“Top secret” document, which came into the possession of the French journalist and writer Moren Picardreveals that the OAS (“Organization Armée Secrète”, “secret army organization”) French nationalist paramilitary movement opposed to Algerian independence) had “sentenced him” to death UN Secretary-General Doug Hammarskeldwhere was killed in 1961when his plane crashed in Africa, under conditions that remain undetected until today.
Pilot error? Failed diversion attempt? Topple? More than sixty years later, the mystery remains The latest UN investigation into the case is expected to be published in September, in which there are various scenarios, spies, mercenaries, industrialists…
Author of the book “They killed Mr. X.” (Ils ont tué Monsieur H, Paris 2019, published by Seuil), Moren Picard recently located a copy of this OAS document in his files Former Secretary-General of the French Presidency for Africa and Madagascar Jacques Focarkept in the National Archives of France.
The document, seen by the French Agency, concerns the Swede Hammarskeld, has a blue “X” inside a circle and a red stamp with the grade “top secret”. It succeeds strongly against the policy pursued by the then UN Secretary General, against the background of the end of colonialism.
The text, drafted in Paris, underlines that the UN Secretary General is “sentenced to death” for his actions, by decision of the mysterious “steering committee of the OAS”, as it is found that “it is urgent to end its harmful intervention” in international affairs. “The sentence (…) will be carried out as soon as possible,” the document added, dated late July 1961.
The plane carrying Doug Hammarskeld, 56, and 15 other people, crashed on 18 September 1961in what was then Northern Rhodesia (modern-day Zambia), as it was going to negotiate an agreement ceasefire in Katangaan area with great mineral wealth.
The province seceded in July 1960, following the independence of the former Belgian Congo. With this trip, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations also sought to pull a unit of blue helmets out of the dangerous situation in which he had found himself.
The UN investigation into the circumstances of the crash resumed in 2015-2016, following the discovery of new evidence. The Agency continues to study it shooting scenario of the plane. In 2019, his researchers had disapproved of complete absence of cooperation from the USAthe United Kingdom and South Africa to shed light on the case.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
