![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/witness-accounts-provide-fresh-intrigue-over-the-mysterious-death-of-dag-hammarskjold/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667781488380.jpg&description=One of the Cold War's murkiest mysteries has been injected with fresh intrigue after witness accounts linked white mercenaries to the plane crash that killed the United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold. The suggestion that Congolese rebels and "dogs of war" were in cahoots with western intelligence has lingered since the Swede's death in 1961, when his chartered DC-6 Albertina fell out of the sky during an African peace mission. Now, a progress report on the UN investigation into the incident highlights discrepancies at the crash site, a heavy mercenary presence and a failure by Britain and that US to disclose key intelligence, have added weight to conspiracy theories. Hammarskjold's unburnt body was found, with the ace of spades playing card tucked into a collar, near the wreckage and the charred remains of 14 other passengers near Ndola in what was then the British colony of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. One survivor died of his injuries days later. The UN chief had been due to negotiate a ceasefire in the mineral-rich breakaway republic of Katanga shortly after Congo's independence from Belgium and at the height of the Cold War. READ MORE: * 'Last year, the FBI foiled a kidnap plot, now a killer is dispatched to deal with me' * 'Lady of the Dunes' identified nearly 50 years after killing * The mysterious case of the dead Saudi sisters: They were 'like two little sparrows, scared of something' * 'Timid and upset': Mystery deepens over Saudi sisters' deaths in Australia * The mysterious murder of David Robinson, and the fresh lead 24 years on New information "supports the finding that foreign mercenaries, including pilots, were a significant force in and around Katanga in September 1961", Mohamed Chande Othman, who is leading the investigation, wrote to Antonio Guterres, the current UN secretary-general, in a recent letter. Accounts given to Othman's team included a witness who stumbled upon the crash site and observed that the surrounding bush was on fi){kind=link}
One of the Cold War’s murkiest mysteries has been injected with fresh intrigue after witness accounts linked white mercenaries to the plane crash that killed the United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld.
The suggestion that Congolese rebels and “dogs of war” were in cahoots with western intelligence has lingered since the Swede’s death in 1961, when his chartered DC-6 Albertina fell out of the sky during an African peace mission. Now, a progress report on the UN investigation into the incident highlights discrepancies at the crash site, a heavy mercenary presence and a failure by Britain and that US to disclose key intelligence, have added weight to conspiracy theories.
Hammarskjöld’s unburnt body was found, with the ace of spades playing card tucked into a collar, near the wreckage and the charred remains of 14 other passengers near Ndola in what was then the British colony of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia.
One survivor died of his injuries days later. The UN chief had been due to negotiate a ceasefire in the mineral-rich breakaway republic of Katanga shortly after Congo’s independence from Belgium and at the height of the Cold War.
New information “supports the finding that foreign mercenaries, including pilots, were a significant force in and around Katanga in September 1961”, Mohamed Chande Othman, who is leading the investigation, wrote to Antonio Guterres, the present secretary-general, in a recent letter.