\n UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday pushed for a further inquiry of the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed ex-UN chief Dag Hammarskjold, saying documents from South Africa may help shed light.\n<\/p>\n
\n The former secretary-general died when his plane crashed on September 17 or 18, 1961, near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, now known as Zambia.\n<\/p>\n
\n The cause of the crash has never been established.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ban proposed appointing an eminent person to review documents and \"communications\" from various individuals before re-opening the inquiry.\n<\/p>\n
\n Of particular interest is whether South Africa will be able to recover the original documents detailing a purported plot to kill Hammarskjold code-named Operation Celeste.\n<\/p>\n
\n The alleged plot came to light in 1998 when South Africa's truth and reconciliation commission received a file on the clandestine operation that may have involved a maritime research institute acting as a front for mercenaries.\n<\/p>\n
\n A panel appointed by Ban last year was unable to conclude whether the \"Operation Celeste\" documents were authentic because it examined \"poor quality copies\", Ban said in a report to the General Assembly.\n<\/p>\n
\n That inquiry however said that there was enough information to pursue leads on whether the plane was shot down or the target of \"other interference as a hypothesis of the possible cause of the crash.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Ban said that if South Africa can provide the original documents, it may be possible to conduct forensic tests to determine whether they are fake.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Whether the documents are authentic or not would allow the hypothesis relating to 'Operation Celeste' to be either supported or dispelled, either of which would be a contribution to the historical record,\" Ban added.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a letter included in Ban's report, South Africa offered its full support for the investigation and said it had ordered a search of documents and records concerning Hammarskjold's death.\n<\/p>\n
\n The eminent person tasked with reviewing the documents \"would be in a position to determine the scope that any further inquiry or investigation should take,\" said Ban.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN General Assembly in December 2014 adopted a resolution that called for a full investigation to finally shed light on the Swedish diplomat's death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday pushed for a further inquiry of the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed ex-UN chief Dag Hammarskjold, saying documents from South Africa may help shed light. The former secretary-general died when his plane crashed on September 17 or 18, 1961, near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, now known as Zambia. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-28861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n