Officers search the crash web site after the airplane carrying Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjold (1905 – 1961), Secretary-Common of the United Nations, got here down close to Ndola in Zambia, leading to his dying, September 1961. Hammarskjold was on his option to negotiate a ceasefire with President Moise Tshombe of Katanga. (Picture by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Photographs)
On the ultimate day of my analysis journey to the Copper Belt of Zambia, the place I used to be analyzing the consequences of essential minerals mining on human and environmental rights I discovered myself with just a few hours to spare earlier than my flight. With time to kill, I made a decision to go to the Dag Hammarskjöld Crash Website Memorial. What I anticipated to be an off-the-cuff go to was a profoundly inspiring expertise, one which felt nearly as if the universe had guided me there.
Dag Hammarskjöld, though not a extensively recognised title at this time, was a major determine in international diplomacy because the second secretary basic of the United Nations. At simply 47 years previous, when he was appointed in 1953, he stays the youngest individual to have ever held this prestigious place. The Swedish diplomat and economist met a tragic finish in 1961, when his airplane crashed in Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), claiming his life and that of a number of different UN workers members. The crash occurred throughout his mission to mediate a ceasefire within the Congo Disaster.
Whereas preliminary studies attributed the tragedy to pilot error, new proof suggests the airplane was shot down in an assassination plot, probably with the complicity of British colonial authorities who could have sought to guard their mining pursuits within the Congo.
Throughout his tenure, Hammarskjöld was famend for his unwavering ethical rules and his dedication to strengthening the newly established United Nations, each internally and on the worldwide stage. He performed a pivotal position within the first UN peacekeeping missions in Egypt and the Congo, personally intervening to resolve vital diplomatic crises, together with the Congo Disaster. After the liberation of Belgian Congo from colonial rule, tensions escalated as Congolese troops turned towards the Belgian colonisers, resulting in widespread violence and destruction of property.
Within the mineral-rich Katanga province, Moise Tshombe, with the backing of Belgian mercenaries, declared independence from the newly shaped Republic of the Congo (at this time the Democratic Republic of the Congo), igniting intense battle amongst varied factions. This turmoil culminated in a navy coup in 1961, the place Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Mobutu seized energy from Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Previous to the coup, the Congolese authorities had appealed to Hammarskjöld for intervention, searching for the deployment of peacekeeping forces to revive order. A essential peace negotiation was scheduled to happen in a impartial location, and Hammarskjöld chosen Ndola because the assembly web site. He, together with a number of UN workers members and safety personnel, boarded the DC6 plane to attend this important assembly.
Göran Björkdahl, a Swedish help employee, spent years investigating the mysterious circumstances surrounding Hammarskjöld’s dying, uncovering proof that contradicted the official narrative of pilot error. Björkdahl travelled to Ndola, the place he interviewed a number of eyewitnesses who had been excluded from the unique investigation. These witnesses offered compelling testimonies that pointed to foul play. Dickson Mbewe, an 84-year-old resident of Ndola, recounted: “Abruptly, we noticed one other plane method the larger plane at better pace and launch hearth which appeared as a vivid mild” (Björkdahl, 2011).
These eyewitness accounts aligned with extra proof uncovered by Björkdahl, together with beforehand unpublished telegrams from the times main as much as Hammarskjöld’s dying on 17 September 1961. These paperwork revealed the deep frustration of United States and British officers over a UN navy operation, ordered by Hammarskjöld, aimed toward quelling a revolt in Congo’s Katanga area — a revolt supported by Western mining corporations and mercenaries. Hammarskjöld’s agency stance on decolonisation had more and more alienated him from practically all the most important powers on the UN Safety Council.
Throughout my go to to the crash web site, a neighborhood tour information led my native companion and me across the memorial, recounting the story with nice element and vigour. He defined that Hammarskjöld’s airplane had taken an extended and winding route from Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), via Tanzania after which into Northern Rhodesia in an try to evade potential attackers. Because the airplane approached Ndola, it mysteriously went radio silent, and the explanations for this stay unclear.
In response to the information, witnesses claimed the airplane made at least three makes an attempt to method the runway. Some consider this was as a result of the runway lights had been turned off, making it troublesome for the pilot to see the place to soundly land. Others reported seeing a second airplane method the DC6, with some witnesses claiming they noticed flashes resembling gunfire coming from this second plane.
Björkdahl famous that witnesses additionally described suspicious actions by Northern Rhodesian safety forces on the morning of the crash. A number of recalled that troopers and police had already cordoned off the crash web site hours earlier than it was formally declared discovered.
“There was a bunch of white troopers carrying a physique … I heard individuals saying there was a person who was discovered alive and needs to be taken to the hospital. No one was allowed to remain there,” stated Mbewe, elevating critical questions concerning the destiny of Harold Julian, the only real survivor of the crash who later died in a poorly geared up native hospital.
Dr Mark Lowenthal, who handled Julian, later expressed deep remorse, stating, “I look upon the episode as having been certainly one of my most egregious skilled failures” (Björkdahl).
Regardless of the absence of a definitive conclusion concerning who was behind Hammarskjöld’s dying, Björkdahl’s investigation suggests a motive. “It’s clear there have been a number of circumstances pointing to attainable involvement by Western powers. The motive was there — the risk to the West’s pursuits in Congo’s enormous mineral deposits,” Björkdahl remarked. Hammarskjöld’s unwavering dedication to the UN Constitution and worldwide regulation positioned him at odds with the pursuits of highly effective nations, making him a goal throughout a time of intense geopolitical battle.
However past being a compelling historic narrative, why is that this story related to my present analysis into the impact of essential minerals mining on human rights?
Hammarskjöld’s deadly dedication to supporting Congolese sovereignty within the face of resistance from these threatened by the lack of management over the area’s sources finds a troubling parallel within the present-day conflicts within the jap DRC. These conflicts are equally fuelled by the involvement of international actors with vested pursuits within the area’s wealth. Sixty-three years after Hammarskjöld’s dying, Western nations and transnational firms proceed to be deeply implicated within the exploitation of the DRC’s mineral wealth, typically on the extreme expense of native populations.
These actors, via each direct and oblique means, perpetuate instability to keep up entry to useful sources reminiscent of cobalt, nickel and coltan — minerals essential to the “simply” transition from fossil fuels to renewable power. The rhetoric surrounding the power transition typically portrays it as an unproblematic resolution to the local weather disaster, conveniently overlooking the continued violence, displacement and poverty skilled by Congolese (and different African) residents as their nations’ wealth is syphoned off for the good thing about the International North. This historic context underscores the persistent crises that come up when international powers prioritise their financial positive factors over the sovereignty and well-being of African nations.
Charlize Tomaselli is a senior researcher on the Different Data and Improvement Centre within the Options to Extractivism and Local weather Change Programme.