Genocide, War Crimes and the West by Adam Jones

Author:Adam Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2013-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

The murder of Lumumba

Any discussion of Western crimes in Congo must give priority to the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of Congo. A horrible event in itself, the murder set off waves of retaliation and counter-retaliation. The repercussions are being felt to this day.

Lumumba’s party, the Lumumba wing of the Congolese National Movement (MNC-Lumumba), was almost unique among Congolese parties in being both national in orientation and radical in its opposition to colonialism (Weiss, 1967). By March 1960, three months prior to independence, Belgian authorities had concluded the necessity of ‘eliminating’ Lumumba, according to Professor Jean Omosombo, who is completing a study of Lumumba based in part on hitherto secret Belgian government documents.1

Lumumba’s party did better than any other in pre-independence elections. He became prime minister despite Belgian attempts to find an alternative. The country attained independence on 30 June 1960, with Lumumba as prime minister and his rival, Joseph Kasavubu, as president. A week later, the Congo was plunged into chaos when the army mutinied against its Belgian officers. Belgium sent troops to protect its citizens, and mineral-rich Katanga seceded with Belgian backing. South Kasai, Congo’s main source of diamonds, followed Katanga into secession.

Kasavubu and Lumumba initially cooperated to restore order, but relations between the two soon deteriorated. Brussels and Washington attempted to persuade Kasavubu to dismiss Lumumba. In September, after Lumumba had obtained Soviet aid for his attempt to recapture South Kasai, Kasavubu agreed. He dismissed Lumumba, who responded by dismissing the president. Mobutu, an aide to Lumumba who had been put in charge of the army in the aftermath of the mutiny, then ‘neutralized’ both Kasavubu and Lumumba.

Lumumba escaped from house arrest in Kinshasa, nearly reaching territory whose population was favorable to his party before being recaptured. To Mobutu, Kasavubu, and their foreign backers the lesson was clear. So long as Lumumba remained alive, there was a danger he could regain power. To prevent this, he was sent to secessionist Katanga, where he was tortured and murdered – apparently by Katangan soldiers under Belgian command.

The problem in assigning responsibility in the case is that there are too many potential culprits. Belgium began working to replace Lumumba almost immediately after its military intervention in July 1960. Foreign Minister Pierre Wigny sent a diplomat to Congo to sound out his counterpart, Congolese Foreign Minister Justin Bomboko, about a possible coup d’état. Minister without Portfolio W.J. Ganshof van der Meersch (who had supervised the pre-independence effort to find another prime minister instead of Lumumba) now sent an agent of the Belgian security police to Congo to conduct undercover destabilization efforts (Péju, 2002).

In October, the Belgian minister for African affairs, Count Harold d’Aspremont Linden, sent a telegram ordering the elimination of Lumumba. The African leader was to be kidnapped as part of the so-called ‘Operation Barracuda.’ It is unclear whether the eventual murder of Lumumba was perpetrated under the auspices of a revised ‘Barracuda.’

The Americans launched their own covert action plan, ‘Project Wizard,’ in August 1960. Over the

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