Investigation Reveals the Reasons of Tragic Death of Dag Hammarskjöld
Mr. Mohamed Chande Othman, former Chief Justice of Tanzania, presented his report to the Secretary-General as Eminent Person in relation to the investigation into the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld and of the members of the party accompanying him on flight SE-BDY, the aircraft carrying the former Secretary-General and his party that crashed near Ndola on the night of 17-18 September 1961.
Mr. Othman was appointed by the Secretary-General in February 2017 pursuant to General Assembly resolution 71/260, and is familiar with this matter from his role as Chair of the 2015 Independent Panel of Experts.
The Eminent Person’s mandate was to review potential new information, including that which may be available from Member States, to assess its probative value, to determine the scope that any further investigation should take and, if possible, to draw conclusions from the investigations already conducted, including the 2015 Independent Panel of Experts (A/70/132) and the 2013 Hammarskjöld Commission (A/68/800).
The Eminent Person’s report summarizes the new information made available to him from Member States and other sources and assesses whether and to what degree that information helps to establish the conditions and circumstances resulting in the tragic deaths. The Eminent Person’s report also sets out his findings, conclusions and recommendations.
According to a UN statement released Wednesday, the Secretary-General expressed his gratitude for the work undertaken by the Eminent Person and is now studying the report.
In accordance with General Assembly resolution 71/260, the Secretary-General will transmit the report to the General Assembly before the end of its seventy-first session and report on progress made.
