Per Bengt Magnus Ingemar Rösiö (14 May 1927 – 19 May 2019) was a Swedish diplomat and author. He served as Ambassador to 17 countries and authored 20 books, mainly on diplomacy. He is more widely known however for having conducted the Swedish government's inquiry into the death of the

UN Secretary General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

Dag Hammarskjöld Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld ( , ; 29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 196 ...

where he maintained that there was no foul play.

Early life

Rösiö was born on 14 May 1927 in

Åmål Åmål () is a locality and the seat of Åmål Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 9,065 inhabitants in 2010. It is situated on the western shore of Vänern. In 2005 Åmål received second prize in the international competition ...

, Sweden, the son of Birger Rösiö, a district veterinarian, and his wife Jonita (née Hedin). He received a

Candidate of Law Candidate of Law (Latin: ''candidatus/candidata juris/iuris'') is both a graduate law degree awarded to law students in the Nordic region as well as an academic status designation for advanced Law School students in German-speaking countries. ...

degree from

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

in 1949 and carried out university studies in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

from 1947 to 1950 before becoming an attaché at the

Ministry for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

in 1951.

Career

Rösiö served at the legation in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

in 1953, at the Consulate General in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

in 1954 where he was Trade Commissioner from 1955 to 1958 and where he became vice consul in 1957. He was embassy secretary in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

from 1958 to 1959 and secretary at the Swedish Foreign Ministry from 1959 to 1961. There Rösiö was secretary of the administration investigation for aid to developing countries in 1960. He was then first vice consul in

Léopoldville Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...

from 1961 to 1962. Rösiö was administrative director of the

Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, ( sv, Stiftelsen Dag Hammarskjölds Minnesfond) is a non-profit foundation based in Uppsala, Sweden, that aims to strengthen policy on international cooperation, development and peacebuilding through its variou ...

from 1962 to 1964, first embassy secretary in

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from 1964 to 1965,

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Deputy Resident Representative in Algiers in 1965 and embassy counsellor in

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

from 1966 to 1969. He was consul general in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

from 1969 to 1971 and deputy director at the Foreign Ministry from 1972 to 1973. Rösiö was ambassador in Jeddah from 1974 to 1977, ambassador in

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

from 1977 to 1979, ambassador in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

from 1979 to 1981 and ambassador in

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(also accredited to Rangoon) from 1981 to 1985. He was then consul general in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

from 1985 to 1990 when he was appointed regional ambassador for French-speaking

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo ...

at the Swedish Foreign Ministry. He left the post in 1992. In 1991, following reports in the British press about a Belgian mercenary who claimed he shot down Dag Hammarskjöld's plane on 18 September 1961 (while Rösiö served as consul in Léopoldville), the Swedish government decided to launch a one-man inquiry which was conducted by Rösiö. He pointed out a number of questions in previous reports, but came to the conclusion that the cause of the crash was indisputably pilot error. Claims of the fuselage being riddled with bullet holes were false, a fact to which he could attest since he was one of the first people to inspect the wreckage. He also proved that accounts by mercenaries contained glaring inconsistencies (the fuel tanks of their planes were far too small to cover the distances they claimed). Since the report was submitted in 1993 it has served as Sweden's official stance on what happened in

Ndola Ndola is the third largest city in Zambia and third in terms of size and population, with a population of 475,194 (''2010 census provisional''), after the capital, Lusaka, and Kitwe, and the second largest in terms of infrastructure development aft ...

. On some of his ambassador posts, he had a large number of side accreditations and was thus one of the few Swedish diplomats who served in more than 25 countries. Overall, he visited more than 140 countries during his life. Rösiö also penned more than 500 articles after his retirement from the Foreign Service, many of which were later published in anthologies. He was a restless observer of events, both at home and abroad, and perhaps most remembered by his books is ''Yrke: diplomat'' (1988) ccupation: diplomatwhich gives a full introduction to what the diplomatic profession entails.

Personal life

In 1955 he married Joan Binns (born 1930). They divorced and in 1969 Rösiö married Görel Pernvik, daughter of the managing director Allan Pernvik and Barbro (née Hermansson). He had two children; Josefine Hjelm and Adrian Rösiö.

Bibliography

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References

External links