 ... somebody arranged the
threads?
You were Sweden’s deputy minister of
foreign affairs, overseeing decisions of
international economic character when you
received the call. On 7th April 1953, you
were appointed Secretary General of the
United Nations. Two days later, you
arrived in New York … and you
explained to the world how you saw your
tasks …
2  … to
assist from within those who take history
forming decisions, listening and
analyzing and trying to understand
completely and with all might in order to
give correct advices once it is felt
necessary …
But the events in following
years taught you, that within the real
power-centres of the world your advice
was not asked for.
• Summer 1956: Sues-crisis after
nationalization of the channel by Egypt’s
Nasser
• October 1956: Uprising in Hungary,
at the same time: Britain, France and
Israel are marching into the canal-zone
You did not befriend the governments of
Britain, of France, of the Soviet Union
— all three Permanent Members of the
UN’s Security Council!
When the Soviets suppressed the
Hungarians you watched, still powerless,
but you mobilized international police
forces of the United Nations in the
canal-zone.
2 Through
injustice — never justice. Through
justice — never injustice.
Within four years you had
learned your lesson … you told them
on 26th September 1957, Dag, in front of
their General Assembly! And please, Kofi,
listen carefully …
2 I do not
believe that member-states should ask the
Secretary General to act — if
neither from the Charta of the United
Nations nor from decisions of its main
bodies directions can be construed for
his action; however, within these borders
I see it as my duty to make use of my
powers and, surely, of the machinery of
the organisation as far as possible and
to the extend which is possible
considering the practical circumstances
of the given time.
On the other hand, I believe that it
follows the meaning of the Charta to
expect from the Secretary General that he
acts without such directions should he
see it as necessary to fill some gaps,
which may appear in the peace-serving
systems of the Charta and of traditional
diplomacy.
These were your words, Dag, and
in the decisive second part — no one
noticed it — you quoted, almost word
for word, that man whom we know already
as the father of the idea for the draft
of a worldwide cosmopolitan federation:
Immanuel Kant.
We are now quite sure: you studied his
work!
In his old German, Kant did write in his
essay about the ETERNAL PEACE — and
we compare it with your words …
LET ROLL THE TEXT, PLEASE:
 Der
moralische Politiker wird es sich
zum Grundsatz machen: wenn einmal
Gebrechen in der Staatsverfassung oder im
Staatenverhältnis angetroffen werden,
die man nicht hat verhüten können, so
sey es Pflicht, vornehmlich für
Staatsoberhäupter, dahin bedacht zu
seyn, wie sie, sobald wie möglich,
gebessert, und dem Naturrecht, so wie es
in der Idee der Vernunft uns zum Muster
vor Augen steht, angemessen gemacht
werden könne: sollte es auch ihrer
Selbstsucht Aufopferungen kosten.
Again, we offer a rough
translation in modern English:
The moral politician will follow this
principle: should it happen that a defect
of the constitution or of the condition
of the state has been recognized as a
failure which could not be prevented,
then it would be the task especially of
Heads of State to correct it as soon as
possible, thereby following the right of
nature as it is given to us by the idea
of common sense, even if it means to
sacrifice their own selfishness.
Did you try to invent
cosmopolitan ideas as part of a
world-political framework; did you try
— on your own — to fill gaps
within the institutional systems for the
securing of peace?
Your function had changed! Did you change
with it?
In November 1959, you were in the Laotian
capital Vientiane, in spring 1960 you
came to Africa — the racial policies
of the South African Apartheid-regime had
to be dealt with. More African capitals
were on your travel agenda. The 30th June
of this year saw Belgium-Congo to arrive
at a disastrous destination, the
independence. A few days later, some
twenty-four thousand men of the Congolese
army mutinied; on 11th July, Moïse
Tschombé declared Katanga with its
treasures of soil as an independent state
— without Katanga no viable Congo!
Tschombé — Kasavubu — Lumumba
... A triangle which was turning its
points, always in another direction
… UN-troops sent by you in mid-July
to Leopoldville could not bring peace
— they were even not capable to
protect you, Dag!
„MORD AM GROSSEN FLUSS”
— „MURDER AT THE GRAND RIVER”
Oh, no — Dag, this isn’t
a headline describing the end of your
negotiations on behalf of the people
along the Congo-river. It is the title of
a book, written by a professional
observer who followed, for a quarter of a
century, African struggles to reach
independence … For him was your role
in this respect a marginal one!
His role he never saw as a marginal one;
the man has a knack for selling
book-titles:
LET ROLL THE TEXT, PLEASE:
•
„Murder at the Grand River”
• „Death in the Paddy Fields”
• „The Hell for the Godless”
• „African Lament of Deaths”
We are calling:
Herr Peter Scholl-Latour, German
TV-correspondent, commentator of
world-issues, bestselling author —
reserving the right to read from his own
books — but to remain silent
otherwise ...
„That is unjust!”
Alright, he will be allowed
— if he wants to — to explain
whether and how in his media-products his
view regarding former colonized people in
Asia and in Africa may have been coined
by the early experiences of him as a
young man during his two years in 1945 as
member of the French expedition corps to
Indochina, and why he was silent about
the fact that his first encounter with
colonized people was looking at them from
behind a gun …
Herr Scholl-Latour, if you please could
abstain for a moment from your French red
wine …
„Who is paying the expenses, anyway?”
... in order to read from your
book the therein contained brief
judgement of the Congo-mission of
UN-troops?
3 „Dilettantes
of the UN-command had not even ordered to
encircle the residence of the
Katanga-chief. The only military plane in
the possession of the separatists, a
French Fouga-Magister, which was more a
training than a fighting plane, caused
much irritation within the ranks of the
blue helmets.”
And where does your knowledge
come from, Herr Scholl-Latour?
3 „I had
missed the first Katanga-campaign of the
United Nations due to my war-reporting
from Algeria. This time I wanted to be
there. The first plane was supposed to
start next morning. I booked the flight
together with a group of mostly British
colleagues.
On board, their mood became relaxed. The
plane was shaken by squalls, and although
it was not even midday, bottles of whisky
made the rounds. Hunting mood took hold
of these press-people from Fleet Street
who were reinforced by a contingent of
old Africa-hands based in Nairobi or in
Salisbury. The Katanga-adventure, they
wanted to be part and parcel of, was seen
as a school-excursion by these
self-confident, quite often bizarre men,
who for the better part, had participated
in the Second World War. They had been
present when Mussolini’s Black
Shirts capitulated in Ethiopia, when the
Japanese offensive run into a deadlock in
Birma. They had fought in North Africa
and in Italy, having spent there, in the
retrospective of former lieutenants,
their best years. In Katanga, they
believed, they may be able to catch
memories of their youth.
During the flight, they referred to me in
detail the story of the first
Katanga-campaign in last September; and
they would not stop laughing about the
amateurish performance of the United
Nations’ troops.”
And, Herr Scholl-Latour, did you
make at least your own picture of the
chef of these UN-troops, of the Secretary
General of the United Nations?
3 „Dag
Hammarskjöld had an unlucky hand in the
Congo, that was the opinion of the
British observers. This man, cool from
outside, and as a reporter from Salisbury
declared, with paranoid characteristics
and — as one could read in his late
poetry — with ambitions as a world‘s
redeemer, was guided by serious
antipathies. Lumumba has been a horror
for him.”
„Zeichen am Weg”, the
German edition of the Hammarskjöld-legacy
was published in 1965, that is twenty-one
years before the German edition of your
book, Herr Scholl-Latour!
Did you ever have a look on it? „Late
poetry” seems to be a misnomer,
since he started to work on his diary in
the age of twenty-one. The script was
found in his New York apartment after his
death, together with an undated letter to
his Swedish cabinet-secretary Leif
Belfrage.
With your permission Dag …
LET ROLL THE TEXT, PLEASE:
2 Dear Leif,
I told you once, perhaps you will
remember, that I was in the habit —
despite everything — to keep a
diary. I would be happy if you would see
about it. Here it is.
It was started without a thought that
somebody would ever read it. My fate,
with everything what was written or said
about me, has changed this. The only
correct profile, which could be sketched,
is laid down in these notes. Therefore, I
thought — during the last years
— a publication may take place;
however, I continued to write for myself
not for an audience.
Should you arrive at the opinion that it
would be worthwhile to print it, then
publish it — as a White Book of
negotiations with me — and with God.
Dag
„Leave it as it is — and leave
the red wine for the gentleman …
I had to learn: news is quite often not
the product of journalistic research, but
too often the product of special interest
of groups …
One method to veil the reality of
context: you split real events into more
and more small pieces until single,
colourful bits and pieces fascinate and
the whole mosaic remains obscure.”
|
