South African Institute for Maritime Research

South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR or SAIMAR, pronounced /ˈsaɪmɑːr/)[1] is the name of a paramilitary organisation that is believed to have performed clandestine operations to support white supremacy in Africa.

SAIMR first became publicly known during sessions of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in August 1998.[2][3] A year before the second elections after the end of apartheid, documents emerged implying SAIMR had a role in a plot to kill Dag Hammarskjöld, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in 1961.[4]

Letters with SAIMR's official letterhead were found during the TRC hearings. The letters suggested that MI6 and the CIA had agreed that Hammarskjöld should be removed, a suggestion both organisations denied.[5]

While conducting research on her 2011 book about the 1961 Ndola Transair Sweden DC-6 crash that killed Hammarskjöld, Susan Williams noticed that the original documents from the TRC have disappeared.[6]

A report by the United Nations prepared in 2014 noted that the details provided in the SAIMR documents lent some credence to theories that Hammarskjöld may have been assassinated, but noted that neither the authenticity of the documents nor their contents could be verified.[7]

The 2019 documentary film Cold Case Hammarskjöld by Mads Brügger brought renewed media attention to these claims.[8] The documentary discloses testimony from an alleged ex-SAIMR operative that SAIMR deliberately spread HIV among black people in Africa.

The documentary also claims that the mother of a young woman named Dagmar Feil tried to bring the killing of her daughter to the attention of the TRC, implying that her daughter had worked with SAIMR to spread HIV among black people and had wanted to make that public.

References

  1. ^ Apuzzo, Matt (27 January 2019). "Quest to Solve Assassination Mystery Revives an AIDS Conspiracy Theory". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 January 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  2. ^ "TRC reveals possible SA involvement in UN chief's death". South African Press Association. 19 August 1998. Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2025 – via Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
  3. ^ "UN assassination plot denied". BBC News. 19 August 1998. Archived from the original on 16 January 2007. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  4. ^ Lynch, Colum (1 August 2016). "U.N. to Probe Whether Iconic Secretary-General Was Assassinated". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 3 August 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  5. ^ Ankomah, Baffour (13 March 2019). ""We deliberately spread HIV/Aids in South Africa," Former Apartheid-era intelligence service officer confesses". New African. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  6. ^ Williams, Susan (2014). Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-19-023-140-8.
  7. ^ United Nations General Assembly Session 68 Agenda item 175. Investigation into the conditions and circumstances resulting in the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld and of the members of the party accompanying him A/68/800 pages 30–33. 21 March 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  8. ^ Graham-Harrison, Emma; Rocksen, Andreas; Brügger, Mads (20 January 2019). "Coups and murder: the sinister world of apartheid's secret mercenaries". The Observer. Archived from the original on 21 January 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
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