In 1961 WP was on the verge of independence, although both Indonesia and the Netherlands made claims of sovereignty to the territory. Cold war tensions had been injected into the WP sovereignty dispute and, in addition, between the Dutch colonial power and the oil companies in WP; rivalry over WP’s rich oil and gold deposits further added to the complexity of the situation. UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold was preparing to reject both Indonesian and Dutch claims to sovereignty of Papua in favor of granting independence to the West Papuans themselves. However, Hammarskjold’s plan ended abruptly with his death in a midnight plane crash near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. All matters relating to WP, even under the auspices of the United Nations, subsequently became embroiled in the cold war.