The assassination of Lumumba by Ludo de Witte

Author:Ludo de Witte
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Lumumba, Patrice, 1925-1961 -- Assassination., Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- Civil War, 1960-1965.
Publisher: Verso
Published: 2001-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE ASSASSINATION OF LUMUMBA

that point, according to Brassinne, they still did not know Tshombe had agreed in principle to the transfer behind their backs. Whatever the truth, no initiative was taken at army headquarters to save the lives of Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito.

After the meeting, Vandewalle, Weber and Smal went to see Professor Clemens who lived on the third floor of the Immokat building, in the centre of the city. Present at this emergency meeting were Professor Clemens himself, officers Vandewalle, Weber and Smal, and the two Belgian assistants to the Bureau Conseil, Grosjean and Brassinne. It was about 7 p.m., as Brassinne recalls, when Weber opened the meeting with these words: “We wanted him, we’ve got him . . . and now we are in the shit!” Brassinne describes the general mood as pessimistic: “Nobody had any illusions about what was in store for the prisoners.” Brassinne, despite his presence there, says nothing about what was decided at the meeting; he only mentions that nothing was done to save the prisoners. Brassinne and Kestergat wriggle out of it in the following way: “What could be done but wait for the results of the discussions the Katangan government was about to have at the president’s residence?” According to the two authors, the Belgian top brass, including the usually enterprising Colonel Vandewalle, simply went home, while their subordinates organised the assassination on orders from the Katangan government.

Again according to Brassinne and Kestergat, the Belgian top brass did not have sufficient authority to intervene successfully and speedily. Yet they could see for themselves that Captain Gat had taken charge of the prisoners and left the airport with them. Brassinne, it will be recalled, describes Vandewalle as the Gendarmerie's “hidden boss”. It is clear that had the colonel ordered Captain Gat and the other Belgian officers to save Lumumba’s life, events would have taken a different course.

The real reason for Belgian passivity, resignation or tacit agreement with the evolution of the tragedy was not practical but political. Vandewalle and Weber knew that Lumumba’s physical integrity was not a priority for Brussels. With Lumumba’s transfer, it had achieved its main objective: preventing Lumumba’s political come-back and saving the Leopoldville regime. This was the real reason behind African Affairs Minister d’Aspremont Lynden’s 16 January telegram (p. 90). But this telegram put Elisabethville in a very difficult position. Politically, Lumumba’s presence was a time bomb planted on the regime. To kill him, to hold him without trial, to “try” him — any of these solutions would be enormously damaging politically for the copper province. Whatever the decision, Katanga was bound to pay the price for Brussels’ wishes. As Police Commissioner George Segers said to Sap we at the Brouwez house, “they are walking on eggshells”. 34

Smal remembered taking a short walk with Vandewalle that evening. The former intelligence boss used his former assistant as a sounding board, thinking aloud about the least damaging solution for Katanga: “His idea was to put

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