life and dignity. </p>
<h2>Weigh right and wrong</h2>
<p>All too often – and Annan has been a particularly prominent example – those praising a person highlight their own involvement. They cannot resist focusing on the impact the person had on them or when and where the person left a lasting impression through a personal encounter. Often, such eulogies reproduce a photo of the praised person, shown together with the one who applauds her or his merits – almost as if these were their own merits.</p>
<p>This leaves me wondering what kind of memory will be paid to Obama. As the first black president of the US there were a number of things deserving positive recognition, mainly in domestic policy. But they should not prevent a condemnation of his massive failures. But then, in the shadow of Obama’s through and through immoral successor in office, it already makes a difference to display some degree of ethics, moral consciousness and decency.</p>
<p>Maybe this is also a valid explanation why so many failed in their tributes to Annan or McCain. It might be difficult to enter the necessary investigations of what is right and what is wrong in times when reactionary populism requires a desperate search for alternatives. But, it is in support of such alternatives that we shouldn’t shy away from the challenge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kofi Annan and John McCain’s positive eulogies could be because both men seized moments of human dignity and decency.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/655342016-09-19T19:29:33Z2016-09-19T19:29:33ZSpeaking truth to power: The killing of Dag Hammarskjöld and the cover-up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138147/original/image-20160918-17029-miljht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has courageously pursued an enquiry into the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Tiksa Negeri</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fifty-five years ago, shortly after midnight on 18 September 1961, an <a href="http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/dag/bio.htm">aircraft crashed</a> on its approach to Ndola airport in the British colony of Northern Rhodesia, which is now Zambia. On board were 16 people: the UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, the members of his mission, and the Swedish crew. The sole survivor, who spoke of “sparks in the sky” and said the plane <a href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=a/5069">“blew up”</a>, died six days later.</p>
<p>Suspicions were voiced about the crash because of the strange details that quickly emerged. For instance, the British high commissioner, who was at Ndola, showed no concern that Hammarskjöld failed to land and insisted that he must have decided <a href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=a/5069">“to go elsewhere”</a>. </p>
<p>It took four hours after daybreak to start an official search. This in spite of local residents, policemen and soldiers reporting a great flash in the sky shortly after midnight. There were also witness accounts of a second, smaller plane trailing and then dropping something that “looked like fire’ upon the larger one”.</p>
<p>The Prime Minister of the Congo, Cyrille Adoula, who had met with the Secretary-General just hours before the crash, believed he had been murdered. According to the 1961 Montreal Gazette he had commented: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>How ignoble is this assassination, not the first of its kind perpetrated by the moneyed powers. Mr Hammarskjöld was the victim of certain financial circles for whom a human life is not equal to a gram of copper or uranium.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There were several inquiries into the crash in 1961-2, all of which failed to take seriously the testimonies of Zambian witnesses. A <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Report-of-Rhodesian-Commission-of-Inquiry.pdf">Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry</a> identified pilot error as the cause of the crash. This was solely on the basis of an elimination of the other suggested causes. </p>
<p>A UN inquiry, however, reached an open verdict and stated that it could not rule out <a href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=a/5069">sabotage or attack</a>. This led the UN General Assembly to pass a <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/General-Assembly-Resolution-1759-XVII.pdf">Resolution</a> requesting the Secretary-General</p>
<blockquote>
<p>to inform the General Assembly of any new evidence which may come to his attention. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>More than half a century and many inquiries later, the search for the truth about what happened that September night continues. On 17 August 2016, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the 71st UN <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/71/meetings/">General Assembly</a> to appoint an “eminent person or persons” to review the new information on the crash. He urged member states to release relevant records for review.</p>
<p>Ban Ki-moon’s statement ended on a moving and powerful note: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This may be our last chance to find the truth. Seeking a complete understanding of the circumstances is our solemn duty to my illustrious and distinguished predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, to the other members of the party accompanying him, and to their families.’ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hammarskjöld, as second Secretary-General, sought to shape the UN as an organisation devoted to peace. He developed the strategy of <a href="http://www.stiftelsendaghammarskjoldbiblioteket.se/dag-hammarskjold/dag-hammarskjold-the-peacemaker/">“preventive diplomacy”</a>, which defused the Suez Canal crisis in 1956. His prevailing commitment was to the UN Charter and he <a href="https://dagtoday.org/testi/melber-1-en/">refused to act in the interest of any particular state</a>. </p>
<p>In 1961, the UN was only 15 years old and was undergoing a dramatic shift as European decolonisation gathered pace. The Afro-Asian bloc now provided 47 UN members out of 100. For these new states, said Hammarskjöld, the UN was their <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL6/100/02/PDF/NL610002.pdf?OpenElement">“main platform”</a> and protector.</p>
<p>For decades, the former colonial powers have written the history of the night in which Hammarskjöld and his companions died. But a new history is about to be written if the recent momentum to find the full truth is anything to go by. </p>
<h2>New quest for the truth</h2>
<p>Hammarskjöld was on the way to meet <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/gah/tshombe-moise-kapenda-1919-1969">Moise Tshombe</a>, leader of the Belgian-backed secession of Katanga province from the newly-independent Congo. Mineral rich Katanga was of geostrategic importance, not least because of a mine in Katanga which produced the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10416945/Tracing-the-Congolese-mine-that-fuelled-Hiroshima.html">richest uranium</a> in the world. </p>
<p>The UN’s declaration that it could not rule out sabotage or attack and the request for any new evidence emerged in 2011 as a crucial point of reference in the book <a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/who-killed-hammarskjold/"><em>Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa</em></a>. The book drew on a mass of evidence that had been available for many years but had been dismissed by the early inquiries, and presented many new findings. </p>
<p>The disturbing compilation of evidence includes the testimony of Commander Charles Southall, a naval officer working for the US National Security Agency listening station in Cyprus in 1961. Southall heard the recording of a pilot shooting down Hammarskjöld’s plane.</p>
<p>British peer Lord Lea of Crondall read the book and resolved to set up a new inquiry. Interest was growing. <a href="http://www.teol.lu.se/person/KGHammar">Professor K.G. Hammar</a>, former Archbishop of the Church of Sweden, went to Zambia with Hans Kristian Simensen, a Norwegian researcher, and called on Sweden to get the <a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/i-am-convinced-hammarskjold-did-not-die-in-an-air-accident/">case reopened</a>. In 2012 the <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldcommission.org/hammarskjold-inquiry-trust/">Hammarskjöld Inquiry Trust</a> was formed, including <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=7736">Chief Emeka Anyaoku</a> of Nigeria. </p>
<p>The Trust set up the <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldcommission.org/">Hammarskjöld Commission</a>, an international group of <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldcommission.org/team/index.html">four distinguished jurists</a>, chaired by a former British Lord Justice of Appeal. </p>
<p>After a rigorous examination of the available evidence and interviews in Ndola with witnesses who were still alive, the commission concluded: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is persuasive evidence that the aircraft was subjected to some form of attack or threat as it circled to land at Ndola … (and) was in fact forced into its descent by some form of hostile action. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It recommended that the UN conduct a further investigation and seek access to relevant records held by member states. The commission’s <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldcommission.org/report/">report</a> was made public on 9 September 2013. On the same day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that he would closely study the findings. </p>
<h2>Ban Ki-moon takes the lead</h2>
<p>In March 2014, the Secretary-General asked the General Assembly to <a href="http://www.dag-hammarskjold.com/blog/LINK%201%20-%20Sec%20Gen%20to%20General%20Assembly%2021%20March%202014.pdf">pursue the matter further</a>. This was welcomed by the growing worldwide campaign that had by now developed, which urged the creation of a <a href="http://blogs.sas.ac.uk/2015/02/17/from-a-book-to-a-united-nations-resolution-yes-we-can/#more-3838">new inquiry</a>. The movement was supported by sympathetic journalists, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/justiceforhammarskjold/">social media campaigners</a>, individuals, and organisations, largely coordinated by the United Nations Association Westminster <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info">Branch</a> in London. </p>
<p>http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/</p>
<p>The Swedish government submitted a draft Resolution to the UN General Assembly in October 2014, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/14/un-inquiry-1961-dag-hammarskjold-air-crash">calling for a new investigation</a>. This was strongly supported by Zambia.</p>
<p>On 29 December 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted the <a href="http://www.dag-hammarskjold.com/blog/general-assembly-investigation-document.pdf">Resolution</a>, authorising the Secretary-General to appoint an independent Panel of Experts to examine the evidence. Fifty-five nations joined Sweden to co-sponsor the resolution, which was adopted by the consensus of all 193 Member States.</p>
<p>On 16 March 2015, Ban Ki-moon appointed a <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/03/u-n-panel-to-investigate-dag-hammarskjolds-death/">Panel of Experts</a>, which was headed by Mohamed Chande Othman, Chief Justice of Tanzania. <a href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/132">Its report concluded</a> that there was, indeed, significant information to warrant further inquiry into a possible aerial attack or other interference as a cause of the crash. It also introduced new areas to investigate, such as the possibility that Hammarskjöld’s communications were intercepted.</p>
<p>On 2 July 2015, Ban Ki-moon circulated the report among member states and expressed the view that “a further inquiry or investigation would be necessary to finally establish the facts.” He <a href="http://www.dag-hammarskjold.com/upload/N1517807-sm.pdf">urged</a> member states </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to disclose, declassify or otherwise allow privileged access to information that they may have in their possession’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Following Ban Ki-moon’s recommendations, the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN circulated a <a href="http://www.swedenabroad.com/en-GB/Embassies/UN-New-York/Current-affairs/Statements/Agenda-item-129-Investigation-into-the-conditions-and-circumstances-resulting-in-the-tragic-death-of-Dag-Hammarskjold-and-of-the-members-of-the-party-accompanying-him-sys/">draft Resolution</a> urging all member states to release any relevant records in their possession. The draft Resolution was supported by 74 other states – but not the UK or the US. </p>
<p>When the Secretary-General in August 2016 called on the forthcoming General Assembly to appoint an eminent person or persons <a href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/1017">to take the inquiry forward</a>, he attached as annexes to his statement the responses by several member states to the UN’s earlier call for documentation. These show a readiness by South Africa to search for lost records relating to an alleged plot by mercenaries. They also reveal the uncooperative nature of the responses by the US and the UK.</p>
<p>Ban’s courage, dignity and humanity in this matter have been followed with heartfelt appreciation by those who care about justice and about the principles enshrined in the UN Charter, which were advocated so vigorously by Hammarskjöld. It is to be hoped that Ban’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/21/un-security-council-to-take-first-vote-on-ban-ki-moons-replacement">successor</a> will follow the same path, and with the same integrity and determination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65534/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber is affiliated with The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. He and co-author Susan Williams would like to acknowledge the assistance provided by David Wardrop, Chairman of the United Nations Association Westminster Branch, UK</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fifty five years and many inquiries later, the search continues for the truth about the cause of the plane crash in which the UN secretary general and 15 others were killedHenning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaSusan Williams, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.