Dag Hammarskjold
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will propose reopening an inquiry into allegations that Dag Hammarskjold, one of the most revered secretaries-general in the organization's history, was
assassinated by an apartheid-era South African paramilitary organization that was backed by the CIA, British intelligence, and a Belgian mining company, according to several officials familiar with the case.
The move follows the South African government's recent discovery of decades old intelligence documents detailing the alleged plot, dubbed
Operation Celeste, that was designed to kill Hammarskjold. In a recent letter to the United Nations, South African authorities said
the documents have been transferred to their Justice Ministry so U.N. officials could review them, according to diplomatic sources. The South African Mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. The CIA has previously
dismissed allegations that it was behind Hammarskjold's death as "absurd and without foundation."
This new information (the discovery of which has not previously been reported) is surfacing more than a year after a U.N. panel of experts, chaired by Tanzanian Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman, wrapped up a wide-ranging review of fresh evidence that had emerged in the years following the mysterious 55-year-old air tragedy. The panel urged the secretary-general, who is already required by a 1962 General Assembly resolution to report on any new evidence shedding light on Hammarskjold's death, to keep pressing governments and their intelligence agencies to disclose or declassify information that could fill gaps in the evidence surrounding the tragedy.
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