{"id":30881,"date":"2016-12-07T01:02:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T01:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/hammarskjold-death-un-asked-to-launch-fresh\/"},"modified":"2016-12-07T01:02:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T01:02:12","slug":"hammarskjold-death-un-asked-to-launch-fresh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/hammarskjold-death-un-asked-to-launch-fresh\/","title":{"rendered":"Hammarskjold death: UN asked to launch fresh inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{A resolution is being presented to the UN General Assembly asking for a special investigator to look into the 1961 plane crash that killed then UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.}<\/p>\n<p>The plane went down over what is now Zambia during a diplomatic mission to help broker a ceasefire in the Congolese civil war.<\/p>\n<p>Pilot error was initially suspected.<\/p>\n<p>However, new evidence has emerged which sceptics say could add weight to suspicions of foul play.<\/p>\n<p>The UN resolution would seek to compel countries to hand over documents and radio intercepts to a special investigator, which might nail down the truth of what really happened, BBC South Africa correspondent Karen Allen says.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hammarskjold and his aides had been flying to Ndola in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, to meet Moise Tshombe, who had declared independence for the mineral-rich Congolese province of Katanga.<\/p>\n<p>The DC6 aircraft crashed in darkness in a forest near Ndola shortly before landing, killing the Swedish diplomat and 15 others on board.<\/p>\n<p>The reason for the crash has never been fully explained, despite three official investigations.<\/p>\n<p>The third investigation, by the UN in 1962, reached an open verdict and did not rule out sabotage or attack.<\/p>\n<p>Then in 2015, the UN set up a panel of independent experts to examine new evidence in the case.<\/p>\n<p>Our correspondent says more recent information includes eyewitness accounts of white men in Land Rovers close to the crash site.<\/p>\n<p>That has fuelled speculation that foreign agents could have been involved as part of a complex plot which put Cold War rivalries and European mining interests centre stage, she says.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-16897 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_92857491_019235742.jpg\" alt=\"Dag Hammarskjold was trying to mediate between Congo&#039;s Soviet-backed government and a breakaway province\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{A resolution is being presented to the UN General Assembly asking for a special investigator to look into the 1961 plane crash that killed then UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.} The plane went down over what is now Zambia during a diplomatic mission to help broker a ceasefire in the Congolese civil war. Pilot error [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-30881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30881"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=30881"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=30881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}