Authors: Khamala CA*
From 1953-1961, Dag Hammarskjöld served as United Nations’ second Secretary General. He pioneered the Responsibility to protect concept. In 2015, Ban Ki-moon the organization’s eighth Secretary-General, instituted Eminent Persons to investigate the circumstances resulting in Hammarskjöld’s tragic death with colleagues accompanying him aboard ill-fated flight SE-BDY. Two years later, the General Assembly extended former Tanzanian Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman’s investigative mandate. On 7 October 2019, their final report calls on Britain, Russia, South Africa and the United States to conduct a dedicated internal review of sensitive records to determine whether relevant information about that incident exists. These four nations may be withholding information that could solve the puzzle. Who benefits from continued secrecy shrouding Hammarskjöld’s death and why? Are murderous “acts of state” immune from prosecution?
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