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Dag Hammarskjöld Remembered

Introduction
50 years ago on 18 September 1961, in the thick forests of Ndola a plane carrying then United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld and other officials crashed and burst into flames. The Northern News (Northern Rhodesia's National daily Newspaper) dated 19 September 1961 then reported "The body of Mr.Dag Hammarskjöld, United Nations Secretary General, was found amid the wreckage of a UN plane  seven miles from here today. There was one survivor form the 14 aboard. Sabotage has not been ruled out. There is some official speculation that the plane may have been shot down". Dag Hammarskjöld was on a peace mission to Congo, where there had been fighting between rebels and the government. Who was Dag Hammarskjöld and what is his legacy as the world remembers him? Dag Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Dag Hammarskjöld remains the only U.N. Secretary-General to die in office, and his death occurred en route to cease-fire negotiations. Praised by many, President of the United States John F. Kennedy called Dag Hammarskjöld “the greatest statesman of our century". 
   
                                                                 Dag Hammarskjold                                                                                                                  
Early life and career
Dag Hammarskjöld was born in Jönköping, Sweden, but spent most of his childhood in Uppsala. The fourth and youngest son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Prime Minister of Sweden from 1914 to 1917, and Agnes Hammarskjöld (née Almquist), Hammarskjöld's ancestors served the Monarchy of Sweden since the 17th century. He studied first at Katedralskolan and then at Uppsala University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and a Master's degree in Political economy. During this time he served for a year as the first Curator at Uplands Nation later moving to Stockholm. 

Appointment as UN Secretary General
When Trygve Lie resigned from his post as UN Secretary-General in 1953, the United Nations Security Council recommended Hammarskjöld for the post. It came as a surprise to him.[3] Seen as a competent technocrat without political views, he was selected on 31 March by a majority of 10 out of eleven Security Council members. The UN General Assembly elected him in the 7–10 April session by 57 votes out of 60. In 1957, he was re-elected.

During his term, Dag Hammarskjöld tried to smooth relations between Israel and the Arab states. Other highlights include a 1955 visit to China to negotiate release of 15 captured US pilots who had served in theKorean War, the 1956 establishment of the United Nations Emergency Force, and his intervention in the 1956 Suez Crisis. He is given credit by some historians for allowing participation of the Holy See within the United Nations that year.

In 1960, the former Belgian Congo and then newly independent Congo asked for UN aid in defusing the Congo Crisis. Dag Hammarskjöld made four trips to the Congo. His efforts towards the decolonisation of Africa were considered insufficient by the Soviet Union; in September 1960, the Soviet government denounced his decision to send a UN emergency force to keep the peace. They demanded his resignation and the replacement of the office of Secretary-General by a three-man directorate with a built-in veto, the "troika". 

Legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld
Hammarskjöld's death was a memorable event. At the site in Ndola exists the Dag Hammarskjöld Crash Site Memorial, which is under consideration for inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A press release issued by the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo stated that, "... in order to pay a tribute to this great man, now vanished from the scene, and to his colleagues, all of whom have fallen victim to the shameless intrigues of the great financial Powers of the West... the Government has decided to proclaim Tuesday, 19 September 1961, a day of national mourning." 

                                                     Scene of plane crash. Source: BBC


Dag Hammarskjöld received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961, having been nominated before his death. On 6th April 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Hammarskjöld's image will be used on the 1000 kronor banknote, the highest-denomination banknote in Sweden. After Hammarskjöld's death, U.S. President John F. Kennedy regretted that he opposed the UN policy in the Congo and said: “I realise now that in comparison to him, I am a small man. He was the greatest statesman of our century.”


In Zambia apart from the memorial site, a football stadium was named after him, though it no longer exists after being brought down to have a new one constructed. A new stadium has since been constructed on the Ndola-Kitwe dual carriage way. Maybe this should be named 
Dag Hammarskjöld stadium? There is also a library in Kitwe at the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation named after him. At the time I last used the library and also served on the user group in 2002, it was the one of the best libraries in Zambia. My serving on the library's user group also enabled me to attend the 40th anniversary of Dag Hammarskjold's death in September 2001.at the Dag Hammarskjold memorial site (see photo below).



Conclusion
In closing, let me end by saying that Dag Hammarskjold has left a legacy of peace. He died in the course of duty while to broker peace between warring factions. No wonder the Financial Times of 2011 reported that Dag Hammarskjold has remained the benchmark against which later UN Secretary-Generals have been judged. The circumstances of Dag's death remain a mystery. One theory is that the plane was shot down by a second plane. Read here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/17/dag-hammarskjold-un-secretary-general-crash. The account makes for some compelling reading as it raises a lot of unanswered questions surrounding Dag Hammarskjold death. Even if we do not know the truth here on earth, we will in eternity. Let me end by quoting Dag Hammarskjold's words on life "We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into is ours. He who wills adventure will experience it - according to the measure of his courage. He who wills sacrifice will be sacrificed according to the measure of his purity of heart".

References
Hammarskjold, D. (1964) Markings Leif Sjoberg and WH Auden (trans) London: Faber and Faber.

Wikipedia (2011) Dag Hammarskjöld   [Online]. Available from:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dag_Hammarskjöld. 

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