Unravelling the mystery of Hammarskjöld’s death
A tale of secret missions, spies, the South African link are revealed in part one of this account
IN JULY 1998 in Cape Town, just as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was winding up its task, researcher Christelle Terreblanche was given a slender file on the assassination of Chris Hani in 1993. The file had been given to the TRC by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and was classified as secret.
As Terreblanche glanced through the file, her eyes lit up with shock and amazement.
There were about 12 documents and they spoke graphically of events leading up to the death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, on his visit to central Africa in 1961.
Hammarskjöld’s plane crashed in Ndola in what was then called Northern Rhodesia, later Zambia.
A civil aviation inquiry, held immediately after the event, was unable to ascribe a cause to the crash; a Rhodesian commission of inquiry in February 1962 attributed it to pilot error; the UN’s own Commission of Inquiry, in April 1962, like the Rhodesian civil aviation investigation, found itself unable to determine the cause of the crash.
On August 19, 1998, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of the TRC, held a press conference and released eight of the documents. He said the TRC, whose mandate expired at the end of July 1998, was unable to investigate the veracity of the letters or the allegations that South African and/or Western intelligence agencies played a role in the air crash.
Swedish aid worker, Göran Björkdahl, who investigated Hammarskjöld’s death, said: “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. Hammarskjöld was trying to stick to the UN charter and the rules of international law.”
In 2014, an Oxford scholar, Dr Susan Williams, updated her book and referred to the papers that Terreblanche had found, which provided proof of a plot with the sinister name of “Operation Celeste”.
The letters were headed with the Joburg address of an organisation called the South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR).
These revelations prompted the diplomat’s nephew, Knut Hammarskjöld, to call for the UN to reopen its inquiry.
On March 16 last year, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon appointed a three-member panel led by the Chief Justice of Tanzania to investigate his death.
The panel’s 99-page report, released on July 6 last year, suggested Hammarskjold’s plane was already on fire as it landed and that other jet aircraft and intelligence agents were nearby.
According to the Daily News of August 26, Ban issued a follow-up note urging anyone to search for more material to help solve the mystery.
All these materials would be used in a “further investigation to finally establish the facts of the matter”. According to the article “any further enquiry would benefit from an assessment of potential new information, including from South Africa and other sources”.
Ban then called for the General Assembly to “appoint an eminent person to review any new information which may exist” to determine the scope of a further enquiry.
After World War II, the US emerged as the leading nation in the Allies victory, with its country virtually unscathed by the hostilities.
In 1947, the US foreign intelligence service Central Intelligence Agency was created in terms of the National Security Act, as was the National Security Council (NSC).
The duties of the CIA were to “perform such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security, as the National Security Council may from time to time direct”.
CIA deputy director, Ray Cline, later conceded these functions referred to covert action, which only the president could authorise. On June 18, 1948, the NSC passed directive NSC 10/2 which authorised the CIA to carry out covert action across the world.
This was defined as “activities… which are conducted… by this government… which… if uncovered the US government can plausibly disclaim any responsibility for them… such operations shall include… propaganda, economic warfare; preventive direct action, including sabotage… (and) demolition…”
To understand the sequence of events leading to the death of Hammarskjöld, it is necessary to briefly look at the history of the Belgium Congo.
After World War I, vast diamond deposits were found there and South African mining magnate Ernest Oppenheimer was quick to see the risk for his diamond monopoly.
He bought up substantial shares in the company holding the diamond interests Société Internationale Forestiére et Miniére du Congo (“Forminiére”) with financial help from Solly Joel and Barney Barnato.
On April 21, 1922, he told the Anglo American Board: “Further transactions have been entered into with Messrs Barnato Brothers, with Forminiére.
“Arrangements have been made… for the purchase of their future outputs with the result that there is no diamond production worthy of note that is not now controlled by either the Syndicate or by the (Anglo American) corporation and Messrs Barnato Bros, jointly.”
As World War II approached, De Beers was selling half of the Congo production to Germany and half to the US and the UK.
The diamond production almost doubled between 1936 and 1939, with 10 million carats a year being sold.
The first to attempt to break the diamond monopoly shackles was Kwame Nkrumah, who thought Ghana’s best interests would be served by leaving the Syndicate and starting an independent sales area known as the Free Diamond Market at Pra, near the Ghanaian capital Accra.
His dream was to set up the marketing capital of black Africa, and stop the dependence on apartheid South Africa.
Another major worry for De Beers was the Belgian Congo, which was moving to independence and at the head of the newly elected government was Patrice Lumumba.
He was a great admirer of Nkrumah and wanted to support his ideas on independent marketing of diamonds.
In 1959, Lumumba had visited New York and told a group of American businessmen: “The exploitation of the mineral riches of the Congo should be primarily for the profit of our own people and other Africans.”
At the independence celebrations he spoke about “an end to the humiliating slavery” and “exploitation” and vowed to “make sure that our country’s land truly benefits its children”.
Mention has been made of “Operation Celeste” and letters headed with the Joburg address of SAIMR. These reveal the activities of that sinister body.
One of the first documents Dr Williams mentions in her book, from other independent research, is a handwritten letter to “Lieutenant” Bob Wagner on June 17, 1947 by a man called F Malan, who described himself as a Commodore of SAIMR.
The letter informs Wagner that Rear-Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the head of the Central Intelligence Group in the US, was interested in events in the Union as well as the Colony (by which he meant South-West Africa – today Namibia), because he felt the “Russkis” would make “increasingly bold attempts to undermine His Majesty’s authority in these areas”.
Commodore Malan goes on to suggest that Wagner take up an offer to travel to America and learn something from the secret service there, as a way of advancing his position in SAIMR; his cover would be that of an expert in metallurgy and Anglo-American would provide him with the required accreditation and training.
This mission would be “Top Secret” – “under no circumstances must your connection to SAIMR be revealed to anybody over there”.
That Anglo American was included must be because of their dominance of the South African and Namibian economies, through their mining and other economic concerns.