Patrice Lumumba

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Image:Lumumba.jpg Patrice Emery Lumumba (2 July, 1925 - 17 January, 1961) was an African nationalist leader and the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it declared its independence in June 1960. Forced out of office during a political crisis in September, he was assassinated in January 1961.

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Path to Prime Minister

Lumumba was born in Onalua in the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo. He was educated at a missionary school and worked in Leopoldville (Kinshasa) and Stanleyville (Kisangani) as a clerk and journalist. In 1955 Lumumba became regional president of a Congolese trade union and joined the Belgian Liberal Party. He was arrested in 1957 on charges of embezzlement and imprisoned for a year. On his release he helped found the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) in 1958. In 1959 Belgium announced a five year path to independence and in the December local elections the MNC won a convincing majority despite Lumumba being under arrest at the time. A 1960 conference in Belgium agreed to bring independence forward to June 1960 with elections in May. Lumumba and the MNC formed the first government on June 23, 1960, with Lumumba as Congo's first prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu as its ceremonial president.

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Deposed and arrested

Lumumba's rule was marked by the political disruption when the province of Katanga declared independence under Moise Tshombe in June 1960 with Belgian support. Despite the arrival of United Nations troops unrest continued and Lumumba sought Soviet aid. In September Lumumba was dismissed from government by Kasavubu, an act of dubious legality; in retaliation, he attempted to dismiss Kasavubu from the presidency. On September 14 a coup d'etat headed by Colonel Joseph Mobutu (who would later gain infamy as President Mobutu Sese Seko) and supported by Kasavubu was successful. Lumumba was arrested on December 1, 1960 by troops of Mobutu. He was captured in Port Francqui and flown to Leopoldville in handcuffs. Mobutu said Lumumba would be tried for inciting the army to rebellion and other crimes. United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld made an appeal to Kasavubu asking that Lumumba be treated according to due process of law. The USSR denounced Hammarskjöld and the Western powers as responsible for Lumumba's arrest and demanded his release.

The United Nations Security Council was called into session on December 7 to consider Soviet demands that the U.N. seek Lumumba's immediate release, the immediate restoration of Lumumba as head of the Congo government, the disarming of the forces of Mobutu, and the immediate evacuation of Belgians from the Congo. Soviet Representative Valerian Zorin refused U.S. demands that he disqualify himself as Security Council President during the debate. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, answering Soviet attacks against his Congo operations, said that if the U.N. force were withdrawn from the Congo "I fear everything will crumble."

Following a U.N. report that Lumumba had been mistreated by his captors, his followers threatened (on December 9) to arrest all Belgians and "start cutting off the heads of some of them" unless Lumumba was released within 48 hours.

The threat to the U.N. cause was intensified by the announcement of the withdrawal of their U.N. Congo contingents by Yugoslavia, the United Arab Republic, Ceylon, Indonesia, Morocco, and Guinea. The Soviet pro-Lumumba resolution was defeated on December 14 by a vote of 8-2. On the same day, a Western resolution that would have given Hammarskjöld increased powers to deal with the Congo situation was vetoed by the Soviet Union.

Lumumba was then transported on January 17, 1961 from the military prison in Thysville near Leopoldville to a 'more secure' prison in Jadotville in the Katanga Province. There were reports that Lumumba and his fellow prisoners, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, were beaten by provincial police upon their arrival in secessionist Katanga.

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Death of Lumumba

Image:Patrice Lumumba PM (2).jpg Sixty-seven days after he came to power, Patrice Lumumba was dismissed by state president Joseph Kasavubu. Lumumba, in turn, tried to dismiss Kasavubu, but to no avail. Lumumba was placed under informal house arrest at the prime minister's residence. UN troops were positioned around the house to protect him.

Lumumba now made perhaps the worst decision of his life: he decided to escape. Smuggled out of his residence at night in a visiting diplomat's car, he began a long journey towards Stanleyville. Mobutu's troops were in hot pursuit. Finally trapped on the banks of the Sankuru River, he was captured by soldiers loyal to Colonel Mobutu.

He appealed to local UN troops to save him. The UN refused on orders from headquarters in New York, reasoning that he had escaped from UN protection. He was flown first to Leopoldville, where he appeared beaten and humiliated before journalists and diplomats.

Further humiliation followed at Mobutu's villa, where soldiers beat the elected prime minister in full view of television cameras. Lumumba was dispatched first to Thysville military barracks, one hundred miles from Leopoldville.

After the military personnel of Thysville mutinied, a more secure place was sought. It is established that Belgium wanted Lumumba taken to Katanga, which was under the rule of an enemy of Lumumba, Moise Tshombe. The Belgian Commission investigating the assassination of Lumumba reached the conclusions: that Belgium wanted Lumumba arrested; that it was not particularly concerned with Lumumba's physical well being; while informed of the danger to Lumumba's life it did not take any action to avert it.

Lumumba was beaten again on the flight to Elizabethville on 17 January, 1961. He was seized by Katangan soldiers commanded by Belgians and driven to Villa Brouwe. He was guarded and brutalized still further by both Belgian and Katangan troops while President Tshombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.

That same night it is said Lumumba was bundled into another convoy that headed into the bush. It drew up beside a large tree. Three firing squads had been assembled. Some sources say that the firing squads were commanded by a Belgian and that another Belgian had overall command of the execution site. The Belgian Commission's findings were that the execution was carried out by Katanga's authorities. Their report suggests that apart from Katangan ministers, four Belgian officers were present at the execution site, but were under the command of Katangan authorities. Lumumba and two other comrades (Mpolo and Okito) from the government were lined up against a large tree. President Tshombe and two other ministers were present for the executions, which took place one at a time. Lumumba's corpse was then buried nearby. The execution most likely took place on 17 January 1961 between 9:40 pm and 9:43 pm according to the Belgian report.

As to why Mpolo and Okito were executed, the apparent reason is that they would be possible political players in the events after Lumumba's death.

Nothing was said for three weeks - though rumor spread quickly. When Lumumba's death was formally announced on Katangese radio, it was accompanied by an implausible cover involving an escape and murder by enraged villagers. Later, under cover of this yarn, the Belgians dug up Lumumba's corpse and dissolved it in concentrated sulfuric acid. Only a couple of teeth and a fragment of skull survived the process which were kept as souvenirs.

For many years there was much speculation over the roles that western governments had played in the prime minister's murder. With the disclosure of certain documents by author Ludo De Witte, it was finally established that Belgian soldiers were in position around Lumumba at every stage of the assassination, right up to his death.

Under its own 'Good Samaritan' laws, Belgium was clearly legally culpable for failing to prevent the assassination from taking place. On a more formal level and (more importantly) straightforwardly proven, Belgium was in breach of their obligation to refrain from actions, which jeopardized the freedom and integrity of another state, as it stemmed from U.N. Resolution 290 of 1949.

The Belgian Commission finds that Belgium had not actively sought the death of Lumumba by his transfer to Katanga, but did not show foresight either; he died within five hours of his arrival there. Neither did they try to establish his welfare at any point. Interestingly the same report mentions that there had previously been U.S. and Belgian plots to kill Lumumba. Obviously either they failed or they were abandoned. Among them was a CIA sponsored attempt to poison him, after U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower apparently ordered the CIA to eliminate Lumumba[1]. CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb was a key person in this. However, the plan is said to have failed because a local CIA member of staff had a conscience issue.

The Belgian commission's 2001 report led to an official apology. In February of 2002, the Belgian government apologized to the Congolese people, and admitted to a "moral responsibility" and "an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba." In July of the same year documents released by the United States government revealed that while the CIA had been kept informed of Belgium's plans, they had no direct role in Lumumba's eventual death. [2]

However, this same disclosure showed that US perception at the time was that Lumumba was a Communist. Eisenhower's apparent call for Lumumba's elimination must have been brought on by this perception. Both Belgium and the United States were clearly influenced in their unfavourable stance towards Lumumba by the cold war. He seemed to gravitate around Soviet Union. Arguably that was because that was the only place he could find support in his country's effort to rid itself of colonial rule. However the United States were very wary of him becoming too close to the Soviets, and influenced by them. On the other hand Belgium obviously had other additional, more pragmatic, reasons for opposing him. Among others they apparently felt that the Belgian interests in Belgium were not served by his government. Additionally, the Belgian head of state - i.e. the King - seemed to have an even more hostile stance than his government; he had a different attitude than the ministers of Foreign Affairs and African Affairs, who were handling the Congo case. In the words of the Belgian there was a conflict between the King and his government, which led to him taking individual actions and withholding important information from his ministers.

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François Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba was married and had five children; François was the eldest followed by Patrice junior, Julienne, Roland and Guy. François was 10 years old when Patrice died. Before his imprisonment, Patrice arranged for his wife and children to move into exile. They went to Egypt and François spent the rest of his childhood there, before going to Hungary for education. He returned to Congo in the 1990s as rebellion against Mobutu began, and started a small Lumumbist political movement there. Though his movement remains small, François remains involved in Congolese politics and tries to bring his father's ideas into it.

Lumumba had a daughter, Julienne. On the DVD of the film Lumumba in the special features section there is an interview with Julienne. In it she spoke of how Patrice knew that he was going to die for the cause. He spoke of it frequently, but did not anticipate the rule of Mobutu. She says that Lumumba had faith that his message would live on after his death.

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Tributes

In 1966 Patrice Lumumba was proclaimed national hero and martyr in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Peoples' Friendship University of the USSR was named after him in 1961, but it was renamed back in the post-Soviet Russia in 1992. A street was named after him in Budapest, Hungary, between 1961 and 1990. In Belgrade,Serbia a student's dormitory of Belgrade University still carries Patrice's name.

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Filmography

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Movies

In the film The Day of the Jackal, it is portrayed that the Jackal is the same assassin who killed Patrice Lumumba and Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and before attempting to murder Charles de Gaulle.

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Archive Footage

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External links

  • Africa Within A rich source of information on Lumumba
  • Belgian ParliamentThe findings of the Belgian Commission of 2001 investigating Belgian involvement in the death of Lumumba. Documents at the bottom of the page are in English.
  • Belgian Commission's Conclusion A particular document from the previous link
  • Mysteries of History Lumumba assassination
  • BBC Lumumba apology: Congo's mixed feelings
  • BBC An "On this day" text. It features an audio clip of a BBC correspondent on Lumumba's death.
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Books

de:Patrice E. Lumumba et:Patrice Lumumba es:Patrice Lumumba fr:Patrice Lumumba it:Patrice Lumumba he:פטריס לומומבה ln:Patrice Lumumba nl:Patrice Lumumba ja:パトリス・ルムンバ no:Patrice Lumumba pl:Patrice Lumumba ru:Лумумба, Патрис Эмери tr:Patrice Lumumba sv:Patrice Lumumba wa:Patrice Lumumba zh:卢蒙巴

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