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The Assassination of Lumumba By TRICONTINENTAL MAGAZINE #146
The assassination of Patrice Emery Lumumba was a state crime decided at the highest levels of the Belgian government at the time, in which Count Harold D'Aspremont Lynden, Belgian minister of African affairs, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, also intervened. Hammarskjöld agreed to send the Blue Berets to take the place of Belgian troops, but would not oppose the Katangan secession.
"On the night of January 17, 1961, it was cold in Katanga," says Ludo De Witte, the man who was obliged to open a parliamentary inquest in Belgium in order to determine the responsibility of that country's government in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba.
At 10:00 p.m. on that date, a convoy of two jeeps and four automobiles departed the residence abandoned by Lucien Brouwez, which had been occupied by Belgian commissioner Franz Verscheure1, in charge of police services for the spurious secessionist regime of Moisés Tshombe2. Together with Verscheure, who was driving the fourth car, traveled Belgian Captain Julien Gat, and handcuffed in the back were Patrice Emery Lumumba, Maurice Mpolo - minister of youth and sports, and Joseph Okito - vice-president of the Congolese senate. Tshombe and his "ministers" Kitenge, Muonog, and Kibwe traveled in the other vehicles.
Forty-five minutes later, they arrived at the place where the crime would be committed, where the graves had already been dug. Eight soldiers and nine policemen selected for the execution were standing by. Captain Julien Gat turned to the "ministers" and they exchanged a few words, while Commissioner Verscheure removed the prisoners' handcuffs and said they would given them time to prepare themselves, to pray, which was rejected by Lumumba. The prisoners, barefoot, the clothing that covered their bloodied bodies in shreds, and their faces swollen from the blows they had received, walked in silence toward the graves.
The first to fall in the burst of fire from the FAL rifles was Joseph Okito, followed by Mpolo; the last was Lumumba. The head of the execution squad was Belgian Captain Julien Gat. In order to hide the assassination, at first it was said that Lumumba and his two companions had fled.
Four days later, two Belgians were sent to exhume the bodies, cut them up with a metal saw, crush the skulls, and throw everything in a tank of sulfuric acid. In a recent reconstruction of the facts carried out by the Belgian VRT network, Gerard Soete, a police chief who worked for the Katanga regime, confessed - as did De Witte - that he was ordered to make the cadaver disappear with sulfuric acid, a task he carried out with his brother. He added: "It was not easy, we had to cut them up. I kept two of Lumumba's teeth and a bullet covered with part of the skull as souvenirs." All of this was recounted without his showing any emotion.
The assassins confess Lumumba had sealed his fate in part on June 30, 1960. That day, at the moment of agreeing to independence for the Congo, King Balduino presented colonization as the genial civilizing work of Leopold II3 and Congolese independence as a product of Belgian generosity.
In his response, Lumumba began by denouncing the humiliating system of slavery imposed by Leopold II, and said: "We have known the ironies, the insults, the blows that we suffered morning, afternoon, and night because we were black. We have known how our lands were exploited in the name of supposed legal texts, which did nothing more then recognize the law of the strongest."
The speech was interrupted eight times by the applause of the Congolese who were present. A livid King Balduino - as well as Belgian Prime Minister Gastón Eyskens and General Janssens, commander-in-chief of public forces, whose face became red with anger - would never pardon the offense.
"Lumumba was executed not for being a communist, but because he interfered in Belgium's plans," De Witte said. His statement was made on television 39 years after the acts that implicated the European state in encouraging the Katangan secession, with the aim of protecting the interests of Union Miničre and other Belgian companies.
In August 1960, then head of the CIA Allen Dulles sent a cablegram to his agent in Leopoldville (Kinshasa): "We conclude that his (Lumumba's) removal must be an urgent and prime objective" and, in the current circumstances, merits high priority in "our covert action."
For his part, Richard Bissell, head of CIA operations, said that [we] are studying a range of methods to free [ourselves] of Lumumba, in terms of destroying him physically, of putting him out of commission, or of eliminating his political influence.
By July 13 the Belgian ambassador in Leopoldville was already courting Foreign Minister Justin Bomboko to convince him to take over as head of the army or of the government. For his part, the Yankee ambassador, Timberlake, pushed Kasabubu into action.
On September 10, Pierre Wigny, Belgian foreign minister, wrote to his collaborators in Brazzaville: "The constituted authorities should put Lumumba into a state of "nui." Immediately Operation Barracuda was put into action. This consisted of the kidnapping Lumumba by a unit directed by the former Belgian commander of public forces, Noęl Dedeken. This plan was analyzed at the highest levels and approved by the Belgian minister for African affairs, Count Harold D' Aspremont Lynden, but was finally abandoned in mid-October, since a plan in which Belgian participation was not so visible was preferable.
Once the coup d'état led by Joseph Desiree Mobutu was carried out and Justin Bomboki was placed at the head of the cabinet, the plans of the CIA and the Belgian government began to bear fruit.
Lumumba's last days Lumumba's martyrdom began when he was detained on October 20, 1960, by Col. Mobutu, who surrounded his residence with his troops, supported by a second cordon of Blue Berets. The Belgians, who helped to consolidate the Katangan secession, got closer to Mobutu, the real power behind Kasabubu in Leopoldville. They made use of his agents George Denis and André Lahaye, who was national security chief and who at that time advised his former confidante, Victor Nendaka, becoming head of security for Mobutu. Meanwhile, Col. Louis Marličre, of the "Barracuda" plan, sealed his contact with the man who had been his clerk sergeant, Joseph Desiree Mobutu.
On November 27, Lumumba managed to escape and attempted to get to Stanleyville (Kisangani), but Hammarskjöld denied him the protection he had previously given to Kasabubu and Bomboko.
Hammarskjöld, aware that Mobutu's men could not stop an offensive if the Lumumba forces reorganized themselves, promised the Yankee ambassador to the United Nations that he would "interpose the Blue Beret troops between Stanleyville and Leopoldville," and Lumumba could not reach Stanleyville.
On December 1, the Congolese leader was captured in the Kasai region by the Mobutu forces. Brutally beaten, in front of the impotence and indignation of Ghanaian Blue Berets, whose superiors had instructed them not to attempt to free him, he was taken back to Leopoldville, where he was once again savagely beaten. On December 3, he was moved to the Hardy military base in Thysville (Mbanza-Ngungu), where Moroccan Blue Berets protested the beating inflicted on the prisoner, causing national security chief Lahaye to fear that uprisings would break out to free Lumumba.
At the same time, Antoine Gizenga was regrouping Lumumba's followers, and it therefore became pressing to liquidate him, according to a telegram sent by Belgian minister Count D'Aspremont to Lahaye on January: "The liberation of Lumumba would carry with it disastrous consequences."
In the early hours of January 13, disorder broke out on the Hardy and Sonankulu bases in Thysville (Mbanza-Ngungu). The soldiers were demanding a wage increase, the formation of a new government, and the liberation of Patrice Lumumba.
Two options were open to the assassins. The first was to place Lumumba in the hands of the secessionist Tshombé; the second was to turn him over to Albert Kalonji, who months earlier had proclaimed himself monarch by divine right in Southern Kasai. The first solution was chosen.
On the following day (January 14), Colonel Marličre confirmed with Commander Verdickt, the information officer for the Katanga police, the transfer of Lumumba. In light of Tshombé's indecision, Count D'Aspremont Lynden sent, via the Belgian General Consul in Elizabethville (Lubumbashi), a revealing telegram: "Ministry of African affairs insists personally before President Tshombé that Lumumba be transferred to Katanga within the shortest possible time."
At 4:30 in the morning, Victor Nendaka arrived in Thysville, and at 5:30 a.m. Lumumba and his two companions were taken from the base under heavy guard. At the same time, base commander Louis Gonzague sent a cablegram to Leopoldville: "The package has left."
It took them an hour and a half to arrive at the airstrip of the Congo Cement Company. One hour later the plane piloted by Frenchman Jean Beaument landed, and the three prisoners, who - according to Ludo de Witte - "were brutally treated by Lt. Zuzu," were placed on board. At 9:30 a.m., the small plane landed in Moanda, a beach resort on the Atlantic, where there were no Blue Berets. There they were transferred to a DC-4, whose crew was made up of the Belgians Piet Van der Meersh and Jean-Louis Drugmand, Australian First Officer Jack Dixon, and French aviation mechanic Robert Fau. In addition, the Mobutu commissioner in charge of defense and five Congolese soldiers traveled with them.
During the six-hour flight, the prisoners - who traveled tied and gagged with adhesive tape - were mistreated physically, beaten about the face, had the hair of their beards pulled out, and were kicked in the stomach. All this was witnessed with indifference by the Mobutu commissioner.
Upon landing at the airport at Elizabethville, Belgian Captain Julien Gat took charge of the prisoners, who descended from the plane being hit with rifle butts, and led them to a jeep where the beating continued. From less than 200 meters away, Swedish sergeant-major Lindgren, head of the Blue Berets, watched the scene through his binoculars but had instructions from his chief, New Zealander Ian Berendsen, not to intervene.
The prisoners of seven Katangan military police and six Belgians, among them Verscheure, Gat and Lt. Claude Grandelet, arrived at the abandoned house of Lucien Brouwez. The military police had received clear instructions from their Belgian advisor, Lt. Gabriel Michelsa : "If the Swedish or Moroccan troops of the United Nations try to intervene, shoot; in case of disaster, kill Lumumba before he can be freed by the UN."
Nearly 40 years after the vile assassination, light has begun to shine on the abominable crime, coldly planned by the United States and Belgium, countries who are currently "champions" in defense of human rights. Patrice Lumumba's mother (Mama Amato)5, said that as a boy he was a passionate fan of stories of the resistance by the Tetela to Leopold II 's army, in particular the one led by mythic chief Ngongo Lutete. Undoubtedly, from an early age he was nursed on the pride of his people and the rejection of foreign invaders.
Bibliography De Witte, Ludo: Crisis in Congo. Who Killed Lumumba? De Witte, Ludo: The Assassination of Lumumba. Editorial Karthala, Jeune Afrique No. 2056 and 2073. Notes: 1 "Advisor" to Pius Sapwe, head of the Katanga police. 2 He initiated the secession under instructions from the Belgians. To that effect, the deputy secretary of the UN sent to the Congo, Ralph Bunche, telegraphed Secretary-General Hammarskjöld at the beginning of August: "Tshombé is a puppet directed by the Belgians." 3 Leopold II made the so-called Free State of the Congo his personal property and not that of the Belgian kingdom. The colonial exploitation of the Congo was the most brutal that can be recalled. 4 He later changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko. 5 She died on July 13, 2000, at the age of 100. March 2002 |