Following the death of a later UN Commissioner for Namibia , Bernt Carlsson , on Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 – on the eve of the signing of the Tripartite Accord at UN Headquarters – Ahtisaari was sent to Namibia in April 1989 as the UN Special Representative to head the United Nations Transition Assistance Group ( UNTAG ) . Because of the illegal incursion of SWAPO troops from Angola , the South African appointed Administrator-General ( AG ) , Louis Pienaar , sought Ahtisaari 's agreement to the deployment of SADF troops to stabilize the situation . Ahtisaari took advice from British prime minister Margaret Thatcher , who was visiting the region at the time , and approved the SADF deployment . A period of intense fighting ensued when at least 375 SWAPO insurgents were killed . In July 1989 , Glenys Kinnock and Tessa Blackstone of the British Council of Churches visited Namibia and reported : " There is a widespread feeling that too many concessions were made to South African personnel and preferences and that Martti Ahtisaari was not forceful enough in his dealings with the South Africans . " Perhaps because of his reluctance to authorise this SADF deployment , Ahtisaari was alleged to have been targeted by the South African Civil Cooperation Bureau ( CCB ) . According to a hearing in September 2000 of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission , two CCB operatives ( Kobus le Roux and Ferdinand Barnard ) were tasked not to kill Ahtisaari , but to give him " a good hiding " . To carry out the assault , Barnard had planned to use the grip handle of a metal saw as a knuckleduster . In the event , Ahtisaari did not attend the meeting at the Keetmanshoop Hotel , where Le Roux and Barnard lay in wait for him , and thus Ahtisaari escaped injury
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Martti Ahtisaari