Patrice Lumumba: The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists (Journalists' Union of the USSR)

Patrice Lumumba: The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists
Author	Journalists' Union of the USSR
Publisher	Foreign Languages Publishing House
First published	1961 Moscow
Type	Book
Source	https://archive.org/details/LumumbaTruth/mode/1up
PDF	https://archive.org/download/LumumbaTruth/LumumbaTruth_text.pdf

Foreword

This collection of documents exposing a criminal colonialist conspiracy and the foul murder of Patrice Lumumba, that outstanding leader of the African national-liberation movement and national hero of the Congolese people, is issued by the Journalists’ Union of the U.S.S.R.

It contains N. S. Khrushchov’s message to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other papers stating the attitude of the Soviet Government on the Congolese question.

It contains Lumumba’s speeches and statements to the press, his poems and letters exposing Dag Hammarskjöld, the colonialists’ flunkey.

It contains the utterances of Lumumba’s friends, and those of his enemies.

It contains nothing but facts, which expose the predatory imperialists and set a mark of infamy upon the despicable clique of colonialists.

Learn the truth about the life, struggle and death of Patrice Lumumba!

Learn the truth about the tortures which the African hero suffered at the hands of the contemporary inquisitors!

Learn the truth about the disinterested and friendly support which the Soviet people and all the peoples of the socialist camp are giving the Congolese people’s struggle for freedom and independence!

Patrice Lumumba has been murdered, but thousands upon thousands of his followers are rising to the struggle. Let the enemies of the Congo trumpet about their victory. It is a Pyrrhic victory, an illusory victory of the colonialists, which is opening the eyes of the colonial peoples. And may the wrath of all decent men bridle the enemies of African freedom!

In this collection of documents the Journalists’ Union of the U.S.S.R. presents the truth about the monstrous crime in the Congo and places on record the names of the enemies of the African people.

Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba, national Congolese hero, was born on July 2, 1925, in the Province of Kasai. Of peasant stock, he received his primary education at a missionary school. Later, he attended a Catholic seminary, from which he was expelled. Lumumba entered the civil service and soon became an assistant postmaster in Stanleyville.

In 1958, when the mounting pressure of the Congolese national-liberation movement compelled the Belgian authorities to permit national political parties in the Congo, Patrice Lumumba and his associates organised the National Congo Movement, the country’s first independent party. Its purpose was to achieve immediate independence for the Congo. That same year Patrice Lumumba attended the Accra Conference of African Peoples.

In the autumn of 1959, Lumumba was arrested and imprisoned by the Belgians for active participation in the Congolese national-liberation struggle. After his release, the result of determined popular action, Lumumba stood at the head of the struggle for Congo independence. In the elections of May 1960 the National Congo Movement won an impressive victory, gaining more seats than any other party. The government formed by Patrice Lumumba represented the will and aspirations of the Congolese people.

Lumumba’s devoted struggle against colonialism has won him the affection and respect of all progressives.

Chapter 1

Attitude of the Soviet Union on the Congo Question

WE SIDE WITH THE CONGOLESE PEOPLE

The documents presented in this chapter show that, following Lenin’s behest, the Soviet Union has from the first staunchly supported the legitimate efforts of the Congolese people to consolidate their young republic.

The Soviet Union was the first to speak out In defence of the Congo’s territorial Integrity when it was jeopardized by the aggression of Belgium and her NATO allies.

The Soviet Union has defended and continues to defend the interests of the Congolese people In the international arena, exposing the imperialist intrigues against the lawful Congolese Government, the Parliament and against the people of the Congo.

Today, when the young independent republic is experiencing very great difficulties, when Prime minister Patrice Lumumba and many prominent Independence fighters have been killed, the Soviet Government is working steadfastly In support of the righteous cause of the Congolese patriots, a fact convincingly illustrated by Premier Khrushehov's message to Prime Minister Nehru and the heads of state or government of other Asian, African, European and Latin American countries.

Message from Premier Khrushchov to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

On February 22, 1961, N. S. Khrushchov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., sent a message to Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of the Indian Republic.

The text of the message follows.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

I am addressing this message to you to set out the views of the Soviet Government with regard to the appalling murder of Patrice Lumumba—an outstanding leader of the African national-liberation movement and head of the Government of the Congo Republic—and his associates, Joseph Okito, President of the Senate, and Maurice Mpolo, Minister of Defence. In the Soviet Union and many other countries there has been a wave of spontaneous indignation against this crime of the colonialists and their henchmen in the form of demonstrations of protest and demands that the colonialist outrages in the Congo be stopped and those guilty of the death of Patrice Lumumba and his associates be sternly punished.

I shall not hide the fact that as I write these words it is only with a great deal of effort that I am able to suppress my anger over the news of the murder of Patrice Lumumba and my loathing for his executioners. Yet, no matter how difficult it is to restrain one’s feeling over this wicked crime which so sharply affects the conscience of every honest man, it is the duly of statesmen to be guided above all by the arguments of reason, by the interests of their peoples and the interests of ensuring peace. Time erases the scars inflicted by grief, but the political problems remain and have to be solved.

It is our belief that the need has now appeared not only to give fresh thought to the way in which the friends of the Congo can help the Congolese people in their just fight for independence, but also to consider the broader issues concerning the United Nations and its future.

The events in the Congo, and particularly the murder of Prime Minister Lumumba, compel us to examine closely the part Secretary-General Hammarskjöld played in them; and, in general, the effect of his activities on the standing of the United Nations as an international organisation dedicated to safeguarding peace and defending the rights of nations.

What has taken place in the Congo is no longer a secret. Lumumba and his comrades, all staunch and true Congolese patriots, fell victims to a conspiracy of the imperialist colonial powers. The roots of this conspiracy go back to the days when foreign troops under Hammarskjöld stepped on Congolese soil in response to a request of the Congo Government—which was counting on the support of the United Nations in defending its country's independence against colonialist aggression. The Western press abounds in reports about the preparation of this crime and about the fuss around Ileo, the latest stooge of the colonialists.

The physical elimination of Patrice Lumumba was, in effect, predetermined as soon as the colonialists saw that he stood in the way of their plans and that the head of the Congolese Government was striving for the complete independence of his country and for its liberation from the Belgian colonialists.

No sooner had the troops under Hammarskjöld landed in the Congo than they were used against Lumumba, against the government he headed. Airfields were blockaded, access to radio stations was barred and all communications between the lawful government and the country’s provinces were ruptured. Matters came to a point where the Prime Minister of the Congo was even refused a plane to go to the United Nations—the very organisation he had asked to send troops to his assistance.

The dismemberment of the country began. Katanga, the richest province, was in effect severed from the Congo. A figure-head—the puppet Tshombe—a man chosen from among the local population, who had sold himself to the colonialists and was to serve as a screen for the restoration of their domination over this part of the Congo’s territory, was put at its head in place of the Belgian administrator.

What does all this mean? It means that when troops were sent to the Congo under the auspices of the United Nations, Hammarskjöld knew beforehand how they were going to be used. It is not a question of Hammarskjöld as an individual but of those whose bidding he is doing, a question of the policy of the monopolist colonialists who want, as in the past, to oppress and exploit the peoples of former colonial countries which have gained independence. Just as a mortally wounded beast of prey refuses to let its victim out of its claws and torments it to the last, the Belgian colonialists and their NATO accomplices cannot reconcile themselves to the fact that their former victim—the Congo—has awoken to independent life and is rising to its feet.

I must say that even earlier these manoeuvres of the colonialists had been quite obvious. It was for this reason that the Soviet Government criticised the actions of the United Nations administration, particularly those of Hammarskjöld, and the present one-sided structure of that organisation at the Fifteenth U.N. General Assembly. It was evident even then what tactics the colonialists and the enemies of peace would employ—using the United Nations to obstruct the solution of the international issues which it faced. We saw graphic examples of how the colonial and imperialist powers use the United Nations to further their own interests. And if the socialist countries and those which maintain a neutralist policy were to reconcile themselves to this and remain silent, their leaders would simply have shown themselves to be incompetent, unable to assess the situation realistically and draw the appropriate conclusions.

The colonialists are now seeking to substitute better veiled and subtler methods for the earlier and cruder forms of domination over the peoples they exploit. They take cover behind stooges through whom they act. And, indeed, traitors and betrayers—petty individuals like Tshombe, Mobutu, Kasavubu, people who are ready to serve anyone except their own people so long as they are paid more—are always available.

The question arises—where do these traitors to the Congolese people get the wherewithal to exist? Who doles out the money for Mobutu and Tshombe to pay their gangsters? It is an open secret that they are paid by the Belgian colonialists. But there are others. We do not name them, but you know yourself that the sources are quite extensive. Naturally, the actions of the Belgian Government would have been unthinkable without support from its allies in the military bloc—the bloc of colonialists. In the Congo, Belgium is pursuing not merely her own policy but also the policy of the members of such blocs as NATO, CENTO and SEATO. That is the source of the Belgian Government’s confidence that it may act with impunity.

Those who would like to hold back the march of history to prevent the liberation of peoples from the colonial yoke are today linked by mutual guarantees and are jointly taking action against the freedom-loving forces of the entire world. This was demonstrated graphically at the last session of the General Assembly during the voting on the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to the Colonial Countries and Peoples. A distinct boundary line became evident between those who favour the liberation of oppressed nations and those who are against it. But even in that instance, the colonialists did not venture to show their hand, preferring to abstain during the vote—showing thereby that they disagree with the Assembly decision and will resist its implementation.

The results were not long in coming. The colonialists launched an active offensive against the Congolese people, who are fighting for their independence. The murder of Lumumba and his associates shows that the opponents of the liberation of colonial peoples have embarked openly upon brazen acts of terror.

The killing of Prime Minister Lumumba and his associates has exposed to the world the disgusting role played in the Congolese events by United Nations Secretary-General Hammarskjöld. The brutal murder of the outstanding leaders of the Congo Republic tragically demonstrated how intolerable it is that an agent of the imperialists and colonialists heads the United Nations executive machinery.

It was none other than Hammarskjöld who abetted the seizure of Prime Minister Lumumba by gangsters who had been given their weapons by Belgium and other colonial states. Having entered into collusion with the colonialists, Hammarskjöld used his position of Secretary-General to delay in every possible way the carrying-out of measures to protect the lawful government and Parliament of the Congo. Isn’t it significant that during his visit to the Congo Hammarskjöld negotiated with all and sundry, kowtowing to colonialist puppets like Kasavubu, Tshombe and others, but did not even wish to meet the legitimate Prime Minister of the country, Patrice Lumumba, at whose request the troops of certain United Nations member states were sent to the Congo? And when Patrice Lumumba and other statesmen were tortured by hired executioners and it was obvious to the whole world that a base assassination was being prepared, the United Nations Secretary-General washed his hands of the whole affair and adopted the hypocritical pose of “non-interference”. The crudely staged farce of Lumumba’s “escape” is directly linked with Hammarskjöld’s treacherous activities with regard to the independent Republic of the Congo and its leaders. To put it bluntly, it was in essence Hammarskjöld who murdered Lumumba. After all, whoever held the knife or pistol was not the only murderer; the chief assassin was the one who handed him the weapon.

Such, sad and shocking, are the facts. And these facts have compelled the Soviet Government to draw the conclusion that Hammarskjöld’s entire line in the Congo was, from beginning to end, one of base betrayal of the interests of the Congolese people and abuse of the principles of the United Nations and the elementary standards of decency and honour. Such an individual is unfit to hold a leading post in the United Nations. We cannot reconcile ourselves to this villainy perpetrated with the connivance of the United Nations. We cannot tolerate the fact that the United Nations Secretary -GeneraI is a man besmirched by a foul murder.

To prevent the “cold war” from becoming more and more intense, to prevent a “hot war”, the structure of the United Nations has definitely to be reorganised. Whether it be Hammarskjöld or anyone else, in the present circumstances the United Nations machinery would inevitably be headed by an agent of the colonial and imperialist powers, who would protect their interests. The United Nations cannot be a truly international body until such abuses are made impossible.

Our position on this question was plainly set out as long ago as last September by the Soviet delegation to the Fifteenth Session of the United Nations General Assembly, when we introduced our proposal for the reorganisation of the United Nations’ structure, so that there should be no single-handed authority of the Secretary-General who today represents the interests of the colonial and imperialist powers. We proposed at the time that there should be in the United Nations not one but three secretaries, each of whom would represent one of the three main groups of stales that now exist in the world: the states belonging to the military blocs of the Western Powers, the socialist states and the neutral countries.

With such a structure each group would have equal possibilities of influencing the nature of the decisions taken by the United Nations and these decisions would not be directed against the interests of any one of the three groups of countries which make up the United Nations. United Nations activities would then be determined not by the narrow interests of this or that grouping, but by the common interests of all members, the interests of peace and co-operation among all states, irrespective of their social and political systems; it would then really be an organisation of united nations—as it should be, but is not today under the present structure which does not correspond to the actual state of affairs existing in the world.

We are by no means seeking any special privileges for the socialist countries vis-à-vis the other groups of states in the United Nations. It should be borne in mind that the relative influence of this or that group of countries in the United Nations is not a permanent category: it changes with the passage of time. And even if the present structure is preserved, with the imperialist and colonial powers in fact dominant in the United Nations and pursuing their policy through an obedient Hammarskjöld, the time may, indeed, come when the decisive influence—an influence involving the Secretary-General—will belong to another group of states: for instance, the socialist countries. This, however, is not our desire. All we are striving for is that all groups of slates should have truly equal opportunities in the United Nations and should not impose their will upon one another, but should co-operate on an equal footing to strengthen peace.

Today, however, the situation is such that, owing to the present structure of the U.N., one group of states dominates it, and a group which, incidentally, is the smallest in number and population but which pursues its aggressive colonialist policy through the executive bodies of the United Nations. In short, the imperialist powers are today seeking to exploit the United Nations both against the socialist countries and against those states which have freed themselves from colonial dependence and have adopted a neutralist policy. This policy is, of course, doomed to failure. And even if anyone should succeed in railroading a decision along those lines through the United Nations, that decision could not have any validity; nor would it ever correspond to the tasks put before the United Nations when it was set up: the tasks of easing international tension and preventing military conflicts. What is more, attempts by imperialist states to foist their will upon other countries merely lead to a further exacerbation of the situation. Such a policy serves not the cause of peace, but the fanning of passions; it is fraught with dangerous consequences. This has been particularly plain in the case of the Congo. If this course is continued, it may raise the tension to a peak and confront mankind with the danger of a third world war.

Can this prospect be countenanced? We believe not: the possibility of events developing in that direction must be precluded. This is why the Soviet Government is convinced that everyone who really wants to see the United Nations strengthened and made viable, everyone who wants an easing of international tensions and a more durable peace, cannot but support the proposal for the reorganisation of the United Nations on a just basis.

I am explaining our views to you frankly, Mr. Prime Minister, since I would like you to know that the Soviet Government firmly adheres to this attitude. It is impossible to reconcile oneself to a situation in which the United Nations only appears to be an international organisation equally representative of the interests of all states, whereas in actual fact it serves the interests of a small group of states—doing so, in particular, through their henchmen in high official posts in the United Nations. This situation is of advantage only to the colonial imperialist powers which are pursuing a policy of smothering the independence and freedom of nations.

The coalition of colonialists is at present testing its strength in the Congo. An effort is being made to bring this former colony back under the sway of Belgium with the help of Congolese puppets like Kasavubu, Mobutu, Tshombe, Ileo and others. If the colonialists succeed, their success will encourage them and prompt them to pursue a still more brazen policy of a general onslaught against the national-liberation movement of all the peoples of Africa and Asia who are fighting for their independence. The only way to prevent this is to be able to penetrate the artful intrigues of the colonialists and to counter their actions by the solidarity of the true friends of the freedom and independence of nations, and a readiness to foil their plans for the fresh enslavement of the Congo and the other young states of Africa and Asia.

The sad lesson of the Congo events consists in the fact that the weaker the resistance and the rebuff given to the colonialists, the more impudently they act, and that a passive attitude in face of the aggression against the Congo plays solely into the colonialists’ hands.

You, Mr. Prime Minister, are certainly aware of the steps taken by the Soviet Government in the United Nations Security Council in connection with the brutal murder of Patrice Lumumba and his associates. The present situation in the Congo is such that every hour lost may prove fatal to the independence of the Congolese people. Hesitation, indecision and half measures would least of all be justified now.

Three times the Security Council took decisions calling upon Belgium to withdraw her troops from the Congo, but the aggressors have in reality ignored those decisions and merely pretended to evacuate their troops. The country is again infested with Belgian military and paramilitary personnel, who are directing the slaughter of the patriotic forces of the Congolese people. An end should be put to Belgium’s sabotage of the United Nations decisions. The United Nations should resolutely condemn Belgium’s actions in the Congo and apply to Belgium, as an aggressor, the appropriate sanctions provided for in the United Nations Charter.

At the present time, however, measures with regard to Belgium alone are not sufficient. The Belgians have already formed for their stooges Tshombe and Mobutu quite considerable armed forces officered by Belgians and other foreigners and have prepared them for new crimes.

To all appearances, the murder of Lumumba has been the signal for the gangs of Tshombe and Mobutu to start a military campaign against all the patriotic forces of the Congo. The need arises in this situation to take measures which would protect the Congolese people from fresh atrocities. There is only one radical solution that Tshombe and Mobutu be arrested immediately and brought to trial, their gangs disarmed and the aggressors ousted from the Congo.

The assassins guilty of an international crime—the murder of the Prime Minister, the President of the Senate and the Defence Minister of the Republic of the Congo—must be tried and sternly punished. The whole world knows the culprits of that crime. Under these conditions, what purpose could the appointment of any commissions of investigation or additional inquiry serve? Obviously that is only a manoeuvre of the colonialists who would like with the help of lengthy “investigation” procedures to avoid punishing Lumumba’s killers, as demanded by the peoples of all countries, to defer the case and to wait until time attenuates the sharp feelings of indignation and bitterness this murder has aroused. And then some small fry—a captain or someone else—will be found, or else it will be said that it was impossible to find the killer and, using the clumsy fabrication of the hangman Tshombe, it will be declared that the whole thing happened as a result of a spontaneous popular outburst in some Katanga village, or the like.

We know, however, that those who are responsible for the killing of the national heroes of the Congolese people are experienced murderers from among those who openly shed the blood of nations in colonial wars and carry out secret intrigues through their hirelings, plotting the destruction of those who are not to their liking and who put up a resistance. Their methods have been known for many decades and centuries; they are also described in a sufficiently convincing way in literature.

If we take a realistic view of things we shall have to admit that the whole so-called "United Nations operation in the Congo" under the direction of Hammarskjöld, after the well-known decisions taken by the Security Council last summer, far from achieving the aim which the Security Council had in view, has had exactly opposite results. When the troops under the United Nations mandate arrived in the Congo, there were a Parliament and a government which had been lawfully elected and which enjoyed the support of the overwhelming majority of the population; there were democratic freedoms in the country and the people had begun developing their national economy. Just a little over six months has elapsed and what is the picture today? All that has been disrupted: the Parliament has been forcibly dissolved, the principal leaders of the nation have been exterminated, the territory of the Congo has been dismembered, and in a large part of it foreign colonialists are again dominant and their paid hangmen commit outrages. The blood of Congolese patriots is being shed. The wind carries the smoke of fires started by bombs from the aircraft of foreign interventionists. And over it all flies the blue flag of the United Nations. This is contemplated impassively by the largest organised military force on the territory of the Congo, the force in Mr. Hammarskjöld’s charge. Such is the bitter outcome of the “United Nations operation” in the Congo.

All this destroys the trust of the peoples in the United Nations. Now the situation is becoming even more complicated. Following the withdrawal of the troops of certain countries there will remain on Congolese soil under the flag of the United Nations mainly forces which are directly or indirectly connected with the coalition of colonial powers and unfriendly to the Republic of the Congo.

If things are allowed to drift, the army of the imperialist interventionists will act under the guise of “U.N. forces” hand in glove with the Belgian colonialists against the Congolese people and their lawful government. And—knowing the political complexion of Hammarskjöld—who can rule out even such a possibility of direct provocation on his part as an attempt to invite to Congolese territory the troops of the military blocs of the Western Powers? As for the neutral countries which still have their contingents within such an army, they will be even less able than hitherto to exercise their influence on the way the soldiers they have sent to the Congo are used.

Having weighed all these circumstances, the Government of the U.S.S.R. has come to the conclusion that the independence of the Congo and also the prestige of the United Nations require the speediest termination of the so-called “Congo operation” and the withdrawal of all foreign troops, so that the Congolese people may be given an opportunity to solve their internal affairs by themselves.

This demand will, no doubt, cause alarm among the colonialists and their yes-men of every shade, and they will cry out that the withdrawal of foreign troops will create the danger of civil war in the Congo, that the Congolese cannot be left without foreign guardianship, that they will be unable to cope with the situation on their own, and so on. But these “arguments” are false from beginning to end; they stem from the unwillingness of the colonialists to leave the Congo and let her people be master in their own home. This is the reason for their slander against the Congolese people, though everyone knows very well that it is the foreign interventionists and colonialists who have brought war upon the soil of the Congo.

The restoration of peace, order and tranquillity in the Congo requires first and foremost that the people of that country be delivered from all forms of foreign interference, and that the lawful government of the country, headed by Antoine Gizenga, the successor of Patrice Lumumha, be given help and support. It may be recalled that this government has appealed to all states for help in “restoring peace, order, unity, law and integrity to the Republic of the Congo”. For its part, the Soviet Government is prepared, together with other slates friendly to the Republic of the Congo, to give such help to the Congolese people and their lawful government.

It is sometimes contended that more decisive aid to the patriotic forces of the Congolese people and their lawful government may result in the Congo becoming a scene of “cold war“ between the rival groupings of states. To my mind, it is absolutely wrong to present the question in this way, and I am sure that such ideas are deliberately propagated by the colonialists in order to cause disunity among stales willing to give effective aid to the Congolese people. The people of the Congo are fighting for their complete liberation and independence. Certain stales are interfering in the internal affairs of the Congo, supporting the colonialists, while others are opposing the aggressors and foreign interference in the affairs of the Congo. It is here that the line of demarcation actually lies in the Congolese problem. The villainous murder of Lumumba and his comrades-in-arms was yet another proof of this irrefutable fact.

A commission composed of representatives of the African states whose troops have been sent to the Congo in accordance with the Security Council decision would, in our opinion, assist the fulfilment of measures aimed at delivering the Congo from the colonialist aggression and at restoring the country’s independence. This commission would be entrusted with the task of supervising in full contact with the country's lawful government headed by Patrice Lumumba’s deputy the present Acting Prime Minister of the Congo Republic, Antoine Gizenga, measures to oust the aggressors, to end all forms of foreign interference and to create conditions for the normal work of the Government and Parliament of the Congo.

Among expressions of sincere grief, one can in the West hear the voices of those who, when Lumumba was alive, badgered him and stealthily instigated the Belgian colonialists and their mercenaries to murder the national hero of the Congo. The real value of I hose hypocritical expressions of sorrow is revealed by the following instance. When the other day a draft resolution was submitted to the Security Council condemning the villainous murders of the leaders of the national-liberation movement in the Congo, those who had just been pretending to lament the murders did not raise their hands in favour of that resolution. Yet it did not even mention the murderers by name—it only condemned the fact of the murder. Now certain people want to hide behind honeyed speeches about peaceableness, tirades against worsening the “cold war” and pharisaical warnings against military conflicts. The aim of such declarations is clear: to reconcile the peoples with the murder of Lumumba and to create an atmosphere in which the stooges and puppets of the colonialists could gain the upper hand over the patriotic forces in the Congo. But we believe that it would be a more than short-sighted policy to submit to the persuasion and the false arguments of those who say one thing and do another.

We are, in fact, faced here with an attempt to implement in our time a well-known principle of imperialist policy proclaimed at the beginning of the twentieth century by a United States President, Theodore Roosevelt, who advocated talking softly but holding a big stick in one’s hand. It is not without a purpose that some statesmen in the West are even now developing the theme of “the big stick” in their public pronouncements.

Some may say that a stick is not so very dangerous. True, there are different kinds of sticks. In Russia, for example, there is an old song in which a stick is referred to as an implement of labour. But the “big stick” extolled by Theodore Roosevelt and still brandished these days by some of his followers is quite a different thing. It connotes violence against peoples and the subjugation of weaker nations by force of arms.

It was a vicious aggressive policy even at the dawn of our century, although at that lime aggressors could pursue it with impunity against the small countries; such countries as Cuba and Panama, for example, fell victims to that policy. But now times have changed. Now such a policy not only has no chances of succeeding, but is fraught with a deadly danger for those who would decide to pursue it. Today other states also possess what some Western politicians call a “big stick” and the people who like making such threats may eventually find that there is a “stick” capable of dealing much stronger blows than that on which they pin their hopes. They may find that such a policy brings quite unexpected results to those who resort to it. Is it not clear that such a course can lead only to a stalemate or—still worse—to disaster?

As we know, Dulles and Eisenhower tried to build their foreign policy “from positions of strength”, along the “big stick” principles, but it is not likely that anyone will venture to assert that they won laurels for their country with that policy. On the contrary, sober-minded politicians in the United States rightly point out that it was a policy of continual failures, which cost the country and its international prestige a great deal.

That policy was the product of a time which belongs to the past. Now one must rely not on a “stick” but on reason. Everyone knows that the Soviet Union now also has a “big stick” but it resolutely opposes the policy of threats and of brandishing sticks. The Soviet Union relies on reason and tries to achieve agreement among states in order to remove the threat of war and to strengthen peace. If experience, and especially the experience of recent years, can teach anything, it will first of all show that the Great Powers must abandon their interference in the affairs of others and the attempts to play the part of oppressors of the freedom of other countries and that they must focus their efforts on achieving an easing of international tension, on an agreed solution of the major international problems and, above all, of the disarmament problem. It is not blackmail and threats that the Soviet Government stands for, but strict respect for the sovereignty of every state and a realistic regard for mutual interests.

Mr. Prime Minister, the interests of strengthening peace and the security of the peoples demand that a common language be found among states on the paramount international questions of our lime. I should like to hope that the governments of our countries will join their efforts in defence of the freedom and independence of the Republic of the Congo.

Respectfully yours,

N. KHRUSHCHOV

February 22, 1961

* * *

That same day N. S. Khrushchov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., sent messages to the heads of state or government of other Asian, African, European and Latin American countries.

THE SOVIET UNION WELCOMES FOUNDING OF THE CONGO REPUBLIC

To His Excellency`

Mr. PATRICE LUMUMBA,

Prime Minister of the Congo

Leopoldville

My dear Prime Minister,

On behalf of the Soviet people, the Government of the U.S.S.R. and inj-self, I congraliilate you and all the Congolese people warmly on the big historic occasion of the proclamation of the independence of the Congo.

Soviet people, who follow the national-liberation struggle of the African peoples with profound sympathy, sincerely congratulate the gallant people of the Congo who have won their freedom and independence.

The historic victory of the Congolese over the forces of colonialism has struck a fresh and significant blow at the moribund colonial system and has once again demon- strated the unbending will and determination of the African peoples to put a final end to that disgraceful system based on the exploitation, inequality and misery of millions upon millions of oppressed people.

Acting undeviatingly upon the great principles of equality and self-determination of nations, which have been the corner-stone of the Soviet nationalities policy since the founding day of the Soviet Republic, and moved by sentiments of profound respect for the legitimate national aspirations of the Congolese people, the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics solemnly declares its recognition of the Congo as an independent and sovereign state and expresses its readiness to establish diplomatic relations and exchange diplomatic representatives with it.

21

Allow me to express the hope that in the interests of our peoples the U.S.S.R. and the Congo will esiabli.sh friendly relations whieh will promote greater international under- standing and the triumph of tlic great ideals of peace and friendship among nations.

The Soviet people send heartfelt greetings to the freedoin- loving Congole.se people and wish them great success in the political, economic and cultural development of their

N. S. KHRUSHCHOV,

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R.

The Kremlin, Moscow Juno 29, 1960

STOP THE COLONIALIST AGGRESSION

Excerpt from the Soviet Government Statement on the Imperialist Intervention in Relation to the Independent Republic of the Congo, July 13, 1980

The independence of the Congo Republic was proclaimed on June 30, I960, after an arduous and gallant struggle of the Congolese people against foreign colonialist oppressors. One of the biggest African countries with a population of over 13,000,000, possessing vast natural and economic resources, has joined the family of independent African states. Like most countries, the Soviet Union has recognised the Republic of the Congo as an independent sovereign state. On July 5, the Security Council unanimously decided to recommend to the U.N. General Assembly to admit the Congo Republic to the United Nations.

Rut at once after the proclamation of Congo independence, officials of the former Belgian colonial administration who had stayed behind, directly abetted by diplomatic rep- resentatives of the Western Powers—tbe U.S.A., Britain

and France—cominiltod acts in defiance of internal ional law and the U.N. Charier with the object of undermining the sovereignly and abolishing the independence of the young Congolese stale. A far-reaching provocation against the first all-national Government of the Congo Republic was organised in Leopoldville, the Congolese capital, and in some of the provinces.

In some of the army camps Belgian officers, who had held posts of command in the Congolese army under the colonial regime, provoked armed actions by African soldiers dissat- isfied with their low standard of living and lack of rights at the lime of the colonial regime. According to widely published reports, a group of Belgian officers made an attempt upon the life of Prime Minister Lumumba.

However, the provoked actions soon assumed an anti- colonialist character. Belgian officers were dismissed from posts of command in the Congolese army and replaced by Congolese.

Intent on creating an artificial atmosphere they wmuld be able to use as a prele.xt for armed intervention, ultra- reactionary adventurers backed by big foreign monopolies incited a panic among Europeans resident in the Congo. The course of events indicated that this provocation had been prepared beforehand, at the time when the Belgian author- ities negotiated the granting of independence with the lead- ers of the Congolese people. This is also indicated by the fact that by the beginning of the events the former Belgian colonial authorities had imported gangs of criminals and provocateurs to the bigger Congolese towns.

In the last few days the Belgian Government has with U.S., British and French collusion undertaken a direct armed intervention against the Congo Republic. In spite of deter- mined protests by the Congo Government, the Belgian Government has sent military units to that sovereign country, announced a mobilisation of reservist parachute troopers and is taking measures to extend the armed intervention. At present Belgian parachute troops and other military units are occupying Congolese towns.

By employing her troops in mililarj' operations on Con- golese territory and sending fre.sh troops there in defiance of protests by the Congo Government, Belgium is grossly

26

violating the territorial immunity and political independence of the Congo, i.e., committing acts long (lualified by inter- national law as acts of aggression.

Furthermore, the fact that the Belgian Government is sending to the Congo NATO troops stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany, once more reveals the role which the aggressive NATO bloc, acting as an international gendarme, plays in the colonial oppression of the African peoples.

Not to be ignored either are the reports that Timberlake, the U.S. Ambassador to the Congo, is pre.sently in Leopold- ville, interfering in the internal affairs of the Congo Republic and taking advantage of the presence of the U.N. Deputy Secretary-General, the American, Bunche, to develop plans of extending the intervention of the Western Powers in the Congo under the U.N. flag.

In the meantime, much is being said of the need to protect the lives and property of Americans, Britons, Belgians and Frenchmen in the Congo.

It may be recalled, however, that the same sort of self- righteous arguments were employed by the United Stales to justify its armed intervention in the Lebanon in 1958, which was sternly condemned by an extraordinary session of the U.N. General Assembly. It should be stressed that references to the protection of the “lives of residents” in another country and to the need of enforcing “order” there is a time-worn subterfuge often used in the past by the co- lonial powers to camouflage armed interventions in Asian, African and Latin American countries in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The fact that they are again resorting to such piratical artifices today clearly reveals the predatory substance of the “newfangled colonialism” prac- tised by the United States and the other imperialist powers.

No subterfuges the colonialists may employ can obscure the fact of their armed aggression in the Congo, which is a gross violation of the basic principles of the United Na- tions and the Bandung principles.

The Congo Government has rightly protested against the violation by foreign troops of the national sovereignty of the Congo and has warned that the Congolese people would defend their country against anyone who tries to occu- py it.

27

Having embarked upon an intervention in the Conpi Republic, the colonial powers are trying to dismember the country A figure-head of the foreign monopolies, Tshombe, ha« announced the “secession” of Katanga Province from the Congo Republic in defiance of the clearly expressed will of the Congolese people and the constitution of the republic.

The Soviet Government deems it necessary to declare that all attempts to sever any of its provinces from the Congo Republic are unlawful and criminal acts prompted by the selfish interests of a handful of financial and industrial ty- coons of the colonial powers. , . , , ,

The colonial intervention in the Congo furnishes fresh evidence that some powers, and primarily the United States, persist in following the dangerous course of aggression and

provocation. . . i, .

Like the other peace-loving countries, the Soviet Union roundly condemns the perfidious aggression against the Congo Republic. It extends full support to the legitimate demand of the Accra and Addis Ababa conferences of inde- pendent African slates and peoples to forthwith grant inde- pendence to all the countries and peoples of Africa where the disgraceful colonial system still survives.

The Soviet Government warns of the grave responsibili- ty which devolves upon the ruling circles of the Western Powers who have started the armed aggression in the Congo, and insists that it be stopped immediately.

The Soviet Government considers that in the current grave circumstances in the Congo, which threaten the peace and security of nations, the United Nations must take urgent steps to terminate the aggression and fully restore the sov- ereign rights of the independent Congo Republic.

EVERY POSSIBLE SUPPORT TO THE YOUNG REPUBLIC

Excerpt from the Soviet

Government Statement on the Situation in the Congo, September 9, 1960

The developments in the Congo Republic indicate that the colonialist plot against the independence and integrity of that African country, against its people and lawful gov- ernment, is assuming an increasingly dangerous character. The facts, and particularly the factsof the last few days, prove incontrovertibly that the NATO allies of the Belgian colo- nialists, primarily the U.S.A., and the command of the troops sent to the Congo by decision of the U.N. Security Council, who have in effect become the flunkeys of the colonialists, act hand in glove with the Belgian colonialists in the attempt to rob the Congolese people of their freedom. The gross in- tervention in the domestic affairs of the Congo Republic is, in substance, an outright mockery of the Security Council decisions taken to safeguard the independence and integ- rity of the Congo.

During his stay in the Congo, the U.N. Secretary-General saw fit to visit traitor Tshombe and to negotiate with him without so much as informing the lawful Congolese Govern- ment about it. On Hammarskjöld's orders the military base of Kamina in Katanga Province, just evacuated by the Bel- gians, was occupied by the troops placed at the disposal of the U.N. Command. The occupation was effected on the far-fetched pretext of “neutralising” it, while it should really have been turned over to the Government of the Congo Re- public.

In spite of the fact that the U.N. troops were sent to the Congo at the request of the Congolese Government and that the Security Council decisions stated clearly that they may only be used with the knowledge and consent of the Congo Government, this important point is being continuously

29

violated h\ the Conunand in the Congo and by Secre- larv-General Hammarskjdid. Far from helping the Congo- lese Government to restore order and bring life back to nor- mal in the conntrj’, the U.N. representatives in the Congo

are impeding its efforts in every way.

The U.N. Command has been part iciilarlj^ reckless in the last few days. It ordered troops operating under the Unit- ed Nations flag to occupy and blockade airfields in Leo- poldville, the capital of the republic, and other Cmigolese towns in defiance of strong protests by the Congolese Govern- ment. Matters went so far that the U.N. Command did not allow a plane carrying the Comniander-in-Chief of the national Congo army to land in Leopoldville It warned that if the plane attempted a landing, it would open fire.

The impudence of the colonialist practices exercised by the representatives whom Hammarskjöld has sent to the Congo truly knows no bounds. The U.N. troops defied the protests of the government and occupied the central Leo- poldville radio station. Representatives of the country s lawful government are barred from that station.

WTiat is more, individuals who call themselves represent- atives of the United Nations in the Congo went so far as to refuse to negotiate with the Congo Government, which de- manded that the airfields and the radio station be instantly cleared. Yet those representatives are in the Congo at the request of that countr>^’s government.

The NATO countries, above all the United States, in con- junction w’ith the U.N. Command heading the troops sent to the Congo by decision of the Security Council but used in effect to scuttle the Security Council decisions, make outright attempts to discredit the lawful Government of the Congo Republic headed by Prime Minister Lumumba. They follow a policy of encouraging dissident anti-popular elements willing to sacrifice the country’s independence and to sell its territory to please the colonialists. Use is also made of the insidious tactics of counterposing and colliding the troops placed at the disposal of the U.N. Command by various countries and the Congolese Government troops.

In substance, a coalition of colonialists has formed with the object of destroying the Congo Republic, a young African

30

state, with the hands of Africans—soldiers from Tunisia, Morocco, Lihiopia and Ghana. The presumptuous acts of the interventionist coalition expose its true aims. All Africa and all the world now see that an attempt is being made to replace the previous colonialists in the Congo with others in the form of a collective NATO colonialism camouflaged with the blue U.N. flag.

The U.N. Security Council, which has repeatedly discussed the Congo situation, has adopted sound and correct deci- sions designed to ensiire the independence and integrity of the Congo Republic with the object of bringing life there, disrupted by the colonialists, back to normal. Rut attempts are being made today to thwart the implementation of these decisions, deceive the peoples and use against the interests of the Congo the troops made available to the U.N. Com- mand by a number of countries.

It is beyond question that most of the countries which sent their troops to the Congo in pursuance of the Security Council decision, did so with the best of intentions, eager to help preserve the freedom, independence and integrity of the Congolese state. Today, when it is increasingly evident that the present U.N. Command in the Congo is using these troops for an entirely different purpose and assisting those who had oppressed the Congo in the past and are now^ intent on robbing her of her independence, it is the duty of the countries which have sent their troops to the Congo to see to it that their soldiers, who came to the Congo to help that country, are really used for that express purpose and assist the Government of the Congo Republic in reinforcing its country’s independence in full keeping with the Security Council decisions. If the U.N. Command does notw ish to act upon these decisions, they must be implemented in spite of that command.

Attention is drawn to the unseemly role assumed with respect to the Congo by U.N. Secretary-General Hammar- skjold.

One has every reason to say that the Congo developments and the participation of U.N. representatives in executing the decisions of the Security Council in relation to that coun- try were an important test of the impartiality of the U.N. executive machinery. And it needs to be said in all frankness

31

that the most highly placed official of that machinery, the U.N. Secretary-General, failed to show the inininuim of iniparliality required of him in the prevailingcircuinstances. The head of the U.N. machinery turned out to he that very element of it which worked most openly in favour of the colonialists, thereby discrediting the United Nations in the eyes of the peoples.

In view of the situation prevailing in the Congo, the So- viet Government has instructed its representative in the Security Council to insist on an immediate sitting of that body in order to act for the immediate termination of all forms of interference in the internal affairs of the Congo.

The first thing to do is to evacuate the armed forces under U.N. Command from all the airfields which they now occupy. The national radio stations must be restored under the com- plete and unrestricted control of the Congo Government.

The command which is not using properly the troops sent to the Congo in pursuance of the Security Council decisions must be removed.

The lawful Government of the Congo Republic must be given an opportunity to exercise its sovereign rights and authority throughout the Congo without any interference or obstruction on the part of the U.N. representatives.

The Soviet Government is going to insist on all this at the Security Council sitting and hopes that its efforts will be supported by all countries which cherish the national independence and security of nations and do not want the name of the United Nations to be tarnished by disgraceful complicity with the colonialists.

And should the Security Council not be able for one reason or another to perform its duty, the countries that respect the already adopted decisions concerning help to the Congo should extend every possible support to the lawful Govern- ment of the Congo Republic in this dark hour for the Con- golese people.

THE STRUGGLE OF THE CONGOLESE PEOPLE CANNOT BE STOPPED—THEY WILL WIN COMPLETE LIBERATION

Excerpt from Premier KHRUSHCHOV’S Speech at the Fifteenth U.N.

General Assembly, September 23, i960

Stormy events are in progress on the African continent. The young Congo Republic fell prey to aggression three days after proclaiming its independence. Before the eyes of the whole world the Belgian Government tried to rob that country of its freedom, to take away what the Congolese people have fought for selflessly for dozens of years. An international crisis arose, which revived memories of the alarming days of the Suez crisis in the autumn of 1956. The same as then, an independent African state suffered an unprovoked aggression, the recognised principles of rela- tions between countries were flouted and a situation created fraught with a grave threat to peace not only in Africa.

How ridiculous and incongruous were the arguments employed by the aggressors to excuse their actions! They alleged that “chaos” would have broken loose in the Congo if Belgian troops had not entered her and that the Congolese people were not yet ripe for independent life. Who would believe these claims? The Africans have a saying that “to deceive the people is the same as trying to wrap fire in pa- per”. The armed aggression against the Congo has been con- demned by all Africa, by world public opinion.

It was by no means concern for the lives of Belgian cit- izens in the Congo, but for the far more palpable interests of the powerful monopolies entrenched upon Congolese soil, that prompted the Belgian Government to make the insane

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33

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“"V'is a disgraceful business. The U.N. Iroops sent al Iho re, .esl of Ihe^auful goverumeuMo help 0- airfields seized a radio station, disorganised the He ol tlic countrv and paralysed the activities of the lawhil govein- ment These troops created conditions for treacherous acts bv I he punpels in Katanga, where forces have heen concen- ualed and mobilised against flic Patrice Lumumba Goveitn- ,nent%lected in accordance with all the rules ol democratic

‘’otc^“c”onialists and their flunkeys say that Lumumba is a Communist. Lumumba is no Communist, of course, but be is a patriot and serves his people faithfully in their strug- gle for liberation from colonial oppression.

® But you colonialist gentlemen help the peoples of the colo- nial countries with your acts to shed the hi inkers you have pul on their eyes, befogging their minds with diverse sto- ries about Communists. All the peoples will see, and very soon that the Communists, the Communist parlies are par-

34

ties which are the true spokesmen of the will of the peoples in the struggle for their freedom and independence.

Certain American and British periodicals, encouraged from certain quarters, are raising a hue and cry about the Soviet Union having suffered a defeat in the Congo. What is there to say about these silly pronouncements?

Firstly, we have not suffered a defeat in the Congo, and could not have suffered one because we had no troops there and have not interfered in the least in the internal affairs of the Congo, and could never have done so. We were, are and will he in favour of the African peoples and the peoples of other continents establi.shing the order that pleases them, the order of their choice after they liberate themselves from colonial oppression.

Secondly, we have always opposed and will continue to oppose imperialist interference in the domestic affairs of

Workers at the First Ball-Bearing Plant in Moscow demand that the Belgian aggressors and their despicable gang of cutthroats—Mobutu, Kasavubu and Tshombe—be called to strict account

2 ^

countries casling off colonial dependence, and such unseemly methods as were applied in the Congo.

The colonialists are seeking to dismiss the lawful govern- ment and Parliament with the assistance of countries which describe themselves as the free world. They want to cele- brate their victory. But they celebrate it too early, because it is a Pyrrhic victory. The colonialists are helping the co- lonial peoples to shed their blinkers by this illusory victory, because the colonial peoples see with increasing clarity that, while granting formal independence, the colonialists do ever>’lhing in their power to maintain their colonial oppres- sion.

The people will not stop half-way. They will rally their forces, they will act with still greater foresight and under- standing that the struggle for independence is a difficult struggle, that many difficulties have to be overcome along the road to genuine freedom and they will learn to distin- guish true friends from foes.

The struggle begun by the Congolese people cannot be stopped. It may be retarded and slowed down. But it will break out with all the greater force and then the people will combat all the difficulties to win complete libera- tion.

The Soviet Government has always welcomed and now w^el- comea the struggle of the colonial peoples for independence and will do all it can to render the colonial peoples moral and material support in their righteous struggle.

MR. Hammarskjöld IS IMPLEMENTING THE POLICY OF THE COLONIALISTS

From Premier KHRUSHCHOV’S Interview at Glen Cove, L. I., September 24, 1960

If the U.N. armed forces continue to be used as they arc being used now, if they remain under Hammarskjöld’s personal command, nothing good will come of it. This is evident from the example of the Congo.

The Congo Government asked the United Nations for assistance in the form of armed forces. The armed forces were sent and they began to act against the legally con- stituted government, which had asked for assistance. You know that these armed forces established control over air- fields, the radio station and communications, thereby ham- pering, and not helping, the work of the lawful Lumumba Government.

By the way, w^hy do we support Lumumba? Because he is the Prime Minister of the legally constituted government approved by Parliament elected by the Congolese people. Why then did the troops sent on behalf of the United Nations act against the Lumumba Government? Because that was in the interests of the colonial imperialist powers. They want to do away with the Lumumba Government, which stands for preserving independence and is making efforts to govern the country in the interests of the Congolese people.

U. N. Secretary-General Hammarskjöld is helping Tshom- be. But he is a turncoat, a traitor to the Congolese people's intere.sts. If we w^ere to draw a parallel to the revolutionary events in our country, Tshombe would be Petlyura. In the name of the United Nations Mr. Hammarskjöld is support- ing Colonel Mobutu, who is acting against the Congolese Government. But Mobutu is a brigand. Returning to the parallel with events in our country, he is a kind of Wrangel, Kolchak or any similar scum of history thrown out by our people. In short, the forces acting against the lawful govern-

or

ment, against the lawful Parliament, against the Congolese neonle are being supported by Haminarskjold on behalf of FhTunited Nations This means that in the Congo the U.N. Secretary-General is carrying out the policy of the Belgian colonialists and their sympathiser, the United States of America, and not of the peace-loving forces—the socialist and neutralist countries.

I The murder of Patrice Ln- mamha and his associates in a Kata/ff/a tortfire-ch amber is a valminatioit of Hammar- skjdtd's criminal activities.

STATEMENT OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT ON THE DEATH OF PATRICE LUMUMBA

The telegraph has brought tragic news: Patrice Lumumba, oulstauding leader of the African national-liberation move- ment, national hero of the Congo, and head of the Govern- ment of the independent Republic of the Congo, and his com- panions in arms, Joseph Okito, President of the Senate, and Maurice Mpolo, Minister of Defence, have died at the hands of colonialist hirelings, the hatchetinen of the puppet Tshom- be.

Together with the Congolese people and all the freedom- loving peoples of the world, the Soviet people bow their heads in memory of the valiant sons of the Congolese people, who stood firmly and consistently for their country’s freedom and independence.

In conned ion with ihe massacre f)f llie slalesrnen of Ihe independent Congo, Ihe Soviet Government considers it its duly lo slate Ihe following:

The murder of Prime Minister Liimumha, President of the Senate Okito and Minister Mpolo is an international crime, full responsihilily for which falls on the colonialisls, and above all the Belgian colonialists. The world is aware that the Congolese Province of Katanga, to which Patrice Lumumba, Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo were taken to be killed, has in effect been reoccupied by Belgium and is ruled on orders from Brussels with Belgian money, Belgian arms and hundreds of Belgian officers and N.C.O.’s, who form the backbone of Tshomhe’s armed gangs.

In their hatred of the cause of the Congo’s national liber- ation the colonialists went to the extent of organising the brutal murder of the lawful leaders of the Congolese state. In full view of the world they trample in the dust all stand- ards of international law and morality, flout the U.N. resolu- tions and the U.N. Charter, setting at defiance all freedom- loving nations.

Surely, the Belgian colonialists would have never had the nerve to undertake all this but for the backing of their allies, of the whole coalition of colonial powers, which, from the outset, had been egging on the Belgians to gambles in the Congo; they, too, cannot escape the full weight of responsi- bility for the crime.

Who does not understand that the governments of the big Western Powers have been blocking every proposal, every step to curb the aggression against the Congo and pro- tect the rights of the Congo’s legally constituted government and Parliament? Everyone knows that a word from these governments to their retainer Hammarskjöld would have sufficed to turn the course of events in the Congo and save the life of the Congolese national hero. The crime was delib- erate; it was planned step by step and was in fact sanc- tioned in the very capitals of the states responsible for the criminal aggression against the Republic of the Congo.

This grave colonialist crime cannot be left unpunished. The hirelings who shed the blood of Patrice Lumumba and his associates must be brought to severe punishment. The nations will call the Belgian Government to account for its

pari in llus heinous crime: iheir conlenipl and wralh will brand the murderers and organisers of I he crime. In Africa the assassins have merely fanned I he sparks of hurning lia- Ired that will flame in the hearts of many an African genera- tion.

The tragic death of Patrice Lnmnmha and his associates has revealed with fresh force the disgraceful role played in Congolese affairs by U.N. Secretary-General Hammar- skj5ld and his subordinates in command of the troops sent to the Congo on behalf of the United Nations. From the day the so-called “U.N. operation” was launched in the Congo, Hammarskjöld acted in the interests of her enemies—the Belgian and other colonialists. Hammarskjöld’s policy in relation to the lawful Lumumha Government—and it was at the request of that government that U.N. forces were sent to the Congo—has from beginning to end been a foul be- trayal of the Congolese people’s interests, U.N. principles and the elementary rules of common decency and honour. Under the mask of impartiality the U.N. Secretary-General helped the colonialists to dismember and disorganise the Congolese state and to arm foreign mercenaries and execu- tioners.

From the U.N. discussion of this question it was evident that the colonialists had made a dirty deal with Hammar- skjold, who, as a result, purposely delayed giving protection to the lawful Government and Parliament of the Congo. He did nothing to save the legally elected leaders of the Con- golese people when the Prime Minister and other members of the Government and Parliament of the Congo were seized by the hirelings of the Belgian colonialists, incarcerated and subjected to inhuman torture, and when it was clear to the world that their lives were imperilled. It was clear to ev- eryone that in the planned assassination of the Prime Minis- ter of the Congo Hammarskjöld was assigned the role of colonialist agent with the U.N. flag in his hands.

Hammarskjöld’s criminal activity culminated in the murder of Patrice Lumumba and his associates in a Katanga torture-chamber. All honest men realise that the hands of this colonialist servitor are stained with the blood of Patrice Lumumba, and that it cannot be washed away. States which value the prestige of the United Nations and its

40

future will not put up with the practice of having this organ- isation represented in international affairs by a pitiful lackey of the colonialists. His actions are a disgrace to the United Nations. Such a man cannot be trusted at all; what is more, he deserves to be treated with scorn by all honest men. The high post of U.N. Secretary-General is no place for Hammarskjöld and his continued tenure of this office cannot be tolerated.

The Congolese people are continuing their struggle for freedom, to restore the independence of the Republic of the Congo. The blood of Patrice Lumumba will become the ban- ner of this struggle and, it can be said with confidence, will rouse new national-liberation forces in the Congo and the whole of Africa.

The Prime Minister of the Congo is dead, but the legally constituted Government of the Republic of the Congo, head- ed by his deputy, Antoine Gizcnga, continues to discharge its duties. With its seat at Stanleyville, the provisional cap- ital of the republic, it now controls almost one-half of the territory of the Congo and enjoys nation-wide support. The Belgian interventionists and their henchmen have started a military campaign against Stanleyville, the citadel of Con- golese independence. They are getting ready to commit more bloody crimes against the Congolese people.

The colonialists are bent on drowning in blood the nation- al freedom of the Congo. To prevent this is a matter of honour for the peoples of Africa and the entire world. Every possible assistance and support must be extended to the na- tional Government of the Congo in Stanleyville.

Expressing the will of the Soviet people, their profound indignation at the fiendish murder of the Congo’s national hero, Patrice Lumumba, and his associates, the Soviet Government demands:

First. The United Nations must resolutely condemn Bel- gium’s actions, which led up to the murder of Prime Minis- ter Patrice Lumumba, the President of the Senate and the Minister of Defence of the Congo Republic, as an internation- al crime incompatible with the U.N. Charter and a fla- grant violation of the Declaration on the Granting of In- dependence to the Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted at the Fifteenth General Assembly. In conformity with its

41

Chaitpr, the I'.N. must apply the necessary sanct ions against the aggressor.

Se<*ond. Tshoinhe and Mobutu, these colonialist placemen, must he immediately arrested by troops stationed in the Congo by decision of the Security Council and brought to trial. Ml military and gendarme units under Tshombe and Mobutu must be immediately disarmed. All Belgian forces and other Belgian personnel now in the Congo must also bo immediately disarmed and withdrawn.

Third. The so-called “U. N. operation” in the Congo must he wound up within one month and all foreign troops with- drawn so that the Congolese people could settle their inter- nal affairs themselves.

Fourth. Dag Hammarskjöld must be removed from the post of Secretary-General as an accomplice and organiser of the assassination of leading Congole.se statesmen, as an of- ficial who has dishonoured the United Nations.

For its part, the Soviet Government will not maintain any relations with Hammarskjöld and will not recognise him as a U.N. official.

Fifth. The lawful Government of the Congo, headed by Acting Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga, has appealed to all countries to help save the republic. The Soviet Govern- ment believes that such assistance is the sacred duty of all freedom-loving states. For its part, it is prepared to join with other nations friendly to the Republic of the Congo in rendering every possible assistance and support to the Con- golese people and their lawful government.

February If, 1961

Mrs. OPANGA PAULINE LUMUMBA

Leopoldville

I share your grief in the bereavement that has befallen your family and the entire Congolese people—the tragic death at the hands of the enemies of the Republic of the Congo, of your husband, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, the national hero of the Congolese people. The memory of

hisgr(*at patriot ic achievement will live forever in the hearts of Soviet people. You may rest assured that the family of Patrice Lumumba will always have the most sincere sym- pathy and support from the Soviet Union and its govern- ment.

With profound respect,

N. S. KHRUSHCHOV,

Moscow, February U, lOGl

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R.

FRIENDSHIP UNIVERSITY NAMED AFTER PATRICE LUMUMBA

IN THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE U.S.S.R,

Meeting tlie wishes of numerous public organisations in tlie Soviet Union and foreign countries, and considering tlie great number of letters received by Soviet government bodies containing requests from Soviet and foreign citizens that Friendsliip University in Moscow should be named after Patrice Lumumba, the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. decides:

In memory of Patrice Lumumba, outstanding leader of the national-liberation movement of Africa, Congolese national hero and Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, who gave his life in the struggle for his country's freedom and independence. Friendship University in Moscow is named after Patrice Lumumba and is henceforth to be known as Patrice Lumumba Friendship Univei’sity.

l\drice hnmumba

Chapter 2: SPEECHES, LETTERS, INTERVIEWS

Lumumba. My Government Serves the People

THE SPEECH OF PATRICE LUMUMBA AT THE CEREMONY OF THE PROCLAMATION OF THE CONGO’S INDEPENDENCE ON JUNE 30, 1960

Men and women of the Congo,

Victorious independence fighters,

I salute you in the name of the Congolese Government.

I ask all of you, my friends, w^ho tirelessly fought in our ranks, to mark this June 30, 1960, as an illustrious date that will be ever engraved in your hearts, a date whose meaning you will proudly explain to your children, so that they in turn might relate to their grandchildren and great- grandchildren the glorious history of our struggle for free- dom.

Although this independence of the Congo is being pro- claimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable coun- try, with which we are on equal terms, no Congolese will ever forget that independence was w^on in struggle, a perse- vering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle, in which we w^ere undaunted by privation or suffer- ing and stinted neither strength nor blood.

4i

It was filled with tears, fire and blood. We are deeply proud of our struggle, because it was just and nobleand indis- jiensable in putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us.

That was our lot for the eighty years of colonial rule and our w'ounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgot- ten.

We have experienced forced labour in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe our- selves, to have decent lodgings or to bring up our children as dearly loved ones.

Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, in- sults and blows because we were “Negroes”. Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as “/w”, not because he w^as a friend, but because the polite “rous” was reserved for the white man?

We have seen our lands seized in the name of ostensibly just laws, which gave recognition only to the right of might.

We have not forgotten that the law was never the same for the white and the black, that it was lenient to the ones, and cruel and inhuman to the others.

We have experienced the atrocious sufferings, being persecuted for political convictions and religious beliefs, and exiled from our native land: our lot was worse than death itself.

We have not forgotten that in the cities the mansions w^ere for the whites and the tumbledowm huts for the blacks; that a black was not admitted to the cinemas, restaurants and shops set aside for “Europeans”; that a black travelled in the holds, under the feetof the whites in their luxury cab- ins.

Who will ever forget the shootings which killed so many of our brothers, or the cells into which were mercilessly thrown those who no longer wished to submit to the regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation used by the colo- nialists as a tool of their domination?

All that, my brothers, brought us untold suffering.

But we, who were elected by the votes of your representa- tives, representatives of the people, to guide our native land, we, who have suffered in body and soul from the colonial

45

oppression, we lell you llial henceforth all that is finished with.

The Republic of Ihe Congo bas been proclaimed and our beloved counlry's fulure is now in the bands of ils own people.

Brothers, let us commence together a new struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to peace, pros- perity and greatness.

Together we shall eslablish social justice and ensure for every man a fair remuneration for his labour.

We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.

We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children.

We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble.

We shall stop the persecution of free (hought. We shall see to it that all citizens enjoy to the fullest extent the basic freedoms provided for by the Declaration of Human Rights.

We shall eradicate all discrimination, whatever its ori- gin, and we shall ensure forever>mnea station in life befit- ting his human dignity and worthy of his labour and his loyalty to the countr>^

We shall institute in the countr>’ a peace resting not on guns and bayonets but on concord and goodwill.

And in all this, my dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of the numerous foreign states, whose co-operation we shall accept when it is not aimed at imposing upon us an alien policy, but is given in a spirit of friend- ship.

Even Belgium, which has finally learned the lesson of history and need no longer try to oppose our independence, is prepared to give us its aid and friendship; for that end an agreement has just been signed between our two equal and independent countries. I am sure that this co-operation will benefit both countries. For our part, we shall, while re- maining vigilant, try to observe the engagements we have freely made.

Thus, both in ihe internal and the external spheres, the new Congo being created by my government will be rich, free

40

and prosperous. But to attain our goal without delay, T ask all of you, legislators and citizens of the Congo, to give us all the help you can.

1 ask you all to sink your tribal <|uarrols: they weaken us and may cause us to be despised abroad.

1 ask you all not to shrink from any sacrifice for the sake of ensuring the success of our grand undertaking.

F’inally, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and property of fellow-citizens and foreigners who have settled in our country; if the conduct of these foreigners leaves much to be desired, our Justice will promptly expel them from the territory of the republic; if, on the contrary, their con- duct is good, they must be left in peace, for they, too, are working for our country’s prosperity.

The Congo’s independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent.

Our government, a government of national and popular unity, will serve its country.

1 call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and chil- dren, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence.

Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation!

Long live independence and African unity!

Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!

HIS EXCELLENCY, MR. N. S. KHRUSHCHOV, CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE U.S.S.R.

Moscow

1 thank you most warmly for the congratulations and wishes you sent on behalf of the Soviet Government to my government, to me personally and to the whole Congolese people on the attainment and proclamation of our independ-

47

ence. It is the hearlfell desire of Ihe Congolese nation and its government to maintain cordial relations of friendship with all countries sharing its ideal of complete independence.

Please accept most sincere wishes from the Congolese people to the people of Ihe Soviet Union and its government.

PATRICE LUMUMBA,

Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo

Leopoldville, July 7, 1930

May Our People Triumph by Patrice Lumumba

Weep, O my black beloved brother deep buried in eternal, bestial night.

O you, whose dust simooms and hurricanes have scattered all over the vast earth.

You, by whose hands the pyramids were reared In memory of royal murderers.

You, rounded up in raids; you, countless times defeated In all the battles ever won by brutal force;

'i'ou, who were taught but one perpetual lesson.

One motto, which was—slavery or death;

You, who lay hidden in impenetrable jungles And silently succumljed to countless deaths Under the ugly guise of jungle fever.

Or lurking in the tiger s fatal joivs,

Or in the slow embrace of ihe morass That strangled gradually, like the python,,^.

But then, there came a day that brought the white.

More sly, more full of spite than any death, y our gold he bartered for his worthless beads and baubles, lie raped and fouled your sisters and your wives.

And poisoned with his drink your sons and brothers,

And drove your children down into the holds of ships. "Twas then the tomtom rolled from village unto village. And told the people that another foreign slave ship Had put off on its way to far-off shores Where God is cotton, where the dollar reigns as King. There, sentenced to unending, wracking labour.

Toiling from dawn to dusk in the relentless sun,

They taught you in your psalms to glorify

Their Lord, while you yourself were crucified to hymns

That promised bliss in the world of Hereafter,

While you—you begged of them a single boon:

That they should let you live—to live, aye—simply live.

And by a fire your dim, fantastic dreams Poured out aloud in melancholy strains.

As elemental and as wordless as your anguish.

It happened you would even play, be merry And dance, in sheer exuberance of spirit:

And then would all the splendour of your manhood.

The sweet desires of youth sound, wild with power.

On strings of brass, in burning tambourines.

And from that mighty music the beginning Of jazz arose, tempestuous, capricious.

Declaring to the whites in accents loud That not entirely was the planet theirs.

0 Music, it was you permitted us

To lift our face and peer into the eyes

Of future liberty, that would one day be ours.

Then let the shores of mighty rivers bearing on Their living waves into the radiant future,

O brother mine, be yours!

Let the fierce heat of the relentless midday sun Burn up your grief!

Let them evaporate in everlasting sunshine.

Those tears shed by your father and your grandsire Tortured to death upon these mournful fields.

And may our people, free and gay forever.

Live, triumph, thrive in peace in this our Congo,

Here, in the very heart of our great Africa!

THEIR PLAN IS TO DISMEMBER THE CONGO

The continuing political crisis provoked by the head of slate, Mr. Kasavubu, on September 5, 191)0 makes immi- nent the grave danger of the Congo’s complete break-up. A regime of anarchy and dictatorship has replaced the demo- cratic regime established by the Congolese people on Juno 30, 1960. A tiny minority, advised and financed by certain foreign powers, is engaged in subversive activity night and day. The capital of the repuhlic is a scene of disorder, where a handful of hired military men are ceaselessly violating law and order. The citizens of Leopoldville now live under a reign of terror. Arbitrary arrests, followed by deportation, are a daily and nightly occurrence, and many persons are re- ported missing. Murder, burglary and rape of married women and young girls are committed almost daily by individuals bereft of every sense of morality and patriotism, who profess to be in the service of the national army and of Mr. Kasavubu. The presidents of the provincial governments of Stanley- ville and Leopoldville, Mr. Finant and Mr. Kamitatu, recog- nised leaders, elected by the people, and governing between them more than six million inhabitants to the satisfaction of all concerned, are at this moment subjected to every conceivable form of brutality and torture. These two pro- vincial presidents—men wholly dedicated to the task of improving the well-being of their people—were taken by surprise by Mobutu’s thugs respectively on October 13, 1960 at Stanleyville and November 10 at Leopoldville and are now in concentration camps set up at Leopoldville by Messrs. Kasavubu and Mobutu.

The only fault of these worthy representatives of the people is loyalty to their country and disapproval of the unlawful acts of Mr. Ka.savubu and his followers at Leopold- ville, acts which are leading the country straight to disaster.

Mr. Joseph Okilo, President of the Senate, the second highest dignitar>' in the stale, has had the same ex- perience. He has several times been arbitrarily arrested, beaten and then set free. Similar crimes are daily committed

60

against llio members of ihe majority group in Parliament and I he members of Ihe legally const i hi led government. Th(\v have even bemi officially prohibited to leave Leopold- ville and n'tnrn to their provinces to meet their constituents and join their families; they are restricted in their movements in Leopoldville, which after all belongs to the entire nation.

At Leopoldville the majority parties in Parliament are forbidden to publish newspapers. All loyal army personnel and government officials, who wanted to have no truck with the unlawful activities and the policy of national demoli- tion pursued by the head of state and his handful of support- ers at Leopoldville, have been dismissed from their posts, maltreated and turned out into the street. Hundreds of loyal soldiers who oppose Mobutu are sent back daily to their villages; others are now in the Binza concentration camp. Soldiers are recruited on the basis of ethnic kinship with the head of state and his minority supporters, the purpose being to terrorise those who do not share their views and opinions.

Those who honestly and loyally champion thecause of the people are now being butchered. The provisional institutions envisaged under the Fundamental Law drawn up by the former colonial power have been undermined and trampled in the dust by tlie head of state. Because it does not agree with him. Parliament has been high-handedly dismissed in violation of Articles 21 and 70 of the Fundamental Law\ Mr. Kasavubu confuses the parliamentary regime, which is our system, with the presidential regime. That is why he assumes the powers vested in the Prime Minister under Article 36 of the Fundamental Law. It is not for the head of state but for the Prime Minister and my lawful govern- ment to send delegations to the United Nations, as I have done on three occasions. Parliament, the country’s supreme organ, voted full powers to my government on September 13, 1960. The confidence placed in my government by the entire nation is steadily increasing. The United Nations is not entitled to choose any course other than the one indi- cated by Parliament. Certain slates, which are niembei*sof ihe United Nations, instead of conforming to the decisions taken by the sovereign Congolese Parliament, ignore them and support only the minority working against the will of the majority. Instead of helping the Congolese leaders to

61

cITect a peaceful sell lenUMit of I lie conflicl provoked by Mr. Kasavubu, cerlain powers are doing Iheir iilinosl lo widen Ihe breach belween us, Iheir plan being indireel ly lo bring about the dismemberment of the Congo. In Ihis connection, the Congolese people as a whole deplore Ihe allitude of Ihe United Stales Governmenl; it is with great regret that I call the General Assembly’s attention to the fact that, as eloquently testified by Ihe documents seized, the 30 million francs recently confiscated at Stanleyville from a group of persons plotting to seize power by a coup d'etat came from United States sources. In view of the foregoing, and of the fact that the United Nations has proved unahle to find a prompt solution in accordance with the expressed will of the people, I propose, with the backing of the millions of inhabitants 1 lawfully represent, that the solution of the Congolese problem should be left to the Congolese people themselves.

No one will then be able to accuse the United Nations of partiality in any eventual decision, or of interference in the Congo’s internal affairs. With this end in view, I propose that a popular referendum be held without delay with the participation of all the citizens of the republic, under the direction of the provincial assemblies and governments but under the supervision of a commission of United Nations observers. The said commission would do everything to en- sure that all electors cast their votes freely. Steps would also be taken to prevent any fraud. The referendum would relate to the adoption of a presidential regime, to be fol- lowed by the election of the President of the Republic by direct suffrage. Such a referendum would enable the peopfe to choose freely and directly the leaders they want and thus to put an end to the present crisis and to all the back- stage manoeuvring. This is the one and only way of restor- ing immediate peace and order in the Congo and so serving the interests of the mission undertaken by the United Nations in our country.

Please accept, Mr. President, assurances of my high esteem.

P. E. LUMUMBA

(From the letter dated November 11, 1980 to the President of the General Assembly from Mr. P. E. Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo)

52

THE WESTERN POWERS ARE BACKING THE AGGRESSOR

In a statement in the Congolese Parliament Prime Minis- ter Lumiiml)a demanded the withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo within twelve hours.

lie censured the United Slates for supporting Belgium in the United Nations. He said the United States wanted Bel- gium to retain her military bases in the Congo.

Referring lo the U.N. troops which today began arriving in Leopoldville, Lumumba said they could remain in the Congo provided their presence conformed to the interests of the Congo and not to those of Belgium.

(Leopoldville, July 15, 1960, Franco Presse)

Patrice Lumumba said at a press conference: “We noted with regret that not a single Western Power had opposed the monstrous Belgian aggression. They all remained on the side of the Belgians.”

(Leopoldville, July 21, 1960, Reuter)

THE CONGO THANKS THE LAND OF SOVIETS

Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, who is now in Washington, gave the following interview to a TASS correspondent.

Question: How, in your opinion, is the U.N. Security Council decision on the rapid withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo being fulfilled?

Answer: Belgium has already proved that she has no re- spect forSecurity Council decisions. The Belgian Government is continuing its aggressive actions and savage reprisals against our people. It will be recalled that as far back as July 14, the Security Council demanded in a resolution that Belgian troops should leave the Congo; it sent U.N. armed forces to our country to back up this decision. But since then not a single Belgian soldier has left the territory

53

of Ihe Congo. Kvery day Iho froo| s of thoHelgian rolonialisis kill soldiers of our national army and mass^iere hundreds of Congole.'^e eivilians. Those facts are rot widely known in the world because the lUdgian colonialists have got the press of other Western countries to write as little as pos- sible about the doings of Belgian soldiers in the Congo.

Our government and Parliament have from the very first demanded that Belgian troops should leave the Congo. The pertinent Soviet proposal tabled in the Security Council was the only proposal fully conforming to our people’s inter- ests. We continue to demand and declare that the immedi- ate withdrawal of Belgian troops is the only way of restoring law and order in the Congo. That is why we ask all democrat- ic and peace-loving countries to support our demand. The last Belgian soldier should have left the Congo long ago. The U. N. troops, which arrived to ensure implementation of the Security CounciPs resolution, have now been in the C( ngo for over a fortnight. But the situation has not changed. I must say that the Security Council’s resolutions are being fulfilled anything but properly, although the Council had already passed two resolutions—on July 14 and 22—on the need to withdraw Belgian troops from the Congo. Such a small country as Belgium allows herself to behave in this way only because the Congo now lacks the weapons to throw out the Belgian colonialists.

Question: What is the situation in Katanga? What is your opinion of Katanga’s so-called secession from the Congo recently announced by Mr. Tshombe?

Answer: There has never been a Katanga problem as such. The gist of the matter is that the imperialists want to lay their hands on our country’s riches and to continue exploit- ing our people. The imperialists have always had their agents in the colonial countries. Tshombe, in particular, is an agent of the Belgian imperialists. Everything he says and writes is not his own. He merely mouths the words of ihe Belgian colonialists. It is well known that Tshombe is an e.x-businessman who has long since thrown in his lot with the colonial companies in the Congo. But very few people know that just recently, as a result of dishonest mach- inations and overdrafts, Tshombe owed Belgian companies in the Congo more than ten million Belgian francs. He w'as

64

arrested and was lo be tried. But in view of the situation that took shape, Tshombe was “pardoned” and released by the Belgians and since then he has been obediently carrying out all their orders.

Question: What is the Congolese people’s view of the So- viet Union’s stand on the Congo’s struggle to attain genuine independence and territorial integrity?

Answer: The Soviet Union was the only Great Bower whoso stand conformed to our people’s will and desire. That is why the Soviet Union was the only Great Power which has all along been supporting the Congolese people’s struggle. I should like to convey the heartfelt gratitude of the entire Congolese people to the Soviet people and to Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchov pei’sonally for your country’s timely and great moral support to the young Republic of the Congo in its struggle against the imperialists and colonialists. I should also like to thank the Sov iet Union for the assistance in food which it is extending to the Congo.

(Washington, July 28, TASS)

THE ENEMIES HOPE TO INTIMIDATE US

Before, and then after, the proclamation of the Congo’s independence, we constantly felt the Soviet Union’s moral support, and for this we are profoundly grateful to the Gov- ernment and people of the U.S.S.R. Today we are getting not only moral support, but also material aid. Just yesterday we received from the Soviet Union a consignment of motor vehicles and equipment, and before that, food. The enemies of our independence are trying to scare us into refusing the Soviet Union’s assistance. But we are firmly convinced that this assistance is selfless and humane. It is in complete accord with the principles of the Declaration of Human Rights, which the U.S.S.R. signed and is actively defending. Once again, I should like to thank, through your press, the people Slid Government of the U.S.S.R. for their selfless friendship.

(From an interview with foreign correspondents in Leopoldville, August 25, 1960)

66

THE PEOPLE’S URGE TO FREEDOM IS INSUPERABLE

Addressing the Conference of Independent African Slates at Leopoldvilie, Prime Minister Liiiniimba of the Republic of the Congo warmly greeted the participants, including Guinea, Ghana, the United Arab Republic, the Sudan and Morocco. “Your presence here at this trying moment for the entire Congolese people,” he said, “is vivid proof of your friendship and support.

“Since the historic Accra Conference of African Peoples of December 1958, which was a milestone on the way to Africa's liberation, the national-liberation movement of the African countries has become even broader. Nothing can block this urge of the peoples to freedom. The main purpose of the pres- ent conference is to unite the efforts of all African peoples in the struggle for the further liberation of Africa. We must present a united front of free nations against the current combined moves of the imperialist powers, which are oper- ating through the Belgian colonialists.”

(Leopoldville, August 26, 1960, TASS)

The movement of solidarity with the Republic of the Congo started by all the African nations has shown the West new Africa’s unequivocal attitude to colonialism.

(From a statement in Rabat in August i9Q0)

BELGl UM HAS STOLEN OUR GOLD

We want co-operation, not charity. We shall prove that the Congo is capable of managing her affairs. We shall never accept U.N. trusteeship.

The Prime Minister said: “Belgium had stolen the Congo’s gold reserve and was using it to create a new currency in Katanga.”

(Leopoldville, August 9, I960, Reuter)

60

I

THE COLONIALISTS CANNOT BE TRUSTED

Belgium violated Ibc Belgian-Congolcse Treaty signed on June 22, 19B0, helped Kalaiiga’s secession, piiblicly insulted I he Congolese state and acted to the prejudice of the Con- golese Government.

Diplomatic relations between Belgium and the Congo will 1)C restored when the last Belgian soldier leaves the Congo’s territory.

(From a speech at a press confer- ence in Leopoldville on July 16,

1960)

I SHALL NEVER FORGET THESE ATROCITIES

“Independence is never granted,” Lumumba declared. “We won our independence by our own blood and effort. I shall never forget the atrocities and the humiliations we suffered under Belgium’s colonial rule.

“One fact must be understood: but for the rude interven- tion of Belgian troops, we could have gradually normalised the situation.

‘The following fact still remains tnie: peace and security in the Congo can be restored only when the last Belgian sol- dier is withdrawn.

“As for the so-called disintegration of the Congo, you must know that Belgian companies have long had detailed plans for the separation of the copper- and cobalt-rich Katanga. But Katanga is, and will remain, an integral part of our countr^^ This was confirmed by the Security Council in its various resolutions.”

Lumumba stressed that the withdrawal of Belgian troops must extend to the Province of Katanga. “The Security Coun- cil voted for the Congo’s membership in the United Nations as a single republic.”

(July 1960, from an interview with the Chicago Daily News)

67

THIS IS NOT HIGH-LEVEL STRATEGY, IT IS TREASON

I am aware that in spile of the cable I sent lo the U.N. Secretary -General, the latter refused lo send U.N. troops lo Katanga. Such a stand is favourable to Katanga's secession, ll is a plot involving high-level strategy, which wo must denounce without delay in the supreme interests of the na- tion. I ask you to call a meeting of the Cabinet immediately lo adopt a decision refusing U.N. aid. This decision must be at once transmitted lo the U.N. Secretary-General and the President of the U.N. Security Council.

The U.N. troops are merely parading in the Congo, in- stead of helping us evacuate hostile Belgian troops.

(From Lunuiinba’s telegram to members of the government sent from Conakry on August 7, 1960)

THE IMPERIALISTS WlLL NEVER BOSS THE CONGO

The Congo is prepared to maintain with Belgium relations of close friendship and co-operation on the principle of equal- ity.

But the Congolese Government will take the most reso- lute measures against all those who hamper the construction of an independent Congo, her further development and pros- perity.

The government is prepared to have selfless co-operation with any country desiring it. But we shall reject any pro- posaLs that could place us in a position of dependence on imperialism. We have not won independence and rid our- selves of colonial oppression merely to fall under the domi- nation of others. Therefore, w^e shall not allow the imperial- ists lo boss our country.

(July 1969, speech at the Foreign Press Association at Leopoldville)

58

COLONIAL APPETITE

That bite is bigger than you can swallow, gentlemen!

CAHTOON BY KUKHVNIKSY (The inscription in Russian—the Congo)

WE SHALL OUST THE COLONIALISTS FROM AFRICA

I cannot understand why the U.N. Secretary-General preferred to negotiate with Tshonibe instead of sending the U.N. forces into Katanga. In view of such a stand, we believe that the U. N. Secretary-General has failed to do his duty. Within the framework of its sovereignty, the Congolese Government has decided to fulfil its obligations and wo shall find a way out ourselves.

We shall oust the colonialists from Africa.

(From a speech at a mass meeting at Conakry on August 7, 1900)

I AM PREPARED TO DlE FOR MY COUNTRY

Belgium by her behaviour has declared war on us. Be calm and collected. If death becomes inescapable, I shall die for my country.

(Address to the people over Radio Leopoldville, July 16, 1960)

THE CONGOLESE PEOPLE DO NOT WANT WAR

We do not want war, but the Belgians are committing ag- gression daily and hourly. The population was calm until Belgian soldiers suddenly began to arrive and upset the peace. Our people cannot stand the presence of Belgian troops. We want to be rid of them immediately.

(Press conference in Leopoldville, July 20. 1960)

00

WE SHALL NEVER BOW DOWN

The Congo is an independent country and there will never be any secessions in the Congo. Those who dream of dividing and Balkan ising the Congo must know that the Congolese people will never bow down, and will beat back every such attempt.

(Speech over Radio Leopoldville, August 9, I960)

THE ENEMIES ARE LYING IN WAIT FOR US

I order you to dedicate yourselves to the service of the people and the republic. Together we shall defend our native land against imperialist plots and moves. The enemies of our independence are lying in wait for us. There are attempts to set up a new domination in the Congo in the form of an international trustee.ship.

(Lumumba’s appeal to the Congole.se army over Radio Leopoldville on September V\, 1960)

MR. Hammarskjöld, YOU HAVE ABETTED MONSTROUS CRIMES

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PATRICE LUMUMBA

Prime Minister Lumumba held a press conference in Leo- poldville on August 17, at which he said:

“At my yesterday’s press conference I slated the grave reasons that prompted the government to ask the President of the Security Council to examine the question of immedi- ately sending a group of neutral observers to the Congo to ensure control over the implementation of the resolution of July 14, 1960. Certain circles with interests in the Congo have qualified our position as a lack of confidence in the U.N. As 1 stated yesterday and repeat again, the matter here is not in a lack of trust or any other suspicions with regard to the U.N. On the contrary. The Government and the people of the Congo continue to trust the U.N. and its Security Council. All we have condemned, and that can he proved, is the method by which the U.N. Secretary-General wanted to implement the Security Council’s resolution. The l .N. Secrelarj -General acted as though there were no govern- ment of the republic.

“The Congolese people regard his contacts and meetings with Tshombe as well as the assurances that he gave Tshomhe as treachery. Tshomhe did not conceal the fact that he had official assurances from the U.N. Secretary-General. In conformity with the Security Council’s resolution, Mr. Hammarskjöld should not have had talks with Tshomhe. Furthermore, the Secret ary -Gen era I did not once show any desire to consult with the government of the republic as ho was officially advised to do by the n^solution of July 14, 1960. Consequently, a line must be drawn between the per- sonal actions of Mr. Mainmarskjold, which we brand in the name of truth and justice, and the far-sighted policy of the United Nations. In the Congo nobody approves Ihe steps that have so fai been taken in the Congo issue by the L.N.

62

KYKPWHVIKCbl'Gl

Mobutu and Tshombe operating within the framework of UNO CARTOON BY KUKRYMKSY ('OOir is the lius^iian jor UNO)

Seoretary-Gnioial. His inlerprolation of I lio Sonirily Coun- cil's decisions clearly shows us his intentions. The goverii- incnt is aware that certain circles seek to turn the Congo into a second Korea. And in order to achieve this purpose hy round- about ways, iinpleinentation of the decisions of an organ of the highest international authority is being delayed. Many crimes have bi'en |)crpet rated in Katanga becau.sc of the L’.N. Secrctary-Generars delay in carrying out the decisions of the United Nations.

‘Th> fact of the matter is that several scores of Congo- lese, military men and civilians, have been shot two days ago. These repugnant crimes have been concealed from the public. Surely the U.N. Secretary-General knows that. The conspiracy of silence designed to delude world public opin- ion is noteworthy. The Belgian press and the correspondents sent to Katanga assert that order reigns there, whereas in reality arbitrary shootings and arrests are occurring every day as a consequence of Tshombe’s compact with Belgium. Every day I receive alarming news from various parts of Katanga and every day the population of Katanga Province are asking the government to intervene and deliver them from the oppression of the Belgium-Tsliom be group. Conscience will not allow’ the government to permit such a situation to continue in the country.Wew’anled to go to the Security Council to condemn this situation, for all to hear, believing that if our official delegation is absent the Security Coun- cil might be misinformed. I asked the U.N. Secretary-Gen- eral to postpone his departure for 24 hours to enable our government delegation to accompany him. Our request was not complied with. And yet in his letter of August 15, 1960 he assured me that the Security Council w’ould meet only after the arrival of our delegation. To my great surprise and to the surprise of the whole of Congolese public opinion, I learned that the Security Council is to meet tomorrow morning al- though the delegation of the Congo has not left the country because of a lack of transportation facilities. This morning J cabled the Chairman of the Security Council asking him to postpone the meeting until the arrival of a delegation from the Congolese Government.

I hope that this well-founded request is complied with. Moreover, I hope that the government will not be compelled

64

to renounce the services of the U.N. in the event a decision we shall consider as iindosirahle is taken, that is to say, if a group of neutral foreign oh.servers will not ho sent with instructions to ensure control over the implementation of the Security Council’s resolution. The government will, to its regret, he forced to consider other, speedier measures. More than a month of our hopes in the U.N. and of waiting has passed. It is now over a month that we have been waiting for its resolution to be carried out.

“It does not do for any country to lecture us or to tell us what road we should take if there is no desire to help us in the w’ay we have asked and if it is contemplated to use our request for military aid to pursue other political aims. We are prepared to withdraw this request. Nobody can enter the Congo and no country can set foot in our country and interfere in its affairs if it has not been specially requested to do so by the legal Government of the Congo Republic. The Congo is a sovereign, independent and free state with the same rights as France, Belgium, Britain and the U.S.A. We are the masters of our own destinies and shall make the Congo into w hat we want her to be and not into what others want. Those who reproach me for saying the truth and expos- ing certain manoeuvres are giving themselves away in the face of this truth because it will triumph in the very near future. Together with our people we shall defend our country to the end, regardless of the plots and manoeuvres of the Belgian colonialists and their allies. History will show who is right.”

THREADS OF THE CONSPIRACY LEAD TO BRUSSELS

A new event has occurred in our young republic. This event must not surprise us. It is the next step of the sinister conspir- acy that the imperialists and their accomplices have been preparing behind the scenes for several weeks.

The national radio has just broadcast a statement by the head of state Kasavubu to the effect that the government which I head is about to resign. On behalf of the government of the entire country I categorically deny this report. The

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government has had no talks with Kasavubn on this matter. Insofar as the government has been democratically elected by the country and has received the complete coi fidence of Parliament, it can only be removed from office if it loses the trust of the people.

The Government of the Republic of the Congo has today passed a decision to relieve Kasavubu of his duties as Pres- ident of the Republic and has declared that until Parliament is convened it will carry out the functions of head of state itself.

(From a speech by Patrice laiiminibn on September 5, I960, France Presse)

THE IMPERIALISTS CALL ME A COMMUNIST BECAUSE I REFUSED TO BE BRIBED

Question: Some of your political opponents accuse you of being a Communist. Could you reply to that?

Answer: This is a propagandist trick aimed at me. I am not a Communist. The colonialists have campaigned against me throughout the country because I am a revolutionary and demand the abolition of the colonial regime, which ignores our human dignity. They look upon me as a Communist because I refused to be bribed by the imperialists.

(From an interview given by Patrice Lumumba to a France-Soir corre- spondent on July 22, 1960)

I SHALL RESIST ALL MANOEUVRES

Filemin Mikolo Sarungi of Tanganyika is a student at the Department of Medicine of Budapest University. When the news of Patrice Lumumba's murder was flashed round the world, a correspondent of the Hungarian News Agency visited Sarungi, who told him of his meeting and correspondence with the Congolese Prime Minister.

“I met this great son of Africa,” Sarungi said, “during a rally of the African peoples’ solidarity movement in

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Cairo in 1058. In the summer of l%0, when the Congo freed herself from almost a century of domination by Belgium and became independent, L. A. Binagi, a student of the Economics Department, and 1 wrote a letter congratulating the Prime Minister of the Congo on behalf of the African students at Budapest University. Lumumba replied to as from Leopoldville on October 27. Deplorable events had taken place since, but he did not forget that the African students studying in Budapest were thinking of him. His residence was already surrounded by soldiers, his move- ments were restricted and he was working on almost unsolv- able problems, but he sent us a letter which bears the stamp of his peisonality, life and struggle. Here it is.”

Dear brother^

Your letter of July 2, 1960 has moved me deeply,

I thank you for your heartfelt wishes. I consider it my duty to state in this letter that for me as an African nation- alist leader there can be no question of ceasing or weakening my efforts in the struggle for the complete independence of all the African peoples. On the contrary, I regard it my duty continually to redouble my efforts as far as it is possible.

Like you, I fully subscribe to the statement of my dear friend and brother Dr. N'K rumah that ''the independence of any country in Africa signifies the liberation of the whole of Africa from the yoke of imperialism''. Indeed, that statement determines the role of the black peoples in the struggle for their liberation from colonial oppression.

You may rest assured that for my part / shall resist all the intrigues of the agents of the imperialist or colonial re- gime, and that / shall resolutely and with uncompromising firmness expose the plots and insidious manoeuvres aimed at restoring in our country the totalitarian regime that we have struggled against for so long.

In addition, I shall endeavour to direct my country along the only road that has proved to be the most correct, namely, the road of creating a genuinely Congolese state that would be rid of inter-tribal wars and fratricidal struggles, so that we can be proud of the work that we have done to unite the Congo, our beloved country.

I am firmly convinced that once the black peoples are liber- ated from oppression and occupation by the colonial regime

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they ivill achieve great heights (after their internal problems hare been resolved) and, perhaps, even surpass every other country in the world,

/ do not wish to turn my letter to you into an exposition of my i'ie%^ s, but what I have written is an expression of my feel- ings and my most sincere corn ictions.

With fraternal and best wishes.

Patrice LUMUMBA, Prime Minister

I REMAIN CALM

LETTER FROM PATRICE LUMUMBA, WRITTEN SECRETLY IN THE THYSVILLE PRISON TO A. M. DAYAL, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL

Thysrille, January 4, 1961

Mr. Special Representative,

On December 2/ last, I had the pleasure of receiving a visit from the Red Cross, which occupied itself with my plight and with the plight of the other parliamentarians imprisoned together with me. I told them of the inhuman conditions we are living in.

Briefly, the situation is as follows. I am here with seven other parliamentarians. In addition there are with us Mr. Okito, President of the Senate, a Senate employee and a driver. Altogether there are ten of us. We have been locked up in damp cells since December 2, 19G0 and at no time have we been permitted to leave them. The meals that we are brought twice a day are verj’ bad. For three or four days 1 ate nothing but a banana. I told this to the Red Cross medical officer sent to me. 1 spoke to him in the pres- ence of a colonel from Thysville. I demanded that fruit be bought on my own money because the food that 1 am given here IS atrocious. Although the medical officer gave his per- mission. the military authorities guarding me turned down rny request, stating that they were following orders from Kasa-

6H

vubu and Colonel Mobutu. The medical officer from Thys- ville prescribed a short w'alk every evening so that I could leave my cell for at least a little while. But the colonel and the district commis-sioner denied me this. The clothes that I wear have not been w'ashed for thirty-five days. I am for- bidden to wear shoes.

In a word, the conditions w'c are living in arc absolutely intolerable and run counter to all rules.

Moreover, I receive no news of my wife and I do not even know where she is. Normally I should have had regular visits from her as is provided for by the prison regulations in force in the Congo. On the other hand, thepri.son regula- tions clearly state that not later than a day after his ar- rest a prisoner must be brought before the investigator handling his case. Five days after this a prisoner must again he arraigned before a judge, who must decide whether to remand him in custody or not. In any case, a prisoner must have a lawyer.

The criminal code provides that a prisoner is released from prison if five days after he is taken into custody the judge takes no decision on remanding him. The same happens in cases when the first decision (which is taken five days after a person is arrested) is not reaffirmed within fifteen days. Since our arrest on December 1 and to this day we have not been arraigned before a judge or visited by a judge. No airest warrant has been shown to us. We are kept simply in a mili- tary camp and have been here for thirty-four dajs. We are kept in military detention cells.

The criminal code is ignored as arc the prison rules. Ours is purely a case of arbitrary imprisonment. I must add that we possess parliamentary immunity.

Such is the situation and I ask you to inform the United Nations Secretary-General of it.

I remain calm and hope the United Nations will help us out of this situation.

I stand for reconciliation between all the children of this country.

I am writing this letter secretly on bad paper.

1 have the honour to be, etc.

Patrice LUMUMBA, Prime Minister

LUMUMBA ACCUSES

FROM CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO AND HAMMARSKJdLD

The docuinenls published here shed liglit on Haninuir- skj5ld’s position in the preparations for the criminal conspiracy of the imperialists against the independence of the Congo. These document show the incredibly difficult conditions in which Lumumba upheld the vital interests of his people and the dignity and firmness with which he defended the unity of his country. Ham- marskjold wove a web of conspiracy and sabotaged the Security Council’s decisions on clearing Katanga Province of Belgian troops.

One cannot read Lumumba’s letters to Hammar- skjold without being moved. They expose the sinister role played in the tragic events in the Congo by the L.N. Command. They explain how and why Hammar- skjold, carrying out the will of the colonialists, de- clared open war on the republic’s legal government. Lastly, these moving letters, written with earnest sincerity, help us to understand Patrice Lumumba himself, the great patriot of the Congo. Lumumba accuses Hammarskjöld of conniving with the bandits Kasavubu, Tshombe and Mobutu. Had the hero been alive, he would in unison with all honest people have demanded: ‘'Hammarskjöld, clear out of the United Nations!”

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WE INSIST ON THE IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL OF AGGRESSIVE TROOPS FROM THE CONGO

{From a tetter from Patrice to Dag II ammar skjold

on July 26, 1960)

New York, July 26, 1960

I am informing you of the following facts: 50 soldiers have been shelled in Shinkolobwe, seven soldiers have been killed in Jadotville, 40 soldiers have been killed in Elisa- bethville and 12 soldiers have been killed in Kolwezi.

The Minister of Justice reports that thousands of Congo- lese citizens have been fired on in Kipushi, Dilolo, Buka- ma, Manono, Kabalo, Albertville, Kabongo, Kamina and Ka- niamba. In addition, European settlers are killing all Congo- lese appearing singly on the highways.

This report has come from the general of our national army Mr. Victor Lundula.

The Minister of Justice of our republic informs us that the Belgian troops, now being withdrawn from the other provinces of the Congo, are concentrating in Katanga Prov- ince, where they have their headquarters. The Minister insists on the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of Belgian troops from the entire territory of the country.

In view of the gravity of the situation, I permit myself to insist once again on the following demand that was forward- ed to you earlier: “Belgian troops must be immediately withdrawn from the Congo.”

I ask you to inform the members of the Security Council of these new facts from the Congo.

P. LUMUMBA

I

Prime Minister

71

YOU MUST NEGOTIATE WITH THE GOVERNMENT AND NOT WITH TSHOMBE

{From a telegram from Patrice Lutmimba to Hammarskfold on August 5 . 1960)

I am happy the U.N. has decided to send troops to Ka- tanga. I am aware that with the help of cunning manoeuvres inspired by Belgian officers, whom the Government of Brus- sels has assigned to Tshombe, the Belgian Government has attempted to ignore the decisions of the United Nations. I firmly hope you will not give in to the blackmail of the Government of Belgium through its puppet Tshombe.

I cannot understand how Dr. Bunche could go to Katanga to discuss with Tshombe the question of the arrival of U.N. troops in that province. Such negotiations with a member of a provincial government contradict the decisions of the Security Council.

The Security Council had, after all, instructed you to take the necessary steps, in consultation with the Govern- ment of the Congo, to render us such militarj' assistance as we may require. You should, therefore, negotiate with our government and not with Tshombe.

In an effort to retain its troops in Katanga with the pur- pose of stabilising the split it has provoked, the Belgian Government asserts that its troops were sent to Katanga Province on Tshombe’s request.

With that decision the Belgian Government admits that it initiated the break-away of Katanga Province. In its res- olution of July 22, the Security Council called upon all states to refrain from any action that might hinder the res- toration of public order and the exercise of authority by the Congolese Government. Similarly, it requested these states to refrain from any action that might undermine the territorial integrity and the political independence of the Republic of the Congo. By placing its troops and military advisors at Tshombe’s disposal to facilitate the splitting-up

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Newly-made puppet-general

CARTOON BY B. YEFI.MOV

(Kasavuhu with medal For Zeal^ and Mobutu)

of the Congo and lo obstruct the actions of the United Na- tions, the Belgian Government openly hinders the restora- tion of public order in the Congo and the exercise of au- thority by the Congolese Government.

LUMUMBA, DO NOT TRUST BUNCHE

The Cairo newspaper “Al-Gumhiiria Garidat AI- Shaab” wrote the following about llalpii Bunche, Hain- inarskjhld*s assistant:

“Not long ago we had a taste of the imperialist in- trigues that are today directed against you. The weapons that were aimed at us yesterday are being trained against you today. They are the same imperialist in- trigues and the same plots.

“Twelve years ago the imperialist West organised a conspiracy against our countrj^ A U.N. interna- tional commission was sent to study the situation on the pretext that there was no peace in our country.... Then a U.N. Security Council representative, a diplo- mat by the name of Dr. Ralph Bundle, was sent to us. By a twist of fate, Mr. Lumumba, the same man has now’ been sent to your country with the same name and the same purposes. He is the man w’ho tried to force a peace with our enemies on us. Today they are vowing that they love you and saying they are defend- ing the interests of peace and security. They are mak- ing many promises.... Do not trust these people and their promises, Mr. Lumumba. You must know that the U.N. troops are unable to return even a small part of Katanga Province to you.”

Hammarskjöld’S EMPTY PROMISE OF HELP TO THE CONGO

(Letter from the U.N. Secretary-General to Mr. Domhoko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Congo, of August 14, 1960)

Leopoldville

Sir,

Having returned from Elisabethville and Kamina, to which I proceeded from New York as rapidly as possible in order to implement without delay the Security Council’s resolution of August 9, 1960, I should like to report to the Government of the Republic of the Congo on the action thus far taken by the United Nations in implementation of the Security Council’s resolutions. In expressing this desire I refer to the wish of the Security Council that the necessary steps should be taken, in consultation with the Government of the Republic of the Congo, to provide that government with such military assistance as may be necessary.

BY JOINING IN A CONSPIRACY WITH TSHOMBE YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE SECURITY COUNCIL’S RESOLUTION. MR. HAMMARSKiOLD

(From a letter from the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, Mr. Patrice Lumumba, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations of August 14, 1960)

Leopoldville

As it has informed Mr. Bunche, the Government of the Republic of the Congo can in no way agree with your per- sonal interpretation, which is unilateral and erroneous, as

76

the resolution of July 14, 1960 expressly states that the Se- curity Council authorises you “to provide the Government lot the Republic of the Congo] with such military assistance as may be necessary". This text adds that you are to do so “in consultation with" my government. It is, therefore, clear that in its intervention in the Congo the United Nations is not to act as a neutral organisation but rather that the Se- curity Council is to place all its resources at the disposal of my government. From these texts it is clear that contrary to your peponal interpretation, the United Nations force may be used“to subdue the rebel Government of Katanga", that my Government may call upon the United Nations services to transport civilian and military representatives of the Cen- tral Government to Katanga in opposition to the provincial Government of Katanga and that the United Nations force has the duty to protect the civilian and military personnel representing my government in Katanga. Paragraph 4 of the Security Councirs resolution of August 9, 1960, which you invoke in order to challenge this right, cannot be inter- preted without reference to the two earlier resolutions. This third resolution which you cite is only a supplement to the two preceding resolutions, which remain intact. The reso- lution to which you refer confirms the first two. It reads: “...confirms the authority given to the Secretary-General by the Security Council resolutions of July 14 and July 22, 1960 and requests him to continue to carry out the re- sponsibility placed on him thereby". It follows from the fore- going that Paragraph 4 which you invoke cannot be inter- preted as nullifying your obligations to “provide the govern- ment with such military assistance as may be necessary" throughout the entire territor^^ of the republic, including Katanga. On the contrary, it is the particular purpose of this third decision of the Security Council to make it clear that Katanga falls within the scope of the application of the reso- lution of July 14, 1960.

My government also takes this opportunity to protest against the fact that upon your return from New York en route to Katanga, you did not consult it, as prescribed in the res- olution of July 14, 1960, despite the formal request submit- ted to you by my government’s delegation in New York before your departure and despite my letter replying to your

76

cable on this subject. On the contrary, you have dealt wilh the rebel Government of Katanga in violation of the Security Councirs resolution of July 14, 1960.

That resolution does not permit you to deal with the local authorities until after you have consulted with my govern- ment. Yet you are acting as though my government, which is the repository of legal authority and is alone qualified to deal with the United Nations, did not exist. The manner in which you have acted until now is only retarding the resto- ration of order in the republic, particularly in the Province of Katanga, whereas the Security Council has solemnly de- clared that the purpose of the intervention is the complete restoration of order in the Republic of the Congo (see in par- ticular the resolution of July 22, 1960).

Furthermore, the conversations you have just had with Mr. Moise Tshombe, the assurances you have given him and the statements he has just made to the press are ample evi- dence that you are making yourself a party to the con- flict between the rebel Government of Katanga and the legal government of the republic, that you are interven- ing in this conflict and that you are using the United Nations force to influence its outcome, which is formally prohibited by the very paragraph which you invoked.

It is incomprehensible to me that you should have sent only Swedish and Irish troops to Katanga, systematically excluding troops from the African states even though some of the latter were the first to be landed at Leopoldville. In this matter you have acted in connivance with the rebel Government of Katanga and at the instigation of the Bel- gian Government.

In view of the foregoing, I submit to you the following requests:

1. To entrust the task of guarding all the airfields of the republic to troops of the national army and the Congolese police in place of United Nations troops.

2. To send immediately to Katanga Moroccan, Guinean, Ghanian, Ethiopian, Mali, Tunisian, Sudanese, Liberian and Congolese troops.

3. To put aircraft at the disposal of the government of the republic for the transportation of Congolese troops and civilians engaged in restoring order throughout the country.

77

4. To proceed immediately to seize all arms and ammuni- tion distributed by the Belgians in Katanga to the partisans of the rebel government, whether Congolese or foreign, and to pul at the disposal of the government of the republic the arms and ammunition so seized, as they are the property of the government.

5. To withdraw all non-African troops from Katanga imme- diately.

I hope that you will signify your agreement to the forego- ing. If my government does not receive satisfaction it will be obliged to take other steps.

My government takes this occasion to thank the Security Council for the resolutions it adopted, of which my govern- ment and the Congolese people unanimously approve and which they would like to see applied directly and without delay.

P. LUMUMBA, Prime Minister

“I HAVE THE HOHOUR...” BUT WHERE IS THAT HONOUR?

(From a letter from the United Nations Secretary-General to Mr. Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, of August 15, 1960)

Leopoldville

Sir,

I have received your letter of today’s date. In it I find allegations against the Secretarj^-General as well as objections to the Secretary-General’s interpretation of the resolutions with the implementation of which he has been entrusted. In your letteryou also submit certain requests which appear to derive from a position contrary to my interpretation of the resolutions.

There is no reason for me to enter into a discussion here either of those unfounded and unjustified allegations or of the interpretation of the Security Council’s resolutions. As far as the actions requested by you are concerned I shall

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naturally follow the instructions which the Council may find it necessary or useful to give me.

1 have the honour to be, etc. Dag Ilammarskjold

SIR, YOU ARE DECEIVING THE CONGO

(From a letter from Mr. Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo to the United Nations Secretary-General of August 15, 1960)

Leopoldville

The letter I addressed to you on August 14, 1960 on be- half of the Government of the Republic of the Congo con- tains no allegations against the Secretary-General of the United Nations but rather reveals facts which should be made known to the Security Council and to the world at large. The government of the republic is perfectly well aware that the positions you have adopted are in no sense those of the Security Council, in which it continues to have confidence. It is paradoxical to note that it was only after making arrangements with Mr. Tshombe and the Bel- gians surrounding him that you decided to inform the government of the republic. Furthermore, you at no time considered it advisable to consult the government of the republic as the resolution of the Security Council recommended you to do. The government considers that you refused to give it the military assistance it needs and for which it approached the United Nations. I should be grateful if you would inform me in clear terms whether you reject the specific proposals contained in my letter of August 14, 1960.

In expectation of an immediate reply, I have the honour to be, etc.

P. LUMUMBA, Prime Minister

A GLARING EXAMPLE OF DELAYING TACTICS

{From a letter from the United Nations Secretary-General to Mr. jAitnumbay Prime Minister of the Repidblic of the CongOy of August JOy 1960)

Leopoldville

Sir,

I received your letter of August 15 in reply to my letter of the same date. I presume that your letters have been approved by the Council of Ministers and that you will in- form the Council of Ministers of my replies. I have nothing to add to my reply to your first communication dated Au- gust 14 and received today at noon. Your tetter will be cir- culated to the Security Council immediately at my request. If the Council of Ministers takes no initiative which compels me to change my plans, or has no other specific proposal to make, I shall go to New York this evening in order to seek clarification of the attitude of the Security Council.

I have the honour to be, etc. Dag Hammarskjöld

YOU HAVE CAPITULATED TO THE TRAITOR TSHOMBE

(frem a letter from Prime Minister Lumumba of the Republic of the Congo to the U.i\, Secretary-General of August 15, 1960) Leopoldville

Sir,

1 have just this moment received your letter of today’s date in reply to the one I sent you an hour ago. Your letter does not reply at all to the specific questions or concrete pro- posals contained in my letters of August 14 and 15. There is nothing erroneous in my statements, as you maintain. It was because I publicly denounced, at a recent press con- ference, your manoeuvres in sending to Katanga only troops from Sweden—a country' which is known by public opinion to have special affinities with the Belgian royal family—that you have suddenly decided to send African troops into that province.

HO

If no niombor of the Security Council has taken the ini- tial ive to question the validity of your Memorandum and your plans of action it is because the members of the Council do not know exactly wdiat is going on behind the scenes. Public opinion knows—and the members of the Security Council also know—that after the adoption of the last re.s- olution you delayed your journey to the Congo for twenty- four hours solely in order to engage in talks with Mr. Pierre Wigny, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, administrator of mining companies in the Congo and one of those who plot- ted the secession of Katanga.

Before leaving New York for the Congo, the Congolese delegation, led by Mr. Antoine Gizenga, Vice-President of the Council, urgently requested you to contact my govern- ment immediately upon your arrival in Leopoldville and before going to Katanga—this, in conformity with the Se- curity Council’s resolution of July 14, 1960. I personally laid particular stress on this point in the letter I sent to you on August 12 through the intermediary of your special rep- resentative, Mr. Ralph Bunche.

Completely ignoring the legal government of the repub- lic, you sent a telegram from New York to Mr. Tshombe, leader of the Katanga rebellion and emissary of the Belgian Government. Mr. Tshombe, again at the instigation of the Belgians placed at his side, replied to this telegram stipu- lating two conditions for the entry of United Nations troops into Katanga. According to the revelations just made by Mr. Tshombe at his press conference, you entirely acquiesced in the demands formulated by the Belgians speaking through Mr. Tshombe.

In view of all the foregoing, the Government and people of the Congo have lost their confidence in the Secretary- General of the United Nations. Accordingly, we request the Security Council today to send immediately to the Congo a group of observers representing the following countries: Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, the United Arab Republic, the Sudan, Ceylon, Liberia, Mali, Burma, India, Afghanistan and the Lebanon. The task of these ob- servers will be to ensure the immediate and entire applica- tion of the Security Council resolutions of July 14 and 22 and August 9, I960.

HI

I earnestly hope that the Security Council, in which we place our full confidence, will grant our legitimate request. A delegation of the government will accompany you in order to express its views to the Security Council. I would, there- fore, ask you kindly to delay your departure by twenty-four hours in order to permit our delegation to travel on the same aircraft.

P. LUMUMBA, Prime Minister

HERE IS THE PERFIDY OF DAG THE HANGMAN

(From a letter from Secretary-General Hammarski'dld to Patrice I unuimba. Prime Minister of the Congo, of August 15)

Sir,

Your third letter of today’s date has just been received. I have taken note of your intention to send a delegation to the Security Council to request the dispatch of a group of observers to ensure the implementation of the Council’s res- olution. This request would seem to be based on the statement whichyou have made thatyou no longer have confidence in me.

I shall not discuss your repeated erroneous allegations or the new allegations added to those which you have already addressed to me. It is for the Security Council to judge their worth and to assess the confidence which the member countries have in the Secretary-General of the United Na- tions.

As regards the questions asked in your letters, to which you say that you have not had a reply, I refer you to the explanatory memorandum transmitted to you by Mr. Bunche. In it you will find all the necessary information.

You have requested me to delay my departure in order to enable the delegation of the Congo to travel on the same air- craft with me. I do not see what would be the advantage of that arrangement, since it goes without saying that the Council will not meet until after the arrival of your dele- gation. In these circumstances, and as I have made all the preparations for my departure, I shall leave as indicated to you in an earlier letter today.

U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL VERSUS THE PARLIAMENT AND GDVERNMENT OF THE CONGO

On September 10, Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo, sent the Secretary-General of the United Na- tions a Solemn Appeal by the Government of the Repub- lic of Ihe Congo to (he President and members of the Security Council and to all the member states of the United Nations.

In a Memorandum dated September 8, 1960, and addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Pre.^^ident of the Security Council, the Government of the Republic of the Congo drew attention to the United Nations’ obvious interference in the internal affairs of the Congo. Conclusive proof was given of this interference. The state- ment just made in the Security Council by the U.N. Secre- tary-General that Mr. Kasavubu had the right to depose the government only confirms this interference.

Moreover, the position taken by the Secretary-General runs counter to the sovereign decision adopted by the Congo- lese Parliament, which in two ballots with a considerable majority of votes in each ballot annulled the decree il- legally issued by Mr. Kasavubu.

It is not the U.N. Secretary-General’s business to inter- pret the Fundamental Law of the land: that is the duty of the Congolese Parliament. Article 51 stated that the “formal interpretation of laws is the exclusive responsibility of the Chambers”. In their interpretation, in particular, of Article 22, according to which the “head of state appoints and deposes the Prime Minister and Ministers”, the two Chambers of the Congolese Parliament, which annulled the decree of the head of state, came to the conclusion that a government can be appointed or deposed only after Parliament has passed a vote of confidence or no confidence.

The head of state cannot appoint a government without the sanction of Parliament and that, to an equal degree, justifiably concerns the deposition of a government, which

83

must follow ihe same procedure. Furlhermoro, in their in- terprolal ion, the Congolese legislative (Chambers declared that insofar as the goveniment, headed by Prime Miiiisler Patrice Lumumba, and the head of state Mr. Kasavuhu had been approved separately by Parliament, only the latter had the right to depose the one or the other.

Basing itself on the confidence unanimously expressed in the government by Parliament, which is the only sovereign body in the country, the government of the republic lodges a further protest against the interference of Secretary- General Hammarskjbld in the internal affairs of the Congo- lese nation. This interference is a dangerous threat to con- fidence in the United Nations and its prestige not only in the Congo but also throughout Africa and, essentially, throughout the world. In addition, the government of the republic lodges a further protest against the repeated re- fusal of the United Nations authorities in the Congo to co- operate with the government in implementing the Security Council’s resolutions. In the interests of universal peace, the government urgently requests the United Nations:

1. Firmly to recommend to the Secretary-General and his colleagues in the Congo that they should cease interfering in the internal affairs of our republic directly or indirectly.

2. Not to adopt any further resolutions on the Congo insofar as the resolutions already adopted are perfectly clear and specific but have not been fully implemented because of the perfidy of the Belgian Government and its allies, w’ho are continuing to help the illegal and rebel Government of Katanga with supplies of aircraft, arms and ammunition and with liaison and line officers.

To this is added the fact that the United Nations au- thorities are deliberately holding up the implementation of the concrete and unequivocal decisions of the Security Council.

The Congolese Government cannot be deceived by these intrigues, which are turning the dispute between the Congo and Belgium into a dispute between the Government of the Congo and the United Nations only ten days after our re- public formally became a member of the U. N.

The government most emphatically protests against the assertions of the Secretary-General that troops of the nation-

84

al army must be disarmed. Being perfectly aw^aro that Ihe troops of the national army did not submit to a similar demand by Mr. Kasavubu, who ordered the Congolese mi- litia to lay down their arms, the Secretary-General would like lo continue with a demonstration of force only in order to start a war in the Congo in which the Congolese popu- lation would find itself in conflict with the armed forces of the United Nations.

The sole purpose of all this is to establish an international trusteeship over the Congo. Moreover, by such arbitrary actions as the seizure of our national radio station and all the airfields in the republic, the Secretary-General seeks to deprive the government of the means of broadcasting and to prevent any outflow of information in order to allow Tshombe and the illegal secret radio stations that have been recently set up near Leopoldville to continue their attempts at a coup d'etat. These stations are daily spreading active anti-government propaganda, lies, slander and insults in order to humiliate the legal government, which has the support of the overwhelming majority of the people.

This morning the government informed the U. N. head- quarters for the fifth time that it must regain the use of its national radio station. Anxious to restore order and peace in the Congo and to retain good relations with the United Nations, the Government of the Republic of the Congo sol- emnly and passionately appeals to all the countries of the world to take steps to prevent the Congo from being turned into a battlefield of a third world war.

AND IN CONCLUSION - TW O LETT ERS FROM PRIME MINISTER LU MUMBA TO THE EVIDENT OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

WHEN BANDITS ACT THE U.N. LOOKS ON, WHEN THE GOVERNMENT ACTS IT OBSTRUCTS...

(Frcm a letter to the President of the Security Council of August i, I960)

The trend of events in the Congo is causing my govern- ment serious concern.

The Belgian Government promised to withdraw its troops from the Congo as soon as the United Nations troops reached there.

United Nations troops have been arriving in the Congo since July 16, but not a single Belgian soldier has left Con- golese soil.

We are at present confronted by a deliberate refusal on the part of the Belgian Government to comply with the de- cision of the highest international authority, the Security Council.

The Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of the Congo informs me in a telegram recently received in New York, a copy of which is attached, that the Congolese soldiers have been disarmed, whereas the Belgian soldiers are remaining in the territory together with all their arms.

I would particularly draw your attention to the fact that no contingent of United Nations troops has so far en- tered Katanga, because this is opposed by the Belgian Government solely in order to strengthen the secession movement it has instigated in thi.« province using Tshombe as a screen, in contravention cf I he relevant resolutions adopted by the Security Council.

There is now no justification whatever for the presence of Belgian military forces in the Congo.

The arguments put forward by the Belgian Government for the maintenance of its troops in the Congo contrary to the decisions of the Security Council arc merely false pretexts. The Belgian Government’s intention is to disorganise the country in order to involve our government and our people in numerous economic and financial difficulties.

To give just one example, the Belgian Government re- cently removed our gold reserves which were in the head- quarters of our Central Bank in the Congo. Such measures of economic strangulation are takingplace in many otherscctors.

1 would also inform you that the people of Katanga em- phatically repudiate the attempts at secession which the Belgian Government is in the process of organising in that province with the help of a number of collaborators, among whom is Mr. Tshombe. The present objective of the Bel- gian Government and of a few groups which support it is to bring about the division of the Congo in order to obtain a hold over our country. The paramount problem in the Congo is that of the immediate withdrawal of Belgian troops from the whole of Congolese territory.

I reserve the right to request a meeting of the Security Council to consider whatever measures may prove necessary.

P. LUMUMBA, Prime Minister

SELF-EXPOSURE OF THE BELGIAN COLONIALISTS

(From a telegram from P. Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, to the President of the Security Council of August 1, 1960)

It has come to my knowledge that resorting to insidious manoeuvres and using Tshombe as its instrument, the Bel- gian Government is taking recourse to blackmail in order to prevent the arrival of United Nations troops in Katanga. All of Tshombe’s actions are dictated by Belgian officers, whom the Belgian Government has placed at his side as advisors.

Clearly the Belgian Government is torpedoing the ful- filment of the decisions of the United Nations.... The

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Security Council has virtually authorised you to take, in consultation with the Government of the Republic of the Congo, the steps you think necessary in order to provide us with whatever military assistance we may need. With the purpose of retaining their troops in Katanga and through this action to consolidate the secession of Katanga insti- gated by it, the Belgian Government alleges that these troops were sent into Katanga at Tshombe’s request. With this statement the Belgian Government admits that it in- stigated the secession of Katanga.

By placing its troops and military advisors at Tshombe’s disposal in order to facilitate the splitting-up of the Congo and hinder the actions of the United Nations, the Belgian Government is obviously opposing the restoration of le- gality and order in the Congo and the e.xercise of authority by the Government of the Congo.

I reaffirm my demand to you that United Nations troops be sent into Katanga immediately. Any delay in the strict fulfilment of the Security Council’s decisions may seriously affect the prestige of the United Nations, as well as the se- curity of the Congo, which will be a threat to peace in Af- rica. In the event United Nations troops are not brought into Katanga by Saturday, August 6, in conformity with the obligations undertaken by the United Nations, by you and by my Government, I shall be compelled to re-examine my position. I continue to hope....

* * *

With all his shifting and dodging Hanimarskjdld failed to conceal the fact that he was nothing but a lackey of the imperialists. He went to great pains to avoid meeting Patrice Lumumba who returned from a trip overseas, and ended his abortive mission by a hurried departure from Leopoldville. Lumumba firmly upheld the position of his government, which was supported by the whole people. He exposed Hammarskjöld’s machinations and dealt the overt and covert defenders of the moribund colonial regime blow after blow. His popularity grew' steadily, and the more the people trusted him the more he was feared by the colonialists.

Chapter 3

SUCH WAS LUMUMBA

By Yuri ZHUKOV

I am writing these lines at night. The teletype is tick- ing away, hurrying to overtake time. Coils of yellowish tape filled with tiny letters steadily pile up as a violent storm of news rages in the ether: the whole world is lur- hulently protesting against the murder of Lumumba. And out of this tempest conies a brief cynical dispatch fromElis- abethville via New York, stating that Lumumba’s body had been burnt. One of Mobutu’s airmen, a certain Jack Dixon, who transported the captive Lumumha to Elisa- bethville, told correspondents: 'They tore the hair from his head and tried to force him to eat it....”

They tore the hair from his head and tried to force him to eat it. I do not know who this airman with the Anglo- Saxon name is, but his cold-blooded and inhumanly une- motional description of the tortures to which the man he was taking to the executioner was subjected sounds like something out of S.S. records.

As I gazed at this unevenly torn piece of teletype, some- where in the distance I saw the proud and energetic face of a great man who remained unconquerable no matter how he was tortured, and who, even after his death, struck such fear in the hearts of his executioners that they hastily burnt his body and scattered the ashes. As I looked back I felt I could not resist the temptation to describe my meetings with this fascinating man during the days when Hammarskjbld’s sleek officials were bowing to him with servile smiles, when the misfit reporter Mobutu, who by a turn of destiny became Chief-of-Staff, vowed fidelity, and

S9

the Judas Romboko, who was hatching a conspiracy, was following him like a shadow.

We arrived in Leopoldville in the latter half of Au- gust 1960 to discuss cultural relations with the Minister of Education of the Congo: the young republic was asking for doctors, for aid to organise the training of specialists in the Congo herself and abroad, and technical assistance to repair a radio station, whose transmitter had been par- tially put out of commission by the colonialists when they left Leopoldville.

After a long non-stop flight, our aircraft landed on the splendid concrete-paved runway of a modern aerodrome. There was a deathly stillness when the screaming of the motors died down. It seemed as though we had landed on an uninhabited island. With the exception of several big- bellied U.S. military transport planes used to airlift U.N. troops to the Congo, the aerodrome was deserted. We pushed open the door of our aircraft and found that we had to solve the problem of how to climb down to the ground. While we debated this problem we saw a gangway moving slowly in our direction. It was being pushed by several men, black and white. They made friendly gestures.

Soon we found that they were Pierre Mulele, Minister of Education, a thin young man with a small curly beard, and officials from the Soviet Embassy who had come to meet us. The U.N. officials in charge of the aerodrome had by this time dismissed the entire personnel of the aero- drome and were doing nothing to return things to normal. We were given a \ery warm welcome and were soon sitting in the Minister’s close office and talking of everyday and yet very important matters....

Driving past the Parliament building, we saw the flags of many African countries waving over the entrance. A con- ference of leading public figures of the Congo, Ghana, Guinea, the Cameroons, Togo, Ethiopia, Liberia, the Sudan, Morocco, the United Arab Republic and Angola had just been opened in the Congolese capital by the Prime Minis- ter Patrice Lumumba. On the next day we read his cou- rageous and moving speech in the newspaper Congo, which has the words ‘The first Congolese daily newspaper owned by Africans” splashed across the top of the front page.

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Patrice Lumumba dreamed of a happy future for all children. His own children and those of millions of Congolese will live to see a free Congo, for which he gave his life

“For my government, for all of us Congolese,’’ lie said lo Ihe delegates, “ymir presence here at this moment is living proof of African reality, the reality that our ene- mies have always disallowed. But you know that this real- ity is stubborn and that Africa is hale and hearty. It re- fuses to die.... We all know and the whole world knows that Algeria is not French, that Angola is not Portuguese, that Kenya is not British, that Ruanda-Urundi is not Bel- gian.... We know what the West is aiming at. Yesterday they split us up on the level of tribes and clans. Today, when Africa is steadfastly liberating itself, they want to divide us on the level of states. In Africa they seek to set up opposing bloc5, satellite states and then, on that basis, to start a ‘cold war*, lo widen the split and lo per- petuate their trusteeship. But I know that Africa wants to be united and that it will not give way to these machi- nations....”

In the meantime Leopoldville was taking on the ap- pearance of a besieged city. Military trucks and jeeps filled with helmeted soldiers armed with automatic rifles and submachine-guns sped across the deserted streets of the city. The colour of the helmets showed who these troops were: red-stripped white helmets were worn by the militarj" police, dark-green helmets by the armed forces of the Congolese Republic and blue helmets by the U.N. force. There w^as unrest at the big Leopold military camp, which for some time now was attracting the special atten- tion of correspondents. There was hardly any discipline in the camp: the men were openly grumbling that they were not getting their pay and that the food was bad. Their wives, who lived with them, complained that they had noth- ing to feed their children with. Mobutu, the Chief-of- Staff, whose duty it was to restore order and supply the army with all elementary necessaries, was playing a double game: he vowed loyalty to the government, promis- ing an early offensive against Katanga, where the traitor Tshombe had entrenched himself, and at the same time was doing all in his power to turn the soldiers against t!ie Prime Minister....

In the evening the Prime Minister gave a dinner for the delegates to the All-African Conference. The entire

diplomatic corps and foreign visitors lo Leopoldville were invited. A military band played in a shady flood-lit gar- den on the bank of the mighty African river. The envoys of the different African countries, dressed in their colour- ful costumes, began to arrive. The ambassadors of the Western countries were present, dressed in tuxedoes and frock-coats. Some of them tried to make a show of courtesy but did not always succeed.

The guests were met by the Prime Minister, a lanky man of about thirty-five. His energetic, animated face instantly impresses itself on one’s memory—the piercing, glowing brown eyes that reflect profound assurance and spir- itual dignity seem to look into your very soul.

This man appeared on the political scene very recently, only three years ago. But these were years of intense ac- tivity, years when he and his friends acquired tremendous experience.

Upon being told that we were from Moscow, Lumumba warmly greeted us and invited us to come to see him on the next day. At the reception we met some of Lumumba’s friends: Deputy Prime Minister Gizenga, a short, cool and so- ber-minded man; the young and cheerful Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Mpolo; and the somberish Minister of Information Anicet Kashamura, who said that the Bel- gian specialists still working in his Ministry were giving him a pain in the neck.

I sat at the same table with a Guinean delegate in long snow-white robes and a Moslem fez. In front of us sat the ambassador of a Western country with an absent-minded smile on his face and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bom- boko, dressed in a tuxedo. He was playing the role of a gen- ial host who deeply regretted that due to circumstances beyond his control his guests were not really enjoying them- selves.

“Of course,” he was saying to his neighbour with much agitation, “as a civilised person I am revolted at the policy of unjustified arrests. But what can I do? You must under- stand my position....”

“You’re right in principle,” my neighbour suddenly re- sponded. “But not one of the Western correspondents, who write so much about unjustified arrests, has yet been able

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to give a single concrete example. Don’t you thinkf \our Excellency, that a few arrests would be justified here in Leopoldville? Our triend Patrice Lumumba is much too generous.”

Bomboko frowned and grew silent, concentrating on the food before him. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister rose and look the floor. He spoke with passion, like the born ora- tor he was. He said that the movement for freedom and unity that was now sweeping across Africa was irrevei*sible. An end would be put to the colonial system once and for all. He called upon the representatives of the Western Powers to show a sober understanding of reality and to co-operate with the Republic of the Congo as with an equal partner.

“We stretch out our hand to everybody who desires such co-operation,” he said, “to the Americans and to the Rus- sians, to the French and the British, and even to the Bel- gians, if they are prepared to slop their intervention.”

The Western guests smiled courteously, but from the expressions on their faces it was obvious that what the Prime Minister said was not to their liking. My neighbour leaned over to me and whispered in my ear: “You can’t ex- pect anything good from them. Mark my words, Lumumba is standing on ceremony with their agents to no purpose. He shouldn’t have forgiven Bomboko and some other people after their conspiracy was exposed.”

The band struck up again. Waiters noiselessly served ice-cream on dishes with ice-cubes covered with the blue flames of burning rum. On the surface everything seemed to be quiet and peaceful. Bomboko smiled at the guests, the ambassadors were engaged in polished chatter. The Command- er of the Armed Forces Victor Lundula, who fought against the Nazis in the Second World War, alone had no ear for all this conviviality. Dressed in a coarse grey cloth suit, he kept rising from his table and returning, and messengers kept running up to him. As we learnt later, troops were moved to the borders of Katanga Province while the recep- tion was in progress. A military clash was becoming immi- nent in that province. At the time we knew nothing of this nor of the fact that the Chief-of-Staff Mobutu, that uncome- ly thin man in large spectacles who was meekly reporting

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something to Lundula, was preparing the operation in such a way as to send all troops loyal to Lumumba to the south and to leave in Leopoldville only those men, who, led by Belgian officers carrying on underground, would not stop at overthrowing the legal government....

In the morning wo went to the Prime Minister’s resi- dence, a small house on the bank of the Congo River, in which tiny islands of vegetation were floating by. Gay children’s voices could be heard behind the thickly over- grown fence. Curly-headed youngsters were sliding down the banister of the porch. They were the Prime Minister’s children; with a curiosity that was mingled with pride they gazed at the helmetcd sentries armed with submachine-guns and standing rigidly as though they were statues: the chil- dren could not yet get used to seeing their father guarded by such important personages.

The little drawing-room was filled with scores of people seeking an audience with the Prime Minister. You could feel they had been waiting for a long time. In vain did the tired secretary try to persuade them to take their af- fairs to the pertinent ministries. They insisted on seeing Lumumba: the merchant who wanted a license for his busi- ness, the official applying for a transfer to another town and the teacher asking for a rise in his salary. The state apparatus of the young republic had not yet been knit to- gether properly—there was still a lack of experience, and a multitude of cares distracted the Prime Minister from affairs of state.

We were taken to Lumumba through a back entrance, where, incidentally, there was also a crowd of people try- ing to slip through to the Prime Minister. When we entered his office, Lumumba dismissed the large group of officials crow^ding round his desk, which was piled high with papers and books, and sat down beside us on an old divan. Our conversation was interrupted time and again by telephone calls. People rang him up on all matters and every minute there was something he had to look into and settle.

While Lumumba spoke over the telephone we looked round his small and simply furnished study. An automatic rifle lay within easy reach on a shelf. There w^as a portable radio transmitter. After two plots to murder him had been

95

uncovered the Prime Minister has been compelled to lake certain precautions.

There was an infinitely weary look on his face, but his eyes continued to burn with indomitable energy. He had not slept at all in the past twenty-four hours and yet he was planning to fly to Stanleyville in the evening to he on hand to meet the Soviet aircraft bringing foodstuffs that the Government of the Soviet Union was sending as a gift to the people of the Congo. Two members of the gov- ernment, Lumumba told us, were going to the port of Matadi to receive the Soviet lorries that were coming by ship.

“We greatly appreciate this aid,” the Prime Minister said with feeling, “as a testimony of the friendship that vour people have for us. I would like you to tell Soviet people that what they have done for us during these diffi- cult days will never be forgotten.”

Lumumba eagerly questioned us about the results of our talks with the Minister of Education. He wanted the re- public to have cultural relations with all countries, the Soviet Union included. He spoke with pain and anger of the backwardness into which the colonialists had forced his people. The colonialists had made fabulous fortunes by shamelessly exploiting the country’s colossal deposits of uranium, gold, diamonds, copper and coal. And what had they given in return? During the period of their rule the population had decreased by almost fifty per cent. Star- vation and disease were rife. The Congolese people now had to begin building up their country from the beginning and required immense aid. But where was that aid to come from? The government of the republic had expected much from the U.N., when it had open-heartedly asked it to send an inter- national force to drive the colonialists out of the country and help restore order. But it looked as if by inviting this force the Congolese had got themselves out of the frying- pan only to fall into the fire. Hammarskjdld was behav- ing in much the same way as King Baudouin had....

The Prime Minister smiled bitterly. His long nervous fingers twitched: he was deeply agitated by what was hap- pening. The U.N. force was at one with the colonialists. No sooner would the government uncover one plot than an- other would be batched. Out of a feeling of tact Lumumba

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avoided mentioning I he principal ploller, Kasavubu, the Ih-esident of the Hej)iiblic. It was no secrel I hat this man, a product of I ho Belgian Catholic mission schools, was the chief stooge of the colonialists and that instigated by them he was planning the overthrow of the government....

The IVime Minister spoke of the problems that he was now w'orking on to start the country’s development: the creation of a network of hospitals, the preparations for the coming school year, the prol)lern of where and how many young people to send to turn them into the highly trained specialists so acutely needed by the country, the problem of strengthening the state apparatus....

He described the cordial reception that the All-Afri- can Conference gave to the message sent to it by Soviet Prime Minister Khrushchov.

‘That’s who is our real and sincere friend,” Lumumba said. “I have never met him personally, but 1 hope we shall meet some day. Please tell Mr. Khrushchov that our people thank him with all their hearts for his concern and support. We are confident that friendly relations based on mutual respect of each other’s sovereignty will develop between our countries. The imperialists are doing their utmost to disrupt the Security Council’s decision on the withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo. We Africans are, perhaps, still naive, but we sincerely believed in the U.N. Charter and hoped that it w^ould be observed by the nations that had signed it. That was why we approached that organisation for help. But look what came of it?”

Again a bitter smile came to his lips and he spread out his arms. An angry spark suddenly lit up his eyes.

“Never mind. Perhaps this will cost us dearly, very dearly, but the lesson will be learned by Africa. The peo- ples of Africa will realise who are our friends and who our enemies and how to distinguish between them....

“We are not enemies of any country,” Lumumba con- tinued, “and we are prepared to co-operate with all countries. I made myself sufficiently clear on this point yesterday. But we are against oppression and exploitation. We did not free ourselves from bondage to the Belgians simply in order to put another yoke round our necks. No matter how events shape out, even if they will be unfavourable for us, it will

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4-1728

be useful for Africa, which is now watching us and closely following what is happening here—it will be a university of struggle for it....”

Me was about to add something, hut the door opniod with a hang and a group of military men strode into the room. They spoke e.xcitedly in their own language.

The Prime Minister rose and, turning to me, said qui- etly in French:

"‘You must excuse me but something important has just happened. A group of Belgian officers in civilian dress have landed on the aerodrome. The U.N. has taken over con- trol of the aerodrome on the pretext that that is a neces- sary step to avert civil war. We were told that it was a ‘neutralising’ operation. Now YOU see what that word means. We are now going to catch those Belgian scoundrels....”

He repealed his request that we convey his heartfelt greetings and gratitude to the head of the Soviet Govern- ment, said good-bye, quickly walked out into the street, sal in a jeep filled with soldiers and drove off to the aero- drome.

I never had another opportunity of speaking to him, but I shall always remember this fearless and strong man, his expressive face with the small jet-black goatee, his big and deeply human sparkling eyes, his quick gestures, his light and fast gait, and his unique manner of speaking with clipped phra.ses and accentuated intonations that reflected his deep conviction of the righteousness of every word he spoke.

He was a remarkable man in every respect and had his life not been cut short at the very beginning of his polit- ical career by those who feared him, he would, undoubtedly, have become one of the most outstanding personalities of our epoch. A man of talent and will, he could find his way out of the most difficult situations. Recall how on three occasions in succession, when his enemies were already pre- paring to celebrate their victory, he sharply changed the most impossible situations and invariably proved to be the master.

Following up his coup, Mobutu sent his picked cutthroats to arrest Lumumba. The Prime Minister opened I heir eyes for them and they went away feeling that the man who should

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have been seized was the one who had signed the warrant for the arrest of the Prime Minister.

Mobutu imprisoned Lumumba at the Leopold military camp. There Lumumba spoke to the soldiers. They cheered him and he left the camp in triumph.

Mobutu again seized him and held him in captivity in another camp, in Thysville. There, too, Lumumba showed his jailors that his was the just cause and they again re- leased him.

Mobutu hurried to turn his indomitable captive over to the hangman Tshornbe in Katanga Province, and there he was murdered.

But even in death Lumumba cows his executioners. As I write these lines crowds of angry people are gathering outside Belgian embassies throughout the world and protest- ing against the crime perpetrated in far-away Katanga. In Cairo infuriated demonstrators broke into Ihe Belgian Em- bassy, where they tore down the portraits of King Baudouin and put up portraits of Lumumba in their stead: his eyes looked wralhfully through the glasses, reducing to ashes those who were seeking to restore the colonial yoke in Africa.

Such was Lumumba. Even after death he remained in the ranks of his people, who are continuing their struggle for freedom.

THE CONGO BEFORE AND AFTER THE ARREST OF THE PRIME MINISTER

(From the diary of Oleg OHESTOV , "'Pravda'' correspondent) LLOPOLDVILLL:, August 5

Yesterday the Council of Ministers of the Congo passed a decision on tiie expulsion from llie country of the former Belgian Ambassador Van den Bosch. He was ordered to

4

9J

leave the country not later than Monday. Minister of Information Kashamura explained to correspondents that diplomatic relations with Belgium had been severed when the Belgians started their aggression against the Congo, but the Ambassador had illegally remained in the country.

Kashamura added that the former Ambassador was car- rying on his political activity and making statements that were damaging the interests of the Congo, and the Council of Ministers had, therefore, been compelled to take reso- lute measures.

On the day before his expulsion Bosch called the Bel- gian correspondents together and told them that Ihe re- lations between the Congo and Belgium were governed by an agreement signed on the eve of the Congo’s independence and that this agreement could not be annulled unilaterally. The former Ambassador forgot to add that an event like Belgium’s armed aggression against the Congo had taken place after the agreement had been signed and that as a result the relations between the two countries could not remain normal. Commenting on this illegal press confer- ence, the newspaper Congo wrote: ‘The Government decided to close the Belgian Embassy, but the latter is openly laughing at this decision. The Belgian diplomat has the effrontery to assert that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Congo asked him to remain at his disposal.” The newspaper added: ‘The former Belgian Ambassador is scof- fing at our independence.”

♦ ♦ *

LEOPOLDVILLE. August 25

Public opinion in the Congo is continuing to demand that Belgian aggression should be stopped immediately. In a conversation with a group of correspondents. Prime Minis- ter Lumumba declared that the Security Council had con- demned the Belgian intervention in the Congo and that he hoped the Secretary-General would fulfil his commitment to clear the country of all Ikdgian troops within eight days.

Lumumba further stated that he protests against the attempt to leave “technical specialists” in the Congo be-

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f^atrice Lumumba and his close associates, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, about to be taken tQ Thysville prison

cause that was a mask for Belgian military personnel. He showed the note of protest that had just been sent to R. Bunche, the U.N. Secretary-General’s special represent- ative in the Congo. In this document Lumumba pointed to a report in the Belgian newspaper La libre Belgique, which stated that 20 Belgian gendarmes were lo be sent to P^lisa- bethville as “technical aid to Katanga”. Lumumba was sur- prised that Belgian gendarmes were being sent to the coun- try as “technical aid” on the eve of the withdrawal of Bel- gian troops from Katanga and the dismantling of military bases there. He demanded that the U.N. should forbid their departure for the Congo as that would be a violation of the Security Council’s resolution.

Some days ago Belgian military personnel arrived in the port of Matadi and high-handedly announced they had come for the military vehicles they had left behind. They were at once arrested by the Congolese police. Speaking of this incident to correspondents, a U.N. representative was forced to admit that there was an “understanding” between the Belgians and R. Bundle under which the Belgian mili- tary were allowed to return to the Congo for their “prop- erty”. The U.N. representative claimed that Bunche had not had time to notify the Congolese authorities.

In Leopoldville yesterday the police arrested seven armed Belgians and turned them over to the security forces. These men were employees of the Sabena Airlines and had been making for the border. Today the police discovered three Belgians operating an illegal radio transmitter in a house in the heart of the city. Weapons were found in the house. The arrival of a large contingent of police saved the spies from the angry crowds of Congolese.

The colonialists are aiding and abetting each other. A French aircraft has just landed in Kasai Province with emissaries of the traitor Tshombe and Belgian agents who plan to distribute arms to the local tribes and foment fresh disorders.

In reply to our questions Lumumba said that the Secre- tary-General has denied military assistance to the Repub- lic of the Congo, and the Congolese people have decided to take action and restore order in the country themselves. Large contingents of theCongoJeseArmy had already been dispatched

m

lo Kasai Province, where an armed clash inspired by agents of Ihe imperialists had broken out between the tribes. “Our government,” Lumumha said, “is morally bound to protect the population of Katanga Province even if the U.N. considers that its forces cannot ‘interfere’ in the matter. We are confident that we shall have the full backing of Katanga’s population, which is whole-heartedly supporting the Central Government.” The Prime Minister added that the puppet Tshombe regime would collapse as soon as Bel- gian troops would leave the military bases and Katanga Province.

♦ He ♦

ACCHA, December 6

All the newspapers arc carrying alarming reports that Lumumba, who was seriously wounded by Mobutu’s bandits, is being held in unbearable conditions in a military camp in Thysville. Reports from the Congo state that Mobutu’s brigands had shaved his head and were keeping him im- prisoned with his hands tied despite his serious wounds.

This time, too, U.N. representatives did nothing to save Lumumba. After arresting Lumumba, the self-appoint- ed Colonel Mobutu became more arrogant than ever. Backed by the U.S.A., Belgium and other Western Powers, he now says that he will hold power indefinitely. He told a foreign correspondent that “as a political leader Lumumba is now finished’’. Mobutu’s gangs are continuing their rampage. They attacked the town of Kikwit, where they disarmed the police and butchered the people. Twelve people were killed, more than 30 wounded and the rest of the popula- tion fled to the forests.

Mobutu’s brazenness is imitated by his supporters un- der the traitor Kalondji in Kasai Province. Kalondji told Mobutu that he could transfer Lumumba to a jail in Bakwan- ga, which is controlled by Kalondji’."! gangs, saying that there he would be out of the reach of the U.N. forces. At the same time Kalondji demanded the arrest of Mkenji, the Prime Minister of the province, for speaking openly against the outrages committed by Mobutu’s bandits.

m

Mobutu and his cliquo ai’P worried by Ihp news from Orientale Province and its caj)ital, Stanley villo, whens the national and genuinely democratic elements are especial- ly strong. According to reports, Stanleyville stood firm against the dictates of Mobutu and the imperialists and was gathering forces to fight for complete independence. Frightened by this news, Mobutu made the delirious state- ment that if the U.A.R. and the Sudan support the na- tional forces in Stanleyville he will “block thechannels of the Nile’s tributaries”. The lunatic “colonel” announced: “In the last resort I will turn my army into an army of nav- vies and stop the water from flowing in the Nile.”

* * *

ACCRA, December 8

According to people coming to Ghana from Leopoldville, the Congolese capital has been turned into an inferno! Today your correspondent interviewed E. Muenge who was in the Congo with a Ghanian technical aid team and has just returned to Accra. Asked what the situation was like in Leopoldville now, he said:

“After the Soviet Embassy and the representatives of the socialist countries left the Congo, Mobutu began his campaign against the independent African countries. By that time he had closed all the national progres.<5ive news- papers. Only two newspapers are being published and they are run by the Catholic priests and obvious Belgian stooges. This ‘press has launched a vile campaign against Ghana, Guinea, the U.A.R. , Morocco and India. A Mobutu ‘secu- rity officer came to Welbeck, the Ghanian diplomatic repre- sentative, and handed him an ‘order’ to remove the Ghanian Emba^y from the Congo. We were astonished to see that this order had been signed by President Kasavubu earlier. He was in New York when the incident occurred. This confirmed that Kasavubu had acted jointly with Mobutu and hadpre- pared the ground so that during the attack on the Ghanian '..m assy he would not be in the Congo and w'ould be able to deny that he bore any responsibility. On November 21, »i,^ ^•****^ lorries filled w’ith troops to the residence of

the Ghanian Ambassador. Tunisian units of the U.N. force also arrived on the scene and when ‘Colonel’ Kokolo, Mobu-

m

til’s right-hand man, tried to enter the house they stopped him. VVben that happened Mobutu’s soldiers opened fire on the Tunisians. Kokolo made an attempt to get into the house through a window and was shot dead by U.N. sol- diers. The firing lasted all evening and night until dawn. Nath- aniel Welbeck left the Congo after receiving instructions to do so from his government. It is characteristic that the U.N. leaders did nothing to protect even the Leopoldville aerodrome against Mobutu’s gangs. Some time ago they prevented repre.sentatives of Lumumba’s Government from entering the aerodrome and even threatened to open fire if Lumumba officers appeared there. But now they calmly stand by and watch Mobutu’s men lording it in the aero- drome, threatening the pilots of incoming aircraft, searching the aircraft and laying down the law as to which aircraft ‘can’ land in Leopoldville and which ‘cannot’. After the de- parture of the Ghanian Emba.s.sy a similar campaign was start- ed against the Emha.ssy of the U.A.R. Attacks are planned against the embassies of other African countries, Guinea and Morocco in particular.”

THE GOAL PATRICE SOUGHT TO ACHIEVE

N. KHOKHLOV,

Izvestia Special Correspondent

The whole of mankind now sees the Belgian colonialists as vicious plunderers. The myth that the former Belgian Congo was a model colony has collapsed. In the African con- tinent Brussels had seized a whole country, pillaging it for nearly 80 years. During this long period Belgian writers produced a huge number of books on this vast tropical colo- ny. Fat tomes and slim brochures importunately preached t he single idea that the modern Congo had been created by the monarchs in Brussels. Like the Lord in Heaven who is sup- posed to have created everything terrestrial, the Belgian kings “created” an entire country. “Without kings, without Belgium there would have been no Congo!” the imperialist pon-

m

pushers cried from the roof-tops. That, in essence, was how iho Congolese nation was robbed spiritually. That was the sub- stance of colonial propaganda. What official Brussels called its “civilising mission” was nothing but brigandage and the forbidding reality of the capitalist world.

The Congo is one of the oldest countries in Africa. Its name is derived from the Congo, which is one of the great- est rivers of the world. The country has a territory of 905 square miles, which is 77 times bigger than the territory of Belgium. It turns out that a small European colonial vulture conquered and exploited a territory that is almost 80 times the size of the kingdom of Belgium.

A census has never been taken of the population of the Congo. The colonialists estimated the number of inhabitants “by eye”. It is believed that in the Congo today there are at least 14 million inhabitants. Historians assert that the population of the Congo decreased by half in the pa.st century, i.e., during the period of Belgian domination. In the recent past the Congo was one of the main sources of slaves for the West. Historical researches point to the astounding fact that European traders in “live merchandise” shipped over 13 million slaves from the Congo. More than five million unfortunate inhabitants of Equatorial Africa perished in the voyages across the Atlantic.

In the African languages the Congo means “Great Water”. The earliest mention of this far-away and fabulously rich country is to be found in the notes of the Carthaginian Hanno and the .Arab navigator Pateneit. The numerous peoples of theCongo had their own highly developed culture, which was almost completely effaced by the strangers from Europe, who took from the Congo everything they could: people, rare species of trees, gold and pearls, ivory and the skins of rare animals. Henry Morton Stanley, who is also referred to as one of the “creators” of the Congo, wrote: “Every tusk, piece and scrap in the po.sse.ssion of an Arab trader has beensteeped and dyed in blood, hivery pound weight has cost the life of a man, woman or child, for every five pounds a hut has been burnt, for every two tusks a whole village has been destroyed, every tw'enty tusks have been obtained at the price of a district with all its people, vil- lages and plantations.”

lOQ

In the period between 185? and 1876 alone, nearly 800 tons of ivory was shipped out of Africa annually. In other words, the colonialist barbarians destroyed not less than 51,000 elephants a year.

No one can say how much precious metal was taken out of the Congo or give the quantity of diamonds that was wrung out of the diamond-fields scattered along the Kasai and Lulua rivers. It would be an impossible task to state the number of ships that sailed away loaded with ebony and jacaranda, with baobab and sequoia, with bamboo, or with crocodile skins. The Baluba people have no other name for a Belgian than pene toto, which means “money-grabbing”. For a piece of copper wire or for a handful of glass beads that were used as ornaments by tribal chiefs, the Belgian colonialist received in exchange bags of gold dust and bot- tles filled with diamonds. He killed hippopotamuses and croc- odiles, giraffes and deer, leopards and the rare okapis. For a song he acquired the priceless masks of the Bashi, Lulua and Baluba tribes and bought up the works by artists of the poto-polo school, which is famous throughout Africa. The Brussels merchants began to bring from the Congo even giant canoes hollowed out of the ancient trees growing on the banks of the great African river. Jungles were cut down and the dense, luxuriant forests were laid waste. The once flourishing flora and fauna began to grow sickly. The Con- go became a “dying land”.

The bronze statues of Belgian kings, sticking into the air in Leopoldville, Luluabourg, Bukavu, Stanleyville, Elisa- bethville, Maladi, Boma and many other Congolese towns are unique landmarks of pillage and colonial piracy. Leopold II issued an edict decreeing the chopping-off of the hands of Congolese who did not bring the fixed amount of rubber, coffee or ivory. To this day one can meet in the Congo old men with amputated left hands as sinister reminders of the Belgian monarch. Who was left-handed lost his right hand.

Since those days Belgian “civilisation” has changed to some extent, taking on a more “modern” apiiearance. The Congolese no longer had their hands mutilated: they were savagely flogged instead. There were purely mercantile con- siderations behind this fiendish “humanity : it was unprofit- able to chop off a man’s hands as that deprived him of

107

Ills capacity for work. The colonialists turned to the whlrt and lash. 'P

The Congo is a grim reproach to and a stern acciisii of the colonial system of opprassion. Occupying a twelfth part of the territory of Africa, the Congo lived in darkness and her people were doomed to e.xtinction. A handful of Itol gian magnates wallowed in wealth while the population of he tropics knew noCiing but hardship and privation. Belgian Union Miniere controls hillioiis of francs, but the Congolese does not have two francs with which to buy a box

« fp'v years in the Congo, the Belgian official builds luxurious villas, buys the latest Amerfcan cars and can command a comfortable life for the rest of his days. A Congolese has to work for a year to earn the price of an aircraft ticket from Leopoldville to Elisahelhville

220,000 to 250,000 francs, a sura that a Congolese can never earn even in 50 or (iO years.

Many of the Belgians in the Congo have private helicon- ters, sea-going vessels and launches, to say nothing of cail

grandfather and great-grandfa- iMvi ^ ® .''‘■‘itched hut made of bamboo and palm

Inri ^ loin-cloth. The Belgian^ im-

p s wild goat meat into the Congo from the Portuguese col- ony of Angola, drinks the choicest of French whines and

Belgiumrirfi’t; ‘^“'l^^ed

in the Iwal laiimiairn^ ”n ^ f ® newspaper is published gian Ca rol cs S f; ^ publications belong to\he Bel- olameH ilTT- ^ '®«g“age has trampled and sup-

guage?tra?arl"fn I’ Kiswahili lan-

guages that are spoken by millions of people. Brussels erad-

m

icalocl llio whole of Congol(*so culture, IVmging a many- luillioii-slroug people into the ahyss of medieval darkness.

This was the modern barbarism that Patrice Lumumba, ardent patriot and great son of his people, struggled against. The nation spoke through his lips, declaring relent- less war on colonialism. Lumumba sacrificed his life for a united, sovereign Congo. His ideals live in the hearts of Congolese patriots, who are determined to consummate these bright ideals in the name of which a hero of our day has died.

>i« ♦ ♦

The horrible news that Patrice Emery Lumumba was mur- dered in cold blood in the Katanga lair was for all of us like a blow by a home-made Congolese battle-axe. The des- tiny of this heroic man, a devoted patriot and an ardent fighter against the accursed colonial regime, is inseparable from the destiny of his homeland. Patrice, as he is lovingly and simply called by the Congolese people, was always in the front ranks of the patriots who courageously and proudly bid defiance to the imperialist vultures. The tragedy of Lumum- ba as a politician, man and fighter reflects the bottomless grief of the 14-million-strong Congolese people. TheCongo and Lumumba, Lumumba and the Congo are interlaced and each of them stirs us and evokes vehement hatred for the organisers of this orgy of blood.

Who was Patrice Lumumba? What were the ideals to which he was dedicated heart and soul?

Lumumba was born on July 2, 1925, in Sankuru Region, Kasai Province. He belonged to the Mutetela ethnical group. After finishing secondary school he went to work, finding employment in various colonial firms and offices. He was a post-office employee and worked in a factory run by a Belgian. At the same time he plunged into literary and jour- nalistic activity, writing poems and publishing articles about the terrible plight of the Congolese. In Stanleyville he founded the newspaper Uhuru {Freedom), which today is one of the most popular in the Congo Republic. Lumumba was the director of the weekly I ndependance. In October 1959, he published a declaration on the establishment of the Congo National Movement Party. This was the organisational

109

culmination of the extensive work that was dene by Lumumba and his associates to mobilise and unite into a single parly a I he progressive forces standing shoulder to shoulder in he liberation movement. The Party advanced the slogan o Independence Now!’* or

The Belpan colonialists flung Lumumba into jail twice But ong before independence was proclaimed Lumumba’s

flTn ^IH such that

It could not be ignored by the official Brussels. The Belgian

his ?il*ii^ r "ilh Lumumba during one of

hu visits to the Congo. Lumumba was promised a high no-

t allv ^ rlr“ a npw pro-Belgian and, ^esksen-

tiallj colonial government of the Congo. Lumumba re- mained true to his political convictions and with unflagginjy S"®peop7e! “ '•ighls of the enslaved c!ngo

It is characteristic that in the elections in Orienlale Th*is ® 90 per cent of the votes

hl^jaU ^ ^ ® Ihe Party was

The so-called round-table conference held in fVi« n i giaa capiul early in 1900, was planned W „rr, dal Bessels as a rehearsal to determine the role Congolese leadem would

r^ii. sr?rd‘;s^^

Mor^njen, Parly te .dral.ljd' lrfhe'’'c™?efe:cr

Co„gole“”7,J^U leave Brussels,"

In Leopoldville I “ke all 10 . 7'^ “o''* enls, saw Luniuniba ’^any ^'oirifrLTdSTifd'

JJO

allondi'd hi.s pre^ss conforonccs. I would say that simplicity and fidelity to principles are the qualities that distinguish Patrice Lnimimha most of all. He began one of his press conferences with the words:

“I have invited you, gentlemen, to talk with you, to seek your advice and to exchange opinions. I hope that you will be objective in reporting the events in my country and keep world opinion informed of the truth.”

That was Lumumba’s way—warm and stimulating.

There was no correspondent in Leopoldville who did not have the greatest of respect for Lumumba. Everything about this outstanding personality was attractive: his ardent calls against colonialism, his passion as a political leader and his ability to engage an adversary in open and honest battle. Here is what the British Foreign Report wrote about this remarkable leader of the Congo: “Hard-working, physi- cally courageous and a charmer, his strength is that he is the only genuinely nationalist, anti-tribal and anti-regional Con- golese leader.... Mr. Lumumba seems to be the only Congo- lese politician with the necessary ambition and qualities to hold the Congo together as a unitary state.”

Lumumba showed that he was a convinced and consistent opponent of tribalism, of tribal wars. A native of Kasai, which is inhabited by dozens of ethnical groups, tribes and nationalities, Lumumba knew what the tribal wars cost the Congolese people and time and again urged that an end be put to hostility between tribes once and for all. The mem- bership of Lumumba’s Party is a practical embodiment of his ideas, for it embraces almost all the nationalities of the Congo and there are branches of his Party in every prov- ince.

Patrice Lumumba worked in an exceedingly difficult situ- ation. The treasury was empty. There was no national army. The state apparatus was weak. The government bad no means of transportation. There had been several cases of Belgian aircraft taking off with Lumumba on board only to return to the airport after circling over it. The colonialists resorted to base means to deprive the Prime Minister of all opportunity of touring the republic and speaking to the people.

Ill

Westerners and U.N. representatives are the onlv

KronH said in such cases. “1 have to speak

trench, when all the time I yearn to discuss Ih nlc in niy native Lmgala, to meet with the peasants.” ^ les, with his people ho spoke in Lingala. Those were stirring scenes! When he arrived in Stanleyville, tens of thousands of townsfolk and villagers came to meet him The El^is palms seemed to shake with the mighty shZs of Congo! Lumumba! Uhurur ^ -noius ot.

In Stanleyville I saw that if you wanted to make a Con- golese smile and well disposed towards you you had to trn.ni him with just the one word LumuuL ^

inn showed a very eager interest in the Soviet Un-

Wh'/^ cf lo mePl and talk with Soviet peonle

> i’htshkin, head of a team of Soviet doctois who worked n the province. He asked how the Soviet doctors were eet

had® how the^^ cliinate, what accommodations they

had how they were supplied with food, and so on ^

said ™ '‘i'Oculiias,- he

e":iran.y - “

e“S"^ s’l

eral was unahle to renlv In ihf :i . Secretary-Gen- the Congolese Prime Minister In fioostions asked by skjold engaged in r“bSl>^nrr

ha’a Gove'rleei irera'r.pJSrffer''

m

Wc are speaking and writing as though liUrnumha wore alive, just as we had seen him. A tall and well-made man looks openly at you tlirough glasses with slightly short- sighted eyes. He speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. He has the manners of an intellectual and the heart of a fighter. After a session in Parliament, when he had to take the floor three times, he rode home to play with his four chil- dren. He is a fond father....

It is hard to believe that what happened to Patrice Lu- mumba took place in the second half of the twentieth cen- tury. Just think of it! The lawfully elected Prime Minis- ter of a young African republic was seized by the bandits of the usurper Mobutu, thrown into a dungeon in Thysville and then transported by special plane to Katanga. Regret- fully we do not have all the facts of the brutal slaying of Lumumba and his comrades-in-arms. President of the Congo- lese Senate Joseph Okito and Minister of Defence Maurice Mpolo. But it is obvious that Lumumba’s “escape” was a fake and that it was made public after the prisoners of the Katan- ga jail had been put to death. Could it be that what Presi- dent Modibo Keita of the Mali Republic spoke of a few days before the terrible news crashed down upon the w'orld was actually w^hat happened? Speaking of the physical reprisal that was being prepared against Lumumba, Keita declared:

“Eight hundred thousand Belgian francs are to be collect- ed in Paris and sent to Brazzaville, from where this money will be taken to the Congo. Hired assassins are to be paid from this first instalment. Lumumba’s second escape will be engineered to allow the assassins to commit their crime. It would not he superfluous to recall that during Lumumba’s first e.scape certain Belgian newspapers reported: ‘It was stupid to arrest him! We could have settled this devilish problem at once!’”

What was “not settled” at once was done later.

Foreign observers saw Patrice Lumumba and his comrades- in-arms for the last time at the Elisabethville aerodrome on January 17, 1961. They w'ere blindfolded and covered with blood.

No one must forget the condemnatory fact that the U.N. Command in the Congo perpetrated a crime when on two oc- casions it surrendered and betrayed the head of the legal Gov-

m

ernmenl of Ihc Congo Republic; the first time into Uio hands of Afobutu and Kasavubu, and tlie second time into the hands of the Belgian aggressors and Tshonibe.

Patrice Lumumba never camouflaged bis political convic- tions. On behalf of his Party and on behalf of the Congo- lese people he demanded the full and final abolition of the colonial syslein. He never sought a coinproniise with the imperialists and their creatures. That was why he was hat- ed in colonialist circles. That was why plots were or<ran- ised against him in Leopoldville and in Brazzaville on^the far bank of the Congo.

The murder of Patrice Lumumba shocked the whole wwld

Lumumba became a legend, a symbol, a banner of strim- g e. The whole world now realises the full significance of the 1^. Lumumba was not released as was undeviatingly demand- ed by world public opinion. He was tortured to death. The American \l as/iington Post and Times Herald can now ston worrying that “Lumumba’s release will be an obvious risk for the Western Powers”. We know that behind the Katanga hangmen there are definite “white” faces. Sitting in an in- ternational organisation they squeezed out of themselves official condolences’ that sounded as though they were glued together with pieces of gutta-percha. They will always be haunted by the ghost of the dead hero and martyr! It is Lmethe whole world forcibly declared that the post of U N Secretary-General is incompatible with villainy. May the y^ath and grief of millions of Congolese and of hundreds of millions of ordinary folk the world over finally force the overt and covert accomplices of the crime in a namele.ss Katanga village out of their high posts in the U.N I Lumumba is no longer among the living. The Congo lost a great son He perished in the prime of his anti-colonial patriotic activity. A prime minister may be unlawfully re- moved and a^assinated, but the idea of the Congo’s unity cannot be put down Lumumba is no more. But his staunch supporters and his Party remain. Writing about them the new.spaper Jjhuru said:

“The Congo National Movement Parly is the motor of our entire movement. Its credo and ours is unity.

“Belgium should have reali.sed that the views expre.ssed by Lumumba were the views of the majority of the Congolese

114

people. Lumumba always forestalled the designs of those who shape Belgium’s foreign policy. Wo call upon the en- tire people to participate in political activity and support the national movement that was createdand organised by Lumum- ba’s Party. For those who arc fighting for the future of our country we bring to mind a piece of ancient wisdom, which says that the substance of life is not that man should fall, but,' on the contrary, that he should continually rise. At this culminating period wo call upon you to support uni- ty. History and the people will apprai.se the efforts we are making today. Long live a united and indivisible Congo! Long live Lumumba and freedom!”

“Lumumba and freedom!”, “Lumumba and independent Congo!” are the slogans with which thousands upon thousands of Congolese are rising to the struggle against the Belgian aggressors and their satellites. Lumumba’s bright life inspires people to the performance of great deeds. The sav- age murders are evidence of the agony of the outworn sys- tem of slavery. Lumumba’s very death is mobilising the Con- golese to the struggle for freedom and independence, for the sake of which Africa’s national hero Patrice Lumumba lived, worked and suffered with such supreme courage to the last drop of his blood.

Chapter 4

THE GOVERNMENT OF GIZENGA IS THE ONLY LAWFUL GOVERNMENT OF THE CONGO

Colonel Mobutu’s September putsch was the skmal that brought all the colonial forces in the Republic of the Comrn uito action. The Ka^vuhu-Mobutu clique dissoll^S g lawful y elected Parliament and began a reign of terro^ a^ii^t patriotic leaders who supported Patrice Lumumba The Palace of Nations, where the House of Representatives and the Congolese Senate usually sat, stood deserted The Parliament was closely cordoned off by soldiers hired hv Kasa\ubu and Mobutu on money from the imperialists^ ^^opoldMlIe was once again engulfed in colonial dark-

Lumumba’s residence on the Avenue Albert was besieged Mobutu s men kept the Prime Minister ...wll «i ^ ‘ arrest”. Lumumba could not appear in the city wilho''r

running the risk of bein«r killed L \

iluC, round II, e small Tiou* o'r uie Prime MSe" oMlm

government grouping in it luTr^

lae sovereignty a«d unity of the ConJmr'keT.rG^^^^^

no

Antoine Gizenga

In Leopoldville cletired tlie way fof the csiablislunent of a fascist-type dictatorship in tlie Conjjolese capital.

■Mobutu’s thugs roamed tlie streets of Leopoldville terrorising the African sectors of the city and huntin«' down Luinuinbii’s supporters. Joseph Kasongo, President of the House of Representatives, and Cleophas Kainitatu, President of the Govcrnnient of Leopoldville Province, were taken into custody. Joseph Okito, President of the ^'enate and Maurice Mpolo, Minister of Defence, were thrown into jail.

■\iitoiiie Gizenga, whose home was searched by the rebels several times, met Patrice Lumumba sem-etly. ])urin«' this period of trial the leaders of the republic discus.sed^their plan for further action. It was decided to transfer the seat of government to Stanleyville, the capital city of Orientale Province. M'hen Lumumba was imprisoned, Antoine Gi- zeng^i spoke over Stanleyville radio, declaring that he was taking over the duties of Prime Minister for the period that Lunuimba would be under arrest. He proclaimed the city of Stanleyville capital of the Congo.

Antoine Gizenga was born in 1925 in a village near the town of kikwit, Leopoldville Province. He finished a mission school and was a teacher for some time. He studied political economy, history and interna- tional relations and was active in progressive organ- isations set up by Congolese intellectuals.

■4ntoine Gizenga is a prominent leader of the Congo Republic. He heads the African Solidarity Party, which has branches in all the big towns, in industrial centres and in villages. Gizenga’s Party has always fomed a united front with Patrice Lumumba’s militant and patriotic Congo National Movement Party. In the government formed by Lumumba Antoine Gizenga occupied the post of Deputy Prime Minister. After the elections that were held before independence was proclaimed, Cleophas Kamitatu, Gizenga’s party a.s.sociate, headed the Government of Leopoldville Province.

(jizenga is a staunch follower of Patrice Lumumba. He is continuing the work that was started by the great

son of ttie independent Congo. The Soviet Government regarded and continues to regard the Government of Antoine Gizenga as the only legal government of the Congo.

WE ARE WITH YOU, PATRIOTS OF THE CONGO

FREEDOM-LOVING NATIONS RECOGNISE THE GOVERNMENT OF ANTOINE GIZENGA

A telegram addressed to Premier Khrushchov was received from Stanleyville from Antoine Gizenga, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, in w’hich it was stat- ed that Orientale Province of the Republic of the Congo was threatened by the Mobutu gang which had started a civil war.

Stanleyville,

Antoine Gizenga

Telegrams from N. S. KHRUSHCHOV,

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R.

Your telegram of December 14 has been received. We fully share the anxiety of your government over the situa- tion that has arisen in the country as a result of the reign of terror started by the colonialists and their hirelings, who arrested Prime Minister P. Liimiimha and many mem- bers of the government and Members of Parliament. The con- tinuing aggression of the imperialist powers against the Re- public of the Congo evokes the wrath and indignation of all Soviet people.

1 can assure you that the Soviet Government has rend- ered and will, jointly with other powers friendly to the Re-

119

puNic of Ihe Congo, roiuler every possihio assislanco to ihn Congolese people and (heir legal government in ih! • ? slruggle against the colonialisfs. J"st

I am fully confident, that the courageous struggle tint

Tho K- r w KHRUSHCHOV

The Kromiin, Moscow DecemLer 21, 1060

♦ ♦ ♦

On behalf of (he Soviet people and ilm • he U S.S.H. ,„d „„ bih.in,nJw m° 7 „ 3 "d

condolences on the loss you have suffered thronah th nous murder of Patrice Lumumba Prim<. M i

goL7;eTpr,srs:i“.‘u„‘!:,7

C...P Che punishment of lhr“my„"r, and in hT*'" triots of the Congo in their ii,«f 1 ? ^ ^ Pa*

nialists. ® against the colo-

ih«*cLg'i7!,"d:fcLd';t7™HT "^"'7 p'^p'o »(

conniry „e,"r die '"■''P^denco of , heir

Sincerely yours,

N. KHRUSHCHOV

Moscow, February 14 , i%l

m

Telegrams from CHOU EN-LAI,

Prime Minister or

tlic People's Uepubllc of China

and CHEN Yl,

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of Clilna

The Chinese people were shocked and incensed when they learned the tragic news that the Prime Minister of your country Mr. Patrice Liiiniimha, the Chairman of the Congolese Senate Mr. Joseph Okilo and the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Mr. Maurice Mpolo weremurdered hy the imperial- ists and their agents. On behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese people I convey to Your Excellency, the government and people of your country expressions of the profoundest grief and request you to convey to the families of Prime Minister Lumumba and the other victims our most sincere condolences.

Prime Minister Lumumba was an outstanding leader and national hero of the Congolese people. His whole life was the life of a great and courageous patriot. For a long pe- riod to the day he and two of his comrades-in-arms sacri- ficed their valuable lives for the liberation of the people of their country, Prime Minister Lumumba headed the Congo- lese people in their steadfast and valiant struggle against colonialism, to win and defend their national independence. Their heroic deeds are a magnificent example for the Congo- lese people, for the other peoples of Africa and for all the peoples of the world fighting against imperialism and colo- nialism. This foul act hy American and Belgian imperialists and their agents, wdio murdered Prime Minister Lumumba and others, will evoke still greater indignation among the Congolese people and the peoples of Africa and the whole world. It will unite them on a broader scale than ever before and stir them to determined action. The Chinese people are deeply convinced that the Congolese people will turn their grief into strength and that under the leadership of Your Excellency and Ihe legal Government of the Congo they will carry through the struggle against the imperialist circles led by theU.S.A. and their agents and preserve the national indeiiendence of the Congo. The Government and people

J2I

of China will always stand (ogot her with the Congolese neo- ple and resolutely support, their great, and just strui^e goIeJe 'people^ victory will be on theside oftheS„:

♦ ♦ ♦

On behalf of the Government of the Chinese People’s ^ honour to inform Your Excellency that

has decided to reaffirm its recognl- tion of the government headed by Your ExcelJencv as^he only legal Government of the Republic of the Coneo and k prepared to establish diplomatic relations with youfeounirv ambaiaXt*“^^ diplomatic representatives of' the rank of

Telegram from V. SIROKY,

Prime Minfster

Of the Government of Czechoslovakia

On behalf of the Czechoslovak peonle and tho r mcnl „f ,he Czechoslovak Socl.nsl'^He%l,rc | am sZPn, e Government and the entire people of the Republic of thf Congo deepest condolences on the great loss sufC L , country through the premeditated murder of Prim Patrte Lomomba and his coradeltali t e Senate Okito and Minister ef Defence Mpblo ”

lheir'rnt'.s'a"f ihe'7'

Hy in ihis crime ef ^cr^tal^'^s'en

Command have deeply shocked c/echeslevak ;nhli: epim

is.^BVnhlt%Tp‘‘re£“:h?Z‘cet“r^^^

people will bring their heroic stniaak ^

ence and the ireedem of

S: -a aid £ ,eir ^'rvl'mC.'rd

122

Statement of the Government of Hungary

In a statement published in Budapest, the Government of the Hungarian People’s Republic expressed deep sorrow and indignation at the murder of the Prime Minister of the Congo Patrice Lumumba, President of the Senate Joseph Okito and Minister of Defence Maurice Mpolo.The Government of the Hungarian People’s Republic recognised the government headed by Gizenga, temporarily sealed in Stanleyville, as the only legal Government of the Republic of the Congo and stated that in reply to a re(|uest from Prime Minister Gizenga it is prepared to do all in its power to support the heroic struggle that the Congolese people, who have raised aloft the standard of freedom, arc waging for their national independence.

Statement of the Government of Poland

In connection with the situation that had arisen follow- ing the murder of Patrice Lumumba, Premier of the Central Government of the Congo, with which, after the independ- ence of that country was proclaimed, Poland had established diplomatic relations, the Government of the Polish People’s Republic declared that it recognised the government headed by Deputy Prime Minister Gizenga, functioning in Stan- leyville, as the only legal Government of the Republic of the Congo.

Telegram from A. YUGOV,

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Biilfrarla

On behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, on my own behalf and on behalf of the whole Bulgarian people I expre.ss our deep and heartfelt condo- lences to the legal Government of the Republic of the Congo headed by you and to the Congolese people on the loss they have suffered through the murder of Patrice Lumumba and his comrades-in-anns, Joseph Okito and MauriceMpolo.

While expressing their deep indignation and protest over the crime that has been perpetrated, the Rulgarian people share the great grief of the Congolese people over

the terrible loss of these true sons of the Republic of the Congo. The Bulgarian people are convinced that iho cause for which they sacrificed their lives is in the strong hands of Congolese patriots and that it will Iriuniph.

We should like to assure you that you have the full sup- port of the Bulgarian people and their government in the struggle for the tiiuinph of your just cause.

Telegram from CHIVU STOICA,

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Rumanian People’s RopuMic

The news of the foul murder of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, President of the Congolese Senate Joseph Okilo and Minister of Defence Maurice Mpolo by agents of coloni- alism was received with deep indignation and wrath by the Government of the Rumanian People’s Republic and the Rumanian people.

The slaying of Lumumba and other Congolese leaders is a vicious act of the Belgian colonialists and their puppets the murderers Mobutu and Tshombe. Grave responsibility also devolves on U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammar- skjold, who is a henchman of the colonial powers.

Mankind shall cherish the heroic image of Lumumba and of his comradcs-in-arms who died with him as a symbol of devotion to one’s country and to the invincible 'cause of the liberation of peoples.

In this hour of trial for your country, please accept our deepest condolences on your terrible bereavement and expres- sions of our solidarity with the struggle of the Congolese people and their legal government, headed by you, for the complete abolition of colonial domination and for independ- ence and national unity.

Re?ibTirif%iS!N?m

and two palri-

«n,i ">«re liglit on the reaction-

ary and diabolic essence of ag<rressive imperialism and its lackeys. More than ever before the peoples of the whole world

lU

are demanding the abolition of the colonial regime and warm- ly support the cause of national liberation in Africa and throughout the world. Premier Lumumba and the two mher Congolese patriots will always be remembered by the Con- golese people and other peoples of Africa and the whole wor ^ The Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam declares that it fully supports the just struggle of the Congo- lese people for their national independence and unRy under the leadership of the only legal Government of the Congo headed by Acting Prime Minister A. Gizenga The Viet-Nam- ese Government firmly believes that the gallant struggle of the Congolese people, which is steadily winning ever increas- ing support and sympathy among the peoples of Africa, AsJa and the whole world, will unquestionably culminate in complete victory.

Telegram from KIM IL SUNG,

Chairman ol the Cabinet of Ministers ol the Korean People’s Democratic Republic

The Korean people are shocked at and emphatically con- demn the dastardly murder of the heroic leaders of the Congo and the intrigues of the American imperialists, who na\e used the U.N. as a cover under which to strangle the libera- tion struggle of the Congolese people. The murder of Prime Minister Lumumba is fresh evidence that the American imperialists are the chief strangler of freedom and the enemy of the national independence of the Congolese people and also the common enemy of the peoples of Asia, Africa and the

whole world. c \ f

Far from breaking the will of the peoples of Africa, vvho, headed by the people of the Congo, have been roused to action, the crimes and intrigues of the imperialists are only

intensifying that struggle. , p i

The entire Korean people are certain that final victory will be won by the heroic Congolese people, who will rebuf all the intrigues of the imperialists, headed by the imperi- alists of America. The Korean people will continue In .Mip- port the Government of the Congo and the just slrugg e o the Congolese people.

lib

Telegrams from FIDEL CASTRO,

Prime Minister of Cuba, and from President

OSWALOO DORTICOS

The people and the legal Government of the Congo, head- ed by Your Excellency, may be sure of the friendship, understanding, support and solidarity of the revolutionary Government and people of Cuba.

♦ ♦ ♦

Oswaldo Dorticos, President of the Republic of Cuba sent a telegram to Antoine Gizenga, in which on behalf of the revolutionary Government of Cuba he reiterated Cuba’s recognition of the government headed by Gizenga as the only legal Government of the Congo.

Messages from G. A. NASSER,

President of the U.A.R.

The MEN agency of Cairo reported that on February 15, 1961 President Nasser of the U.A.R. sent personal mes- sages to the heads of the independent African states that took part in the Casablanca Conference, and also to the presidents of Indonesia, Yugoslavia and India, in which he informed them that the U.A.R. recognised the Government of the Con- go in Stanleyville, headed by Antoine Gizenga, as the legal national Government of the Congolese Republic.

These messages further stated that it has been decided that there would be a diplomatic representative from the Government of Antoine Gizenga in Cairo and a diplomatic representative from the Government of the U.A.R. in Stanley- ville.

Message from the Government of Ghana

T^ Government of Ghana announced that it recogni.ses the Government of Antoine Gizenga in Stanleyville as the only authority vested with the right to carry out the fuuc-

JS6

tions of government ihronghont the Republic of theCongo”.

In a me.ssagc to Antoine Gizenga Ghana assured him of every possible assistuiico.

Statement of the Government of Guinea

The Government of the Guinean Republic published a statement to the effect that Guinea recogni.ses the Central Government of the Republic of the Congo, headed by Antoine Gizenga, as the only legal government of the country and will render this government every possible as.sistance.

The Government of Guinea called upon all the African peoples and the peoples of other countries to give their un- qualified support to the Government of Antoine Gizenga.

Telegram from MODIBO KEITA,

President of the Mall Reimblic

The head of state of Mali, Modibo Keita, sent Antoine Gizenga, “comrade-in-arms of Lumumba and the con- tinuer of his work of abolishing colonialism in the Congo , a telegram in which he assured him of the trust and solidar- ity of Mali. The telegram stated that “there will always be Lumumbas prepared to liberate the African continent and Lumumba will always remain as a symbol and an example .

Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iraq

On many occasions of an official and international charac- ter and in particular at the U.N. General Assembly, we have repeatedly emphasised that the Government of Lumumba is the only legal Government of the Congo, because it was vested with power by Parliament that was democratically elected by the Congolese people. All the attempts of certain groups and gangs in the Congo headed by foreign forces and, especially, by the authorities of Belgian imperialism and their agents to prevent the convocation of Parliament and to

J27

holil many of the Momliors of Parliainonl in custody so as not to give the Govcminent of Liiiuuinba llic opporlunily of exercising its power have not changed our attitude to this government as the only constitutional and legal Gov- ernment of the Republic of the Congo.

Now that certain gangs in the Congo herself and beyond her borders have perpetrated a heinous crime and killed Lumumba in order to put the national Government of the Congo out of the way, we consider that that government is still the only legal government of the country with the right to exercise its power until Parliament adopts whatever rea- sonable constitutional measures it deems necessary. There can, therefore, be no doubt that the Government of Gizenga is the legal Government of the Congo for the country and for all other stales.

Statement by SUBANDRIO,

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia

On February 16, Dr. Subandrio, Minister of Foreign Af- fairs of Indonesia, announced that Indonesia has decided to recognise the Government of Antoine Gizenga as the only legal Government of the Congo.

The Foreign Minister stressed that it was necessary for the Afro-Asian countries to unite in order to uproot colonial- ism throughout the world.

♦ * ♦

More and more countries are extending recognition to the Government of Antoine Gizenga as the only legal author- ity of the Republic of the Congo. The Mongolian People's Republic, Rumania, Albania, the German Democratic Republic, Morocco and Yugoslavia have sent telegrams to Stanleyville registering their support of the heroic Con- golese people and their government headed by Antoine Gizenga.

Honest people throughout the world are confident that the cause for which the legal Government of the Congo is fighting will triumph.

128

DECLARATION OF

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CONGO

The Declaration adopted at a meeting held in Stanleyville on January 31, 1901 under the chairmanship of Antoine Gi- zenga consists of five sections. The first, entitled “Military Problem”, slates: “The appeal by Kasavubu, Tshombe and Kalondji to the Belgians, the creation of the so-called Euro- pean foreign legion, the transfer of European mercenaries to the Congo before the eyes and with the knowledge of the U.N. military and civil authorities and the unceasing util- isation of Belgian aircraft, crews and weapons for acts of aggression in the Congo have evoked universal indignation in Congolese, in all African and in international circles. The setting-up of the so-called Congolese General Staff, which is, essentially, a Belgian-Franco-German staff, under the patronage of Kasavubu, Kalondji and Tshombe with the purpose of attacking Kivu, North Katanga and Orientale Province is sufficiently clear evidence of the undermining of U.N. prestige in the Congo and a violation of the U.N. Charter.”

Further, the first section of the Declaration points out that representatives of the Swedish military contingent un- der U.N. Command in the Congo witnessed the inhuman, sav- age and humiliating treatment of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and his two associates at the airfield in Elisabeth- ville, when they were being handed over to Belgian hirelings.

As the official representative of the Congolese people, the Government of the Congo appeals to all the freedom-loving nations of the world who cherish peace and justice to con- demn Belgian aggression in the Congo, the Declaration states. It makes an urgent appeal to the African countries to render direct and all-round assistance to the legal govern- ment in Stanleyville to enable it to restore peace and order and the unity, legality and integrity of the Republic of the

Congo. . , j •.E>

In the second section of the Declaration entitled roreign Policy and Economic and Trade Relations”, the Government of the Congo reiterated that its foreign policy is based on

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129

positive neulrality. “'riie Congo belongs lo the Congolese,” the Declaration stales. “All the blessings and the natural wealth of the country must belong, first and fureinost, to the Congolese. The Congo is a part of the great African family and must in no way he turned into a battlefield be- tween the West and the East.... The Government of the Congo desires negotiations with all states that can provide the capi- tal and the technical aid to assist it in utilising the country’s resources and minerals. These negotiations must he held in conformity with normal international practice, with the purpose of signing economic and trade agreements without the imposition of any political conditions. The members of the Government of the Hepublic of the Congo are the only competent persons to negotiate with the governments, firms and organisations of other countries on behalf of the Govern- ment of the Congo.”

In the third section of the Declaration, entitled “Posi- tion with Regard to Belgium”, it is staled that Belgium bears the main responsibility for the situation that has now arisen in the Congo. Countries which are following the diabolical policy of sabotage and destruction such as is pursued by the Government of Belgium have become gen- darmes protecting the interests of international monopolies and bringing mortal danger to the independence and freedom of the whole of Africa.

The section entitled “Position with Regard to the United Nations” points out: ‘The U.N., which is an organisation set up to ensure peace and international security, was used in the Congo lo foment war and to create a threat to national and international security. It is no secret that U.N. representatives in the Congo are carrying out the directives of others and not the directives that were formu- lated in the decisions of the Security Council and the General Assembly.”

The Declaration goes on to emphasise that the only legal representative of the Republic of the Congo in the U.N. is the member of the legal Government of the Congo who was given the necessary authority by decision of the Council of Ministers of the Congo on September 2, 1960. The Government of the Republic of the Congo, therefore, instructs its legal representative to proceed to New York, occupy his post in

the U.N. and establish official contact with representatives of the now Administration in the U.S.A. In the immediate future, the Declaration stales, the legal Congolese Govern- ment will send its representatives lo different countries to hold preliminary talks on the signing of economic and other agreements between the Republic of the Congo and these

countne^overnmenl,” the Declaration says in conclusion, “appeals lo all Congolese to stop the shedding of the blood of innocent people and to give the country the opportunity of restoring peace and national unity. For the last time the Government demands that Belgium cease her aggressive action against the Congolese people which it is carrying on with the help of certain irresponsible elements and traitors

of the nation. , .

“Belgium’s uninterrupted interference in the internal

affairs of our country with the blessings of her allies and with the help of a handful of Congolese advenlurere, whom she is maintaining, places the full responsibility ® J

outbreak of war in the Congo and m the whole world squarely on Belgium and the whole of Europe.

NEVER WILL GIZENGA BE BROUGHT DOWN TO HIS KNEES

“The imperialists are mistaken if they think that having murdered Lumumba they will force us to our knees and strangle the liberation movement of the Congolese people, Antofne Gizenga declared in an address lo his people over

Ss broadest, the Czechoslovak News Agency coSondent in Stanleyville added that m this address Gizenga stressed that the murder of Lumumba was planned by Ih? imperialists of Belgium,

ed States The U.N., whose connivance enabled the coloni- alist S their hirelings to commit the murder, likewise bears the responsibility for Lumumba s death

In his radio address Gizenga called iqion the Afro / sian countries lo render urgent aid to the Congolese people in this hour of peril.

5 *

131

The Czechoslovak correspondent furl her reported that Stanleyville, the temporary seal of the legal Congolese Gov eminent, was in deep mourning. ®

WE KNEW THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT DAYS THE U.S.S.R. WOULD NOT FORSAKE OUR COUNTRY

The statement of the Soviet Government and of the govern

?h that they were pfepared'

to help the legal Government of the Congo Republic anTs.m

por It in Us struggle was welcomed with de% salisfaclitn by the population of Orientale Province and, in particular by the population of Stanleyville ’

BlJw™ foreign Trade Marcel

BisuKiro said to a TASS correspondent, “never doubled ihm

the Soviet people, who have shown their disinterested friend- ship for us on many occasions, would not forsake our mum m these difficult days of struggle against the enemies of frS Qom, peace and progress.”

\esterday the hotel room occupied b\^ Sovipi i

vair and Polish correspondcnl, war-bclged"

orhS'-^dt^/rriht^ttroL" ^

ir^f MLtp !;a^l‘.L^^^^^

VVe have had further confirmation of this today ”

Ihere is complete calm in Slanlevville and Vic „„ •

fn ,h» W “"I" di^ine/ThrjcS

paans arI“p^'™ecnYo7r g'^nd'S. Euro-

bc^n\TsTllil^:M'clS a«'a”pMLd“

SfS:«EH~S

Stanleyville, tebruary 17 from a TASS correspondent

132

THE STRUGGLE WILL GO ON

In the name of Palrice Lumumba, Jean Manzikala, Prime Minister of the Government of Orientate Province, has called upon the Congolese people to continue the struggle for the national independence of their country.

“The national struggle,” Jean Manzikala said in a radio broadcast, “will go on. When one falls another takes his place.”

Contrary to provocative rumours of threatened “whole- sale massacres of whites”, spread by the Western press in connection with the murder of Patrice Lumumba, there is absolute calm in Stanleyville and in Bukavu, the chief town of Kivu Province.

EVERYBODY ADMIRES THE CONGOLESE PATRIOTS

The Bureau of African Affairs, which is a consultative body of the Government of Ghana, has sent Antoine Gizenga a message which gives a high appraisal of his efforts to secure peace, freedom and prosperity for the Congolese people. The message states that Africa is following with admiration and respect the valiant and courageous struggle that Gizenga and other Lumumba supporters are carrying on to liberate their country from “foreign domination and imperialist machinations”. The peoples of Africa, the message declares, highly appraise Gizenga’s firm determination to crush the Mobutu gang, which has brought grief and suffering to the Congolese people.

♦ * ♦

The eyes of the whole world are today turned towards Stanleyville. Situated on the rapids of a great African river, this town has by the will of destiny and of the Con- golese people become the centre of the national- liberation movement of the young African republic. Hundreds and thousands of people, who have escaped from captivity by the Kasavubu-Mobutu gang, are making their way to Stan-

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leyville throHjrli savannas and jungles. People wl>o refuse to bow their heads before the ^^estern eolonialisls and their puppets are finding refuge here. The Government of Antoine Gizenga, which expresses the thoughts and aspirations of more tlian 13 million Congolese, has begun to function in Stanleyville.

Imperialist agents are doing their utmost to break tlie resistance of the patriots, to overwhelm Stanleyville by force of arms and to destroy the historic gains that have been won in mortal combat with the colonial regime.

But their efforts are in vain.

The voice of Stanleyville has been heard by the wliole of sovereign .\frica, by all the Bandung countries. The call of the legal government, headed by Antoine Gizenga, for assistance and support has evoked a warm response in the Soviet Union and all the countries of the great socialist camp. Truth and the law are on the side of Stanleyville. The handful of national traitors led by Kasavubu, Tshombe and Mobutu, who have stained them.selves with the blood of Patrice Lumumba, have no right to and do not represent the Congolese people. The new, independent Africa has stretched out its hand in fraternal assistance to the Govern- ment of Gizenga.

We are with you, people of Stanleyville! Inheritors of the glory of Patrice Lumumba, you are not alone! May the bright and unfading name of Patrice Lumumba, hero, fighter and patriot, lead you into battle and inspire you to fresh triumplis!

Chapter 5

INDIGNATION AT THE MONSTROUS CRIME SWEEPS THE WORLD

The world was shocked by the murder of Patrice Lumumba. Popular wrath ran high in those February days. In Moscow, Peking, New York, London, Paris, Cairo, Accra, Delhi—in all the countries of the world—there were stormy dem- onstrations of protest at the brutal assassination of this courageous son of the Congolese people, perpetrated by the colonialists. Millions of people on all continents shouted: “Pillory the colonialists! Bring the murderers to answer! Dismiss Dag Ilammarskjdld!”

State and public leaders in the East and in the West harshly condemned the crime perpetrated in Katanga. The world press devoted much space to it and is publishing more protests still.

This book contains only a small part of the numerous comments and statements made which could fill volumes. Limited though their number, they are indicative enough of who is defending the cause of Congolese sovereignty and who is scheming against the republic and its leadei'S. The Congo’s friends and enemies are speaking here, the enemies who are as much in fearol the assassinated Patrice Lumumba as they were of him alive.

5**

125

A DASTARDLY CRIME

STATEMENT OF THE WORLD PEACE COUNCIL SECRETARIAT

The Secretariat of the World Peace Council shares the world-wide feeling of profound anger and indignation at the dastardly murder of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lu- mumba and his comrades by hirelings of the Belgian and other colonialists.

It resolutely protests against this monstrous crime and condemns its perpetrators and organisers.

The U.N. Secretary-General and the U.N. Command in the Congo are directly responsible for all the unlawful criminal actions against the Congolese people.

Hammarskjöld has sought in every possible way to cover up the criminal machinations of the imperialists, whose obedient tool he is. He systematically sabotaged U.N. deci- sions on the Congo, prevented the lawful Parliament and Government of the Congo Republic from resuming their func- tions and actively supported the colonialist stooges Tshombe and Mobutu. All his actions have been in violation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to the Coloni- al Countries and Peoples adopted at the Fifteenth General Assembly.

Flouting the will of the African peoples and world public opinion, the U.N. Secretary-General deliberately facilitated deterioration of the position in the Congo and created an atmosphere dangerous to world peace. Hammarskjöld ’s actions expose him as an inveterate enemy of nations fight- ing for freedom and independence. Hammarskjöld has open- ly abused his authority; the peoples have no faith in him.

Patrice Lumumba, sterling son of Africa and staunch leader of the Congolese national movement, was the embodi- ment of his people’s will for independence and unity. He set a shining example that will always live in the memory of the peoples as a symbol of the Congo’s heroic struggle and as an inspiration to everyone who wants a world of peace freedom and justice. ’

The Secretariat of the World Peace Council is confident that A^ith the support and solidarity of the peace-loving

136

forces of the world the Congolese people will triumph over the forces of colonialism and imperialism.

The Secretarial of the World Peace Council appeals to all friends of peace immediately to start mass actions, ar- range meetings and rallies and send resolutions and mes- sages of protest to the United Nations demanding immediate disarmament of the Tshombe and Mobutu dctachmenl.s, immediate expulsion from the Congo of all Belgian mili- tary personnel and colonialist mercenaries, the trial and pun- ishment of those guilty, of the assassination of Lumumba and his comrades, and Hammarskjöld’s immediate removal from the post of U.N. Secretary-General.

Speaking for hundreds of millions of peace supporter, the World Peace Council Secretarial demands that the Unit- ed Nations live up to the hopes reposed in it by all the people who cherish peace and independence.

The Secretariat of the World Peace Council

February 16, 1961

PUT AN END TO THE TRAGEDY

IN THE CONGO

^‘P RAVD A”

The Government of the U.S.S.R. is deeply concerned over the tragic situation which has arisen in the Congo as a result of Belgian aggre.ssion and is prompted by feelings of brotherly solidarity with the African peoples and a desire to put out the dangerous fire of war in that region before it is loo late.

The situation in the Congo calls for urgent measures. Every hour lost may prove fatal for the cause of the Longo- le.se people’s independence, for Ihe cause of peace on our

'’''tIS Soviet Government demands the immediate arrest and trial of Tshombe and Mobutu, the disarming of their bands, the expulsion of all aggressors from the Congo, I he cessa- tion of the so-called “U.N. action” and giving the Congo- lese people a chance to decide their own internal alfairs.

137

IMPERIALISM WILL NOT ESCAPE

RESPONSIBILITY FOR

THE MURDER OF LUMUMBA

“ JENMINJIHPAO "

Chinese People's Republic

The premcdilaled murder of the national hero Patrice Lumuinha and his comrades, inenihers of the Congolese na- tional-liberation movement, perpetrated by imperialists and their agents in the Congo, has completely unmasked the repulsive countenance of the brutal and brazen colonialists, old and new alike.

The murder of Premier Lumumba and his comrades was plotted from beginning to end by imperialist circles in the U.S..A. and Belgium.

Mobutu and his clique, who are guilty of arresting Lu- mumba and his comrades, and Tshombe and his clique, who actually committed the murder of Lumumba, are flunkeys of Belgian colonialists.

However, it must be pointed out that this crime has a more serious international background. Mobutu’s gang had been able to seize Lumumba and his comrades only because the U.N. troops had been lenient to them and had directly connived with them.... Premier Lumumba was a steadfast fighter for the national independence and sovereignty of the Congo.

AN ACT OF GANGSTERISM

SUKARNO,

President of Indonesia

The events in the Congo came as a con.sequence of the hos- tile actions of international imperialism and capitalism against the Congolese people and all peoples of Asia and Africa fighting for their complete independence. The murder of Congo s national hero Patrice Lumumba is an act of gang-

138

sterism, evidence that international imperialism is inten- sifying its offensive against the peoples of Asia and Africa.

President Sukarno urged the people of Indonesia and the peoples of other countries to be vigilant and to step up their struggle against imperialism—“that bitterest enemy of the peoples of Asia and Africa”.

FREEDOM CANNOT BE STRANGLED!

‘‘•HRYBUN A LUD U”

Poland

If the organi.«ers and perpetrators of this foul murder imagined that by removing Lumumba they would make room for themselves in the Congo and would be able to strangle her independence once and for all, everything goes to show that they were very much mistaken.

WHERE ARE INSTIGATORS?

Ren6 ANDRIEU,

VHumanxti Edltor-ln-Chlet

The murder of Lumumba continues to cause an enormous stir. Protests at this murder coming from Africa, Asia and the socialist countries resound with particular force. How- ever, the demonstrations in London, Vienna, Rome, Paris, and even New York in front of the United Nations build- ing, show that it is an event that rouses public opinion throughout the world, and one that might lead to serious international consequences.

In the Western capitals, official or semi-official propagan- da is vainly trying to cover up the real culprits and accuses the Soviet Union of adding fuel to the flames. This is tanta- mount to trying to lay one’s fault at someone else’s door.

Where are the instigators? Where are the murderers? Who inspired them, who supports them? Such is the crucial question, to which an answer is now being sought. There is no need to say that Lumumba’s murder was not an acci- dental crime. It was a premeditated deed, the culmination of

139

a definile policy. And it’s no use looking sorry, as some hypo- criles are allempling lo do, while ihey did nothing lo pre- vent the crime and are still shielding the murderers.

The Iruth is that the Belgian colonialists, supported hy the leading imperialist powei^s and certain elements in the United Nations, murdered the head of the legit imate Con- golese Government, the man who personified the will of his people for independence.

Hammarskjdid was empowered hy the United Nations to help the young Government of the Congo. Instead of that, he became a tool of the colonialists in the schemes they were hatching. He openly encouraged Mobutu’s coup d'etat, al- lowing him to arrest Lumumba and to obstruct the convo- cation of the Congolese Parliament. Hammarskjöld allowed Tshombe, that puppet of the I’nion Miniere, to bring in planes, arms, instructors and Belgian officers. In short, his behaviour was not that of a U.N. mandatory, but of a loyal agent of imperialism.

As far back as October 3, 1960 Comrade Khrushchov, speaking from the rostrum of the United Nations, exposed this activity with the utmost clarity. “Mr. Hanimarskjfild,” he said, “has used the U.N. armed forces not in support of the legitimate Parliament and Government of the Congo, on whose request the troops had been .sent, but in support of the forces of the colonialists, who have fought and are fighting against the Congolese Parliament and legitimate government in order to harness the Congo with a new' yoke.” The tragic murder of Patrice Lumumba has confirmed these words.

Yesterday, speaking at the Security Council, Stevenson thought he could take up Hammarskjöld ’s defence. This de- fence was ver>’ odd. Stevenson attempted to justify some- thing unjustifiable. It w^as this, in fact, that brought a sharp protest from the American Negroes w'ho were among the audience. To listen to Stevenson one would think that the Soviet draft resolution demanding the removal of the U.N. Sec ret ary -General from office and the disarming of Tshombe’s and Mobutu’s gangs, was a “declaration of war on the United Nations”! What a sorry argument! In actual fact, the Soviet Union is not opposing itself to the United Nations. It is the imperialists and their underlings who are opposing them-

140

selves to Ihe colonial peoples fighting for their independence. The Soviet Union, being solidary wilh these peoples, is taking a stand not against the United Nations, but against those w'ho are betraying the mission of this organisation. And in this struggle for justice, the Soviet Union is getting increasing support from the peoples of the world. This is obvious from the attitude adopted hy many African and Asian .stales: the Hepul)lic of Mali, Ceylon, Morocco and Gha- na, to quote only a few. , , , , , .i ,

As for do Gaulle’s press, it would do better to keep silent instead of accusing the Soviet Union of allegedly discredit- ing the United Nations. Surely it could not have forgotten who it was that had referred to this organisation as the “so- called United Nations”? True, the General has picked up some pupils since then, because only yesterday Tshombe had brazenly declared that he “laughs at the United Nations . l^ut there are worse things than this: namely, the standing jiolicy of the French Government expressed, no matter what the circumstances, in an unconditional solidarity with the Belgian colonialists. Only a few days ago, the French del(^ gallon spoke against the release of Lumumba and simul- taneously the French Government permitted Colonel Trin- quier to recruit henchmen for Katanga in the very heart of Paris .

There is no need lo search too long lo see where the in- stigators really arc.

FISTS CLENCH IN ANGER

Czeslaw WYCECH,

Marshal of the Sejm,

Polish People's Republic

The Sejrn of the Polish People’s Republic, together wilh the entire Polish people and government, strongly denounces the brutal murder of Congolese Prime Minister I atrice Lumumba and his two colleagues, Joseph Okilo and Maurice Mpolo, by colonialist hirelings. They were killed because they had headed the struggle of their people for freedom from tho yoke of colonialism, for liberty, independenco and sovereignty of their country. Responsibility for this crime

ill

falls on the colonial powers and the U.N. Secretary-General, who by his activity covered up the actions of the colonial- ists.

MONSTROUS CRIME

From the statement made by Premier NEHRU of India

In connection with the brutal assassination of Patrice Lumumba and his faithful comrades-in-arms by colonialists, Premier Nehru of India made a statement in Parliament in which he harshly condemned the actions of the United Na- tions in the Congo, with whose connivance this monstrous crime was perpetrated. Premier Nehru said that Patrice Lumumba, the initiator of the national-liberation movement in the Congo, had been the most popular personality in the country. The brutal murder of Lumumba, Nehru said, arouses anger.

In his statement Premier Nehru once again demanded the withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo, the disarming of Mobutu’s and Tshombe’s gangs and the establishment of law and order in the Congo—if necessary, by armed force—which would guarantee the republic’s unity and integrity.

* * *

At a seminar arranged by the India-Africa Council on Feb- ruary 17, Premier Nehru said that the policy of the United Nations in the Congo has miscarried. Lumumba’s murder has shocked us, the Premier continued. It is an international crime, a turning-point in the history of emerging Africa, an event of historic significance. Lumumba, a leader of his people, has become a historic, almost a legendary figure, influencing millions of people. Lumumba dead is infinitely stronger than Lumumba living.

Nehru cautioned colonial rulers not to tarry with the grant- ing of liberty to the peoples of Africa. No people can stand for political, economic and racial oppression, he said.

The entire African continent is in a state of revolutionary upsurge. Imperialist and colonialist exploitation can no longer be tolerated in Africa.

142

THEY KILLED HIM

WITH U. N. OFFICIALS LOOKING ON

Jean Maurice HERMANN,

French publicist

The Union Miniere du Katanga has won one round. Forebodings have been confirmed. Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the former Belgian Congo, and his two comrades have been brutally murdered.

And it was with the U.N. representatives complacently looking on, who, incidentally, had officially come there to protect the young Congolese state from the machinations of the ultrareactionary Belgians, that Lumumba was arrested, the very same Lumumba who, when in pow'er, had been le- nient, had displayed remarkable clemency toward his polit- ical foes. And now this same Lumumba was arrested by the hirelings of Mobutu, who had dispersed Parliament whose confidence Lumumba enjoyed.

And it was with the U.N. representatives looking on that Lumumba was cast in prison. It was with them looking on that after his escape Lumumba was beaten, put in chains and savagely beaten again. Lumumba, sold to the traitor Tshombe for a little more than thirty pieces of silver (in Belgian francs) by the traitor Kasavubu, who knew perfectly well what the treachery implied but was anxious not to soil his own hands, was virtually lynched in the plane taking him to Katanga.

No One Believed Them

After that ghastly scene no one saw Lumumba or his brothers-in-suffering again. No one. Neither representatives of the United Nations nor of the Red Cro.ss, neither doctors nor lawyers. No response was evoked by the tears of his wife, whose tragic picture—a woman wringing her arms with grief appeared in all the newspapevsof the world. No one was allowed to see them again and now even their bodies will

not be shown. . . . j

At the moment when a rather strong movement started in the world for the restoration of law and order in the

Congo by roloasing her political loader, who already bad the support of a good lialf of bis count rymoii while be biinself was languishing in prison, the adventurers who were in power in the ore-mining province of Katanga announced that Lumumba had escaped from prison. Did anyone believe them? Yesterday they discarded their masks during the enact- ment of the final scene of their crudely concocted scenario. The three prisoners, they alleged, had been killed by vil- lagers, their remains had been identified and buried at once. What is the name of the village where this tragedy was staged? Where is the grave? A mystery.

The semi-official organ of the “Government of Katanga Province’’ announced with incredible cynicism and revolting coarseness that all these details were nobody’s business and no one had the right to meddle in the affair; that the murderers would not be prosecuted, rather they would be rewarded for “solving the problem”, which, they thought, had been exaggerated beyond all limits! That the whole affair was nothing but a farce, and whether Lumumba had really died long ago or had been taken to an enemy village (in the district belonging to Tshombe’s own tribe) to be assas- sinated there are points of minor importance. The fact re- mains. It had been obvious that they would stop at nothing to prevent the return to power of a man who opposed the dismembering of the ore-mining provinces, as arranged by Belgian colonial trusts, a man capable of nationalising the mines.

We had foreseen the worst. And it has happened.

Who Are the Culprits?

This event is not a “most deplorable occurrence” as the diplomats are bashfully calling it.

An exceedingly cowardly and brutal crime has been com- mitted. Who committed it? The culprits are not the brutes of the Katanga gendarmerie who had actually dealt the blow. Nor are the culprits those illiterate and fanatical villag- ers who had perhaps done what they had done under circum- stances difficult to picture.

The culprits are well-dre.ssed people, very well-bred peo- ple, who pulled all the strings in the Congolese affair. Their

144

accomplices are those who shielded them because of coward- ice and a community of interests. The culprits are the administrative boards of the Belgian trusts exploiting the Congo; they are the very Christian, very European and very reactionary Brussels Government. Who paid Mohulu’s soldiers? Who pieced together the government of Katanga? And Katanga’s army? Who supports T.shombe?

The culprits are the venal Negro politicians, who accepted the role of puppets forced on the peoples of the Congo. They are Kasavubu, Mobutu and Tshombe.

An accomplice is Dag Hammarskjöld, U.N. Secretary-Gen- eral, who, disregarding the protests of many states and in particular the African states, gave the criminals a free hand. Today Mr. Hammarskjöld proposesconducting an in- ternational inquiry into Lumumba’s case. High time! It would have been funny if it were not so grim. Lumumba was arrested five months ago. He was put in prison two months ago. And exactly one month ago he was delivered into the hands of his murderers! And Mr. Hammarskjöld has the arrogance to speak on behalf of the U.N.

The accomplices are the Western governmei ts who made a deal with Belgian capitalists and the ultrareactionaries w^ho wove a net of intrigues and forced the U.N. to recog- nise Kasavubu. The accomplices—we have to admit it to our disgrace—are heads of government like General de Gaulle, who only last week ordered our U.N. delegate to object to Lumumba’s release.

The Real Countenance

The Union Miniere and its friends have won one round. But let them not delude themselves with false hopes of hav- ing won a victory.

This shocking affair will accelerate the awakening of minds throughout Africa and throughout the “third world” which has risen against imperialist exploitation. In the Congo herself, Lumumba is a martyr and imirdered he will be more dangerous, perhaps, than he was alive.

The real countenance of the hirelings of the West appear in all its hideousness from Synginan Rhee to Batista,

from Mendores^to Tshombp. Peoples are beginning to know be mean.ng of that brand of Innnanism wbicb omplovs 10^ jure insult to man, corruption and murder. Tbe knife stabs in Algeria and tbe murder in Katanga are links in tbe ^samo cbain of violence, fanatical hatred and sordid motives It s time scorn of all bonest people delivered tbe world from

COLONIALISM RULES THROUGH CRIME

Palmiro TOGLIATTI

Tbe news of the murder of the acclaimed leader of the Congolese people, the staunchest fighter for the indenend- ence and integrity of a large African country, fills the heart

of everyone who loves freedom, justice and humaneness with indignation and wrath. "muneness,

floods the trail

0 those Ij mg and crafty manoeuvres carried on for months

m an effort to conceal from world public onininn iT. i a^clivily of the impcriaiisls who were working lo nrewm Vhe Congo from freeing hereeif from coioniai enslaveSmi Co|t

a;i;rm™!"re’;;;Lg'

i.fp^r.^';h't'lf-.h»giriirmt™a''ffrr

Pnei t rSi"e ,'^ile JILu™ ^hrC^ate

ntr r V"-

m„_f .he peopien, o“f afi'ieo:?;, loXtrean^o: vanish il wili. ® ^ ‘ ' ‘opplmg, must vanish, and

rng'l:: iLrr'nv»'cit‘'crse':'''’

146

A STORM OF ANGER

‘ ‘ NEPSZABAD SAG”

Hungarian People’s Republic

That same day when the whole world gasped at the lat- est daring exploit of Soviet scientists assaulting the sky, when the spaceship speeding in the direction of Venus sent down its radio signals to earth from an enormous distance, on our own planet, too, a signal was sounded at a distance of a few thousand kilometres from here, and the news spread through the world with lightning speed: Lumumba has been murdered!

A storm of anger and indignation crashed down on the murderers and their accomplices. They had feared Lumumba alive and had removed him in order to carry on with their atrocities without restraint. But now they fear the dead Lumumba who gave his life for Africa’s independence. And this is why they did their utmost to keep his burial place a secret.

But they cannot wrench the memory of Patrice Lumumba from the hearts of the peoples of the world. Though they knocked the banner of the Congo’s independence out of his hands, they did not succeed in trampling it in the mud, for the ideas proclaimed by Patrice Lumumba serve the sacred cause of the African peoples, they are ideas of mankind’s progress, and as such are immortal.

OPINION OF COMPETENT QUARTERS OF CAIRO

“A L-GUMHURIA "

United Arab Republic

Competent quarters of Cairo hold that American imperial- ism is mainly responsible for the murder of Patrice Lumumba. American imperialism made the plans for the destruction of Lumumba together with all the patriotic elements, and the rest of the imperialist states connived with the U.S.A. in perpetrating these crimes.

147

The never-ending conferences between the U.S. A., Brit- ain, France and Belgium resulted in a decision whereby France and Belgium had to help the insurgents with weapons and volunteers, and the U.S.A. to render them financial Ln- port. Furthermore, the U.S.A. undertook to direct the activ- ity of the U.N. Secret ary -Genera I so as to achieve its ends under the flag of the United Nations.

They killed Patrice Lumumba. But by committing this crime they only awakened understanding in every African of their true aims and their methods.

AUSTRALIA IS INDIGNANT

Frank HARDY,

Australian writer

Frank Hardy calls the murder of Congolese Prime Minis- ter Patrice Lumumba and his comrades another foul crime perpetrated by the colonialists and their hirelings. He stresses that the crime committed with the connivance

its Secretary-General Dag Ham- assassination tf Lumumba, staunch fighter for the independence of his people, Frank Hardy goes on to say

Australians to feeU

ings of profound indignation.

MILLIONS WILL ARISE TO REPLACE HIM

Yusef es-SIBAI,

Secretary-General, Permanent Secretariat of the Afro-Asian Solidarity Organisation

u-m patriots from countries in Asia and Africa by thrdSS physically destroyed

HIS BLOOD IS ON THE CONSCIENCE OF THE WEST

“ TORONTO DAILY ST AR’’

Canada

The death of Mr. Lumumba should lie uneasily on the conscience of the West....

There is little reason to doubt that this was a deliberate political murder instigated by the government of Katanga Province.... And the government of Katanga is a puppet of Belgian mining interests....

To protect their highly profitable mining investments there, the Belgians have given full support to secessionist Katanga.

Belgians have lately been returning to the Congo. They furnish most of the advisors and administrators for ... Pres- ident Kasavubu.

All this was done in the face of numerous U.N. resolutions that Belgium get out of the Congo.

BEFORE THE BAR OF THE NATIONS

Telegram addressed by Sehou Tour^t

president of the Republic of Guineat to D. Hammarskjdld

You will understand the profound indignation of the peo- ple and Government of Guinea at the heinous as.sassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and two of hisMinis-

ters. , . .1

This brutal assassination is an eternal stain upon the United Nations and places its Secretary-General in the fore- front of those who have deliberately chosen to do away with legality in the Congo and with all the nationalists that

embodied it. .

You will also understand that the sad drama in which you look a predominant part despite your repeated protes- tations dLshonours you personally in the eyes of the embit- tered public of Africa and the world. Now that the curtain has fallen on the fii-st act of your criminal tragedy, it is es-

scntial thal you draw a lesson from the universal condemna- tion of this crime.

After this painful experience what country can again rely on the United Nations for assistance in solving any of its problems? You may be sure that the sinister method inau- gurated in the Congo will not gel the belter of Congolese nationalism or the daily increasing determination of the African peoples to free themselves from the imperiali.sm of which the United Nations through its Secretary-General has made itself the docile standard-bearer. Before the bar of historj' an awakened Africa will know how to assume all its responsibilities.

* *

Sekoii Toure, President of the Republic of Guinea, an- nounced at Ibe meeting of mourning held in Conakry on Feb- ruary' 14 that Premier Lumumba has been posthumously awarded the highest Order of the Republic of Guinea—the “Order of Loyalty to the People”.

THE WHOLE WORLD CONDEMNS THE MURDERERS

“ LA NACION”

Chile

There is no nation in the world that does not strongly con- demn this crime.

THEIR NAMES ARE KNOWN

“ LIBERATION ’’

France

The culprits in Lumumba’s murder are those who are also responsible for the anarchy into which his country has been plunged. They are those who, from the first, intended to sabotage the independence of the Congo, to dismember her and form small puppet states, so that they could go on pumping out millions’ worth of uranium, cobalt and dia- monds, exploiting the labour of black slaves.

150

the ideals of fighting AFRICA

CANNOT BE KILLED

Allal el-FASSI,

Leader of the ruling parly Istiqial, Morocco

Colonialism slops at nothing, however criminal the act,

to achieve its aims. . , - .1

There was the poisoning of Moumie, the Cameroon leader, in Geneva, and now Ihe murder of Lumumba and his com- rades in jail. This murder was committed by those who seized

power in order to I urn it against the Congolese people ana

all free peoples. 1 • • 1

It is the duty of all free people to denounce the criminals

and form a tribunal similar to the one set up to try the

Nazis for their crimes. , . ,1

Acts such as the murder of Lumumba can only slrengllien our conviction that the struggle must go on for the aboli- tion of colonialism which is the source of all evil still tor- menting the world in our day and age.

THE WHITE HOUSE DECLARATION

Pierre Salinger, the Press Secretary to the President, told reporters that President Kennedy “expressed great shock at the news of the death of Patrice Lumumba. Any further comment,” continued Salinger, “will come from the Stale

Salinger refused to say anything about the reports that had come through during the past few days alleging thal the Kennedy Administration had begun to lake an increasingly favourable view of Lumumba as the “centre of attraction

in the Congo. ,

Correspondents asked Salinger to comment on the state- ment made by Eduard Kennedy, the President s brother in which he bad said that in the opinion of African leadcre Kasavubu, the so-called president of the Congo, was a prod- uct of the Central Intelligence Agency”. In reply Salinger said that Eduard Kennedy had voiced his personal opinion based on knowledge and experience acquired during his trip to the Congo.

151

WHERE ARE THE WORDS TO EXPRESS THE DEPTH OF OUR SORROW

Mrs. Sirimavo BANDARANAIKE,

Prime Minister of Ceylon

It is with a sense of shock and profound sorrow that i|,e Ceylonese Government has learnt of the murder of Palricp Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Con^o and two of h,s associates. We have no doubt whatever that ’their

death has been brought about by the numerous forces which from the outset of the republic’s independence have ende^v oured in cNjry way to subvert the unity, territorial i,Z- rity and independence of the country.... It is clear that tL underlying motive for this monstrous crime is a d^sile to Silence the voice of Congolese nationalism, which lie au thors tliought they would not be able to achieve with the Con- golese Prime Minister alive.

We have oupelves no doubt that the tide of African resur- pnee cannot be turned back, and that the ideas for Sh Lumumba strove and for which eventually he died wdl| Tm7cI strengthen the nationalist upsurge

wl/a/ i! iT^ Government of Ceylon cannot possibly Lcept hat has happei^d nor view with equanimity the developing situation in the Congo. Apart from any action we might fakf at the United Nations, the Government of Ceylon is^erious ly considering the possibility of taking such other measures whmh are in our capacity as would demonstrate the strength of our people s feelings on this situation and the rX

torofThttime."^'”"^^^^"^ -<1 ‘Sgf-

In the meanwhile I am sending immediately a snccial ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to represent

puinc spins'

am also sending a me.ssage of condolence on my behalfand

government in expressing their sorrow on this occasion.

J52

WE MOURN WITH AFRICA

from THE STATEMENT MADE BY the ALGERIAN COMMUNIST PARTY

Our Party as well as the whole of our people expcricnctd pain and indignation at the news of the murder of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, that fearle.ss fighter for the in- dependence of the Congo.

Onr I’arty regards the foul murder of this true son of the Congolese people as another crime against the large brotherly family of African peoples to which we belong.

Our Party accuses the Belgian colonialists, their imperial- ist NATO allies and their Congolese agents of being directly responsible for the murder of Patrice Lumumba and his

comrades. . . , . i .i, i

There can be no doubt that the African and other peoples of the world who are fighting for their freedom will condemn with the utmost harshness those heads of African and Asian governments who, hiding behind the back of the U.N. Sec- retary-General, aligned themselves with neo-colonialist positions in the Congolese question, and, betraying African solidarity, refused to side with the only legitimate Govern- ment of the Congo headed by Prime Minister Patrice Lu- mumba, thus facilitating the colonialists’ underhand activi- ty which has led to the murder of the best of Congolese

^ The Algerian Communist Party mourns together with the Congolese people and the family of the hero; it pays homage to the beautiful memory of Patrice Lumumba and his com- rades, whose example will inspire the united struggle of the African peoples for unconditional and complete liberation from the yoke of imperialism.

A TRAITOROUS BLOW

PERMANENT SECRETARIAT

OF THE All-AFRICAN PEOPLE’S CONFERENCE

The murder of the Congolese Premier by Belgian hirelings in Katanga, committed under cover of the blue flag of the United Nations, is a monstrous blow dealt to the young re-

753

public. This act of tho imperialists and their myrmidons was aimed against all African peoples who are fighting for freedom and the true dignity of the African continent.

DAG IS A MURDERER “ THE TACHYDROMOS WEEKLY ”

GretJce

Hammarskjöld has insidiously and methodically worked for Lumumba’s removal from power and after that for his arrest and murder.

THERE ARE MORE BELGIANS THERE THAN EVER

Ivor MONTAGU,

English publicist

There are more Belgians there than ever. The Congo Government has been destroyed. Its troops have been scat- lered and left to serve gangsters, while stooges have been per- mitted to break off the wealthiest fragments.

And the man who appealed lies dead, beaten to death.

The present Secretary-General is the man who, in the name of non-intervention, broke Lumumba and kowtowed to Tshombe, paid Mobutu’s soldiers....

This type of policy cannot save the Congo; it means the United Nations and is a threat to world peace. Ik I greater perversion than the pretence

at the U.S.S.R., in seeking to dismiss Hammarskjöld and reform the U.N., seeks the downfall of the U.N.

n the contrar>% it is because it believes in co-operation lor the solution of the problems....

It is precisely because U.S. and British foreign policies ave no use for a truly world organisation because they are only interested in the U.N. as the vehicle and screen for their own interests.

loi

the criminals ARE

THE BELGIAN COLONIALISTS AND NATO

From a atatement made by President

N’KRUMAH of Ghana

President N’Krumah said that the United Nations had shown itself neutral between law and disorder. ^

He said that this was a murder unique in history, for the first time a legal ruler was done to death with the open connivance of a world organisation in whom that leader put 1 * t rust ”

N’Krumah forcefully repeated the question he put to U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld two months ago: Who

in Franco .„d Snnth Africa for anti-Lumumba factions, N Krumah again asked

where the money was coming from.

He attacked Belgium’s allies in the North Atlantic pacb for not protesting against the entry of Belgian arms and officers iHto the Congo, although they made strong objections when Lumumba received Soviet civilian aircraft.

SAVAGES IN THE WEST

STATEMENT MADE BY THE UGANDA PEOPLE’S CONGRESS ON THE CONGO TRAGEDY

A savage, barbarous and premeditated murder by impe-

"‘““fh” conviction of th. People’s Congress of Uganda that it was a vile imperialist conspiracy against the African

'^The'people’s Congress announced a week of mourning throughout'^ the country and called for demonstrations of protest to be organised. The Congress expresses its ^ tion at the “inertness displayed by the U.N. m Ihe myrmidons of imperlalism-Mobuln, Kasavubu and Tshombe and their illicit armies ,

lo6

THE BLOT WILL REMAIN

“DELHI TIMES"

India

Indians of all shades of opinions and in all walks of life have been slunned by I, bo shocking nows of I ho cold-blooded murder of Prime Minister Lumumba and two of bis princi- pal aides, which could not have taken place without the active connivance and even instigation of Western imperi- alists who were worried by the Congolese leaders’ uncompro- mising stand for the liquidation of foreign rule from the African continent. It is a terrible blot on the Western nations including the United States, who have placed themselves completely in the wrong.

In particular the Secretary-General Ilammarskjold has placed himself under heavy censure. He will find it impos- sible to escape responsibility for this gruesome happening and his only escape now will be his immediate resignation from that ]iosition.

He has proved himself very much of a partisan and his sympathies seemed to lie not with the oppressed but with those who perpetrated such crimes on innocent and helpless people. He has been disgraced in the eyes of all just and right-thinking peoples all over the world, and he has no longer any place in that international body not only as Sec- rotary-GeneTal but in any capacity calling for quick de- cision on the side of truth, justice and freedom of subject peoples.

AN APOSTLE OF INDEPENDENCE

Raul ROA,

Minister of External Affairs, Cuba

The President of the Republic of Cuba, Dr. Oswaldo Dor- ^^'n'ster of the Revolutionary Gov- linne 1 ’ H Castro, have given me expre.ss instruc-

nrmis Security Council the most vig-

orous protest for the vile assa.ssination of Patrice Lumumba,

JoO

Prime Minister of the Congole.se Republic, of Joseph Okito, Senate President, and of Maurice Mpolo, Minister of Defence.

The murder of Prune Minister Lumumba is a prearranged culmination of an international conspiracy against the in- dependence, unity and progress of the Congo, organised by Belgian and American monopolies who once owned the Con- go’s mineral wealth and who intended to go on exploiting the Congolese people, with independence but formally grant- ed to this vast African territory, and to dominate them po- litically with the obvious complicity of the colonial powers who control the Security Council, and the silent partnership of the U.N. Secretary -General.

Our government considers that in view of the grave re- sponsibility that falls on him as Secretary-General, Dag Ham- marskjold must be discharged at once. In this case no half- measures can be tolerated. Actions taken have to be deci- sive and clear to all. The flagrant meddling of the NATO bloc powers in the Congo’s internal affairs, the Secretarj'-Gener- al’s violation of the resolutions of the Security Council and the murder of Patrice Lumumba form a very serious threat not only to the self-determination, independence and unity of the African states, but also to universal peace and security, undermined as it is by the “balancing on the brink of war” policy, dictated by the covert interests of powerful imperialist and colonialist circles. The murder of Con- golese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba has outraged the conscience of the entire world and has aroused the anger of all peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Men who die fighting for the liberty, independence and progress of their people, who sacrifice their lives for their country, are granted new life. Patrice Lumumba, on whom until yesterday the Congolese people had focused their lof- tiest thoughts and aspirations, has today and for evermore become a shining symbol of heroic self-sacrifice. His exam- ple will serve as a bulwark and a light pointing the way. The spirit of this murdered rebel will not rest until the Congo- lese people has attained their freedom, independence and sovereignty.

In homage to the courageous leader of a popular resist- ance movement against imperialism and colonialism, the Cuban Revolutionary Government has ordered the national

lo7

flag to he at half-mast for three days. This will he a sign of our mourning and our vehement protest, and also a testimony that the Cuban people are firmly upholding the ideals sanc- tified hy the hlood shed hy Patrice Lumumha, the legitimate Prime Minister of the Congo and the Apostle of her independ- ence.

MAY THE SOLIDARITY OF WORKING PEOPLE STRENGTHEN

STATEMENT BY THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

The news of the murder of Prime Minister Patrice Lumum- ba and his comrades shocked the working people of the whole world, and in all countries they are now strongly voicing their indignation and anger. The foul murder of the leader of the movement for the national independence of the Congo, on whom the overwhelming majority of his countrymen had conferred legitimate power, and who also had enjoyed the support of the African peoples and all anti-colonial forces in the world, is one more futile attempt of the imperialist monopolies to suppress the victorious struggle of the African peoples by means of terror. This murder is a threat to the freedom and independence of Africa, to the cause of peace.

Reverencing the memory of this staunch fighter against colonialism, the World Federation of Trade Unions on behalf of its 107 million members expresses its deep sympathy and solidarity with the Congolese and African peoples. The WFTU joins its indignant protest to the protests of all demo- crats and enemies of colonialism in the world and demands the complete and final withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo and the trial of Tshombe and others directly or indirectly guilty of Patrice Lumumba’s murder.

The WFTU calls on all working people and trade unions to express more resolutely still their solidarity with the citizens and working people of the Congo.

15S

Mobutu on the war path

CARTOON BY B. YEH.MOv

^r.

THE U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL IS AN ACCOMPLICE TO THE CRIME

‘‘ AL-GUMH U RIA GARIDAT A L-SHAAB'^

Unitod Arab Republic

When Ihe Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., Nikita Khrushchov, speaking from the rostrum of the U.N. General Assembly, demanded the resignation of Dag Ilammarskjold from the post of Secretary-General, the latter, putting on sheep’s clothing, mumbled that be would not resign, that he could not doit in the interests of the Unit- ed Nations on whom the fate of small countries depended. But now we must ask him: “Was it in the interests of the United Nations and the small countries that the murder in the Congo was committed before the eyes of the U.N. and its Secretary-General?” Did he reject the Soviet demand for his resignation in order to do away with the leaders of small countries, to destroy their independence and national unity?

The murder of Patrice Lumumba and his associates is the last nail in the coffin in which Dag Hammarskjbld must bury his career as U.N. Secretary-General.

THERE IS MORE THAN SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

“AL-AKHBAR ”

United Arab Republic

The refusal of the United States to support the Soviet Government’s statement that it would no longer recognise Dag Hammarskjbld as an official representative of the Unit- ed Nations, cannot save him from inevitable removal from the post of U.N. Secretary-General, since the United Nations has, after all, got to re-establish its prestige.

World public opinion denounces him as an accomplice in the deeds which have brought about the pre.sent situation in the Congo. He was in a position to prevent the murder of Patrice Lumumba, and all the charges that are being brought

m

against Dag Hammarskjbld now are sufficient to make him resign llammarskjiild has forfeited the confidence of world public opinion and most of the U.N. member countries.

STOCKS HAVE RISEN ON THE BRUSSELS EXCHANGE

“NEUES DEU TSCHLAND ”

G.D R

Patrice Lumumba is dead, and stocks have ri.sen on the Brussels E-xchange. The lawful Prime Minister of the Congo Republic has been brutally done to death. Hired assassins have taken the life of the people’s chosen leader, the great fighter for his country’s independence. And on the Brussels Exchange stocks have risen.

In Cairo the children of the Congo’s national hero are weeping. In Leopoldville his wife is grieving. The whole world is crying out in pain, anger and indignation. And on the Brussels Exchange stocks have risen. The directors and supervisors of the monopolist companies in Brussels, Lon- don and Washington are noting with a grin of satisfaction the increase in profits which are flowing to them from the blood of Lumumba. Never has there been a murder so dastardly, cynical and foul as that which immediately converts the blood of the victim into hard cash. At the very moment when the world was applauding the great achievement of the human spirit that glorified the humanism of the new social- ist order-the launching of a spaceship to another planet, mankind became witness to the hideous crime of the impe- rialist camp, which wrings its profits from the blood of the peoples by means of enslavement, murder and wars.

Lumumba was killed in order that stocks might soar again in Brussels, London, Washington and in all centres of

the capitalist world. , . ,i ,

Ever since the Belgian colonialists seized the Congo that country’s wealth has been drifting into the pockets of the plunderers. Powerful international monopolies have been robbing this nation for decades in the most ruthless manner.

161

In 1050 alone I ho following was pumped o\it of the country: 12 tons of gold, about 1(), 000, 000 carats of diamonds, 5,200 tons of white cobalt (fused) and 0,600 tons of granulated co- balt, 1,300 tons of wolfram, 400 tons of tantalum, 2,900 tons of tin, 284,000 tons of copper, 54,500 tons of zinc, 75,100 tons of zinc concent rate, 302,000 tons of manganese ore and 400,000 tons of crude rubber.

The year before that about 300,000 tons of ore contain- ing three per cent of uranium were exported from the Congo. This is equivalent to 850 tons of pure uranium. The Belgian, British and American monopolies did themselves well out of it. The net profits of the Union Miniere alone amounted to 20,600 million francs in six years. The annual dividend was as much as 60 per cent!

9ic *

Then the oppressed people won independence under the leadership of Lumumba. “Eight thousand million dollar investments are at stake, ’’cried an American paper. And forth- with the NATO monopolies began to plot against the young republic.

What did it matter to those gentlemen of the “free world” that the population had voted freely, that the Government of Lumumba was formed according to all the rules of parlia- mentary democracy. What did they care about democratic procedure when their profits were threatened. And so Bel- gian troops remained in the country, Katanga was split off, followed by other provinces, Parliament was dissolved, the lawful government was removed, bandits were armed and puppets were trotted out.

The people of the Congo, however, continued to fight for their rights, their independence and their country’s riches. Lumumba, and his very name, was a symbol of that struggle to his people, even when he had been seized and put in chains and tortured. And then the gentlemen committed murder.

Patrice Lumumba was killed because he wanted to free his country from all oppression and foreign domination. He was killed because he defended his people’s right to a de- cent human life, because he did not yield, because he re-

Mobutu cutthroats manhandling Lumumba followers

fused to be l)OUglit l>y ibo old and new colrnialists and their stooges—Tshoinl)e, Kasavubn and Mobutu. They killed Luinumba in ordertoscnd up tbe.stock exchange rates again, to keep the gold, copper, uranium—all the wealth of Af- rica—flowing into their pockets. They killed Lumumba in order to deal a death blow to the struggle of the peoples for their independence.

THE BARBARIC BAND MUST ANSWER FOR THEIR DEED!

“ THE WORKER"

U.S.A.

The barbaric band of usurpers—Kasavubu, Tshomhe, Mo- butu, Munongo—carried out the killing as agents of the Belgian colonialists and the NATO imperialist powers.

The silken-mannered Dag Hammarskjöld is indicted by world public opinion for shielding the murderers under the blue flag of the United Nations. His name will sound as in- famous in the roll-call of history as that of Patrice Lumumba will ring forth gloriously.

A RETURN TO BARBARITY

“ AVANTH ”

Italy

This murder is a ghastly crime which no political motives can justify. The blame attaches both to those who killed him and to those who did nothing to prevent it, or, what is even worse, behaved in a way that allowed others to kill him—to Tshomhe, to Belgium, the United Nations, Kasavubu and Mobutu.

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THEY WANTED TO ARREST THE COURSE OF HISTORY

“ HINDUSTAN STANDARD ”

India

There is no longer a shadow of doubt that Patrice Lu- mumba and his two associates—Ministers of the Congolrae Government—were deliberately killed by order of Moise Tshomhe, the stooge of the Belgian imperialists. Kasavubu, who handed over Lumumba and his two associates to Tshom- be is no less to blame for this murder. The leaders of the Western governments, who now declare that they are shocked by this crime, should realise that it was the direct r^ult

of their policy of acknowledging the lawfulness of Kasavubu s

actions, as well as of their unconcealed support of Belgian military intervention in the internal affairs of the Congo.

In the European capitals men are being recruited, are being raised and weapons bought to support the Bel- gians and their puppets in order to rob the Congo of her freedom and plunge the country into internecine war, m which, under cover of the United Nations’ insidious policy, all the impe?ialists will be free to assist the treacherous elements in the Congo.

THAT WAS HOW HIDALGO WAS KILLED IN MEXICO

“ LA PRENSA”

Mexico

Many countries were dominated by the colonial powers for centuries. Today the peoples of these countries are rising to demand independence, as was the case with Mexico in 1810. Lumumba has been killed. In Mexico Hidalgo was killed and his head was put up for show. Anti-colonial revo- lutions, however, cannot be stopped.

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THE PEOPLE DO NOT BELIEVE IN CROCODILE TEARS, GENTLEMEN

“ JUGANTAR^ ’

India

The imperialist powers supplied the weapons to kill Lu- mumba with and gave moral support to the deed. The same nowers will go on protecting the present accursed gang. Under the circumstances, no mendacious expressions of regret, no crocodile tears, no proposals to investigate the

murder will lead to anything.

Nothing but the liquidation of the existing puppet regimes and the restoration of the lawful parliamentary regime can serve as a just answer to this brutal murder.

THERE WAS NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE DARKEST AGES

“AL_AALAM”

U.A.R.

The murder of the national hero Patrice Lumumba, perpe- trated under the eyes of the United Nations representa- tives in the Congo as a result of imperialist plotting prompts us to demand that the status of the U.N. Secretary-General be revised and that a thorough investigation be carried out into this monstrous crime, the like of which has not been known in the darkest ages.

THE LOWEST DEPTHS OF TREACHERY

TELEGRAM FROM PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALI MODIBO KEITA TO Hammarskjöld

Profoundly indignant at the dastardly murder of Prune Minister Patrice Lumumba, the Government of the 1 epub- lie of Mali makes a formal protest to you at the mam es con

1G6

nlicitv of the United Nations in this macabre plot. This his- loric mourning into which awakened Africa has been plunged is not the doing of the traitors Tshombe and Kasavubu, it is the culmination of the betrayal by the United Nations of the mission entrusted to it by stales of good faith. It is now clear that until the structure and concepts of the organ- isation arc profoundly modified no African national govern- ment will again have confidence in the United Nations. The Government and people of Mali will always remember the odious action organised by the United Nations and the colo- nialist nations to weaken the Central Congolese Goyeniment and at the end, to murder in cold blood that great African natriot, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba lies murdered. Nations and men will bear this "ime on their conscience eternally and their hands will ever be stained with the blood of this true son of Africa who will henceforward be a symbol for the young generations of For all these

reaLns I inform you of the decision of the Government of Mali to express its distrust of the United Nations <>f Secretary-General in the manner it deems most suitable at the forthcoming convocation of the General Assembly.

CLAW ME AND I’LL CLAW THEE!

“ DAILY EXPRESS "

Great Britain

A baffled and bewildered little country stands at the centre of an international storm. Belgium is accused out a scrap of evidence-of being implicated in the murder

*^V^S7eadere™arrinsu^ her embassies are attacked in a

cL^na, President N’Krumah, who has done more than m^l to stir up trouble in the Congo, orders every Belgian

H^ound^ng'^B^^ has ^become an international pastim^

Why? Because those who said the Congolese themselves will not admit they were wrong. So Belgiutn, bowed down by internal troubles ... is made their scapegoat.

167

Who will speak up for Belgium? Who else hut Britain. We have fought beside Belgium in two world wars. We are allies still.

Britain should champion Belgium. Not with the careful, hooded language of diplomacy, hut boldly and fearle.ssly.

It is lime to show the world that this country does not de- sert her friends.

♦ * ♦

And so Britain, following the advice of the “Daily Ex- press”, is to rush in to protect poor wronged Belgium!

We would assure this British newspaper that its recom- mendation has come a bit t(M> late. The British Government has been backing the aggressive policy of BiusseD from the very first days of the Congo Republic’s existence. The gen- tlemen from the “Daily Express” ought to know that the territories of the British colonies bordering on the Congo have been used as a jumping-off ground for dealing a treacli- erous blow at the young republic. Who, if not Roy Welen- sky, the Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, offered Belgium his services in carrying out punitive expeditions against the Congolese? A stream of weapons is flowing to Tshombe from Rhodesia, Uganda and Tanganyika, supplied by the NATO powers, including Brit- ain. Adventurists from France, West Germany, Belgium, Britain and other countries infiltrate into Katanga and Leo- poldville by way of these colonies to enter the service of the Kasavubu-Tshombe-Mobutu clique. That is why Britain bears her share of responsibility for the tragedy which the Congolese people are living through. But the “Daily Ex- press” apparently thinks this is not enough. It is spurring on its government to take a still more active part in the brutal reprisals against the Congolese patriots.

The newspaper sheds tears at the fact that ‘‘hounding Belgium has become an international pastime”. Nonsense! In point of fact it is the colonialists who are doing themselves goejd on the blood and sufferings of the Congo- lese patriots, hundreds and thousands of whom are being sacrificed in the monstrous jmlitical game which the West has started. That is the fact of the matter. And no menda- cious siglis will help the Belgian and other imperialists to

m

dodge responsibility for the murder of Patriee Lumumba and his a.ssociates.

“Claw me and I’ll claw thee, ’’says the proverb. The British colonialists are trying to help Belgium to escape responsi- bility for her atrocities against the (xmgolese and their le- gally elected leaders, w hile at the same lime whitewashing the actions of the British Government.

We are sure that Belgium w ill soon repair the damage done to the embassy buildings in different countries, for which the “Daily Express” shows such concern, and will restore the window-panes that were .smashed by the outburst of public indignation. Butshewill never wipe off the shameful stain of her atrocities in the Congo!

LET’S FACE UP TO THE FACTS

“ TRIB UNE”

Great Britain

Let’s face up to the facts—Britain’s share in the Congo

crime. .

Britain made no protest when, following the granting ot independence to the Congo on June 30 last year, Belgium poured in paratroops to forestall the expulsion of Belgian officers from the Congolese Army by Lumumba.

Britain refused, in July, to support the United Nations resolution calling for the withdrawal of Belgian troops and their replacement by a United Nations force.

Britain stayed silent when Belgian puppet Moise Tshombe and his Belgian-financed party took Katanga Province out of the Congo Republic, setting up a separate state in which Belgium’s financial interests were safeguarded.

The British Government heaved an immense sigh of r^ lief when Colonel Mobutu, a Belgian Army officer, carried out a coup, closed Parliament and declared him.self... dictator.

For two months Lumumba was kept under hoii.se arrest. Then, in an escape bid, he was picked up by Mobutu’s men....

He was reported seriously injured and badly beaten up. No word from the British Foreign Office. Then he was re- moved to Katanga—Silence from Britain.

6—1728

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LUMUMBA’S BLOOD CRIES OUT FOR A HOLY WAR AGAINST COLONIALISM

Ahmed al-SHUQAIRY,

Representative of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations

The murder of the Prime Minister of the lawful Govern- ment of the Congo Republic Patrice Lumumba is an atro- cious crime which is a black stain on the imperialists. Nat- urally this foul murder has evoked the wrath and condem- nation of the nations of the world.

Rut the peace-loving and freedom-loving nations of the world and, above all, the struggling nations of Africa and Asia should not only express their indignation at the kill- ine of Patrice Lumumba, but should immediately muster all their moral and material forces to rid the Congo of the imperialists and their stooges and take steps to strengthen this country’s freedom and unity. The murder of Patrice Lumumba should serve as the beginning of a holy war of the peoples of the world against imperialism and colonialism.

The United Nations Charter provides for the use of polit- ical and economic sanctions in certain cases. I consider that the murder of Lumumba has created a dangerous situa- tion in the Congo, which calls for direct or indirect appli- cation of these sanctions to all states and organisations im- plicated in this infamous crime. I also consider that it is necessary to set up an international court to severely punish those who are responsible for the present situation in the Con- eo. The crimes perpetrated by the colonialists in the Congo are as monstrous as the crimes that figured at the Nuremberg trial after the Second World War.

A SHAMEFUL SPECTACLE

“ PAIVAN SANOMAT ”

Finland

Hammarskjöld now promises an “international inquiry into the murder of Lumumba, although he did not lift a finger to prevent it. It will he remembered that ho paid a

170

personal visit to the Congo to have talks with “President” Kasavuhu just before Lumumba was transferred to Katanga. Obviously, this “transfer” had his secret and silent blessing. He did not make a move to safeguard the life of the country’s lawful Prime Minister. Instead he carried on endle.ss in- trigues with his enemies. Hammarskjöld’s role in the Congo spectacle was an ugly one. He acted all the time as a stooge of the colonialists and their puppets.

DEMONSTRATION IN GEORGETOWN

A mass protest demonstration against the brutal murder of Patrice Lumumba and his associates was held in George- town (British Guiana).

France Presse reports that the demonstration was partic- ipated in by boys and girls who had arrived in Georgetown for the annual congress of the Progressive Youth League of British Guiana, which is a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. Among the demonstrators were the Minister of Trade of British Guiana Cheddi Jagan and his wife Janet Jagan, who is the General Secretary of the Peo- ple’s Progressive Party.

SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE UNION MINIERE

Henri LAURENT,

Belgian Journalist

His name hit the headlines barely a year ago, in the days when the crackle of tommy-guns was heard in Leopoldville and Stanleyville.

Raiidouin I, the King of Belgium, had arrived in the Con- go. That was in December 1959. Lumumba, the founder of the Congo National Movement Party (C.N.M.), was in jail. The king, it was said, would establish concord between the whites and the Negroes. The royal triumphal voyage was announced as though white men had never shed the blood of Negroes, as though the Congolese would fall down on their

6 *

171

t oi tUo <!iLTht of llio wliitc king and chant his praise 'rhifhenefactions. Inwardly, the cohmialists felt jittery. ?hov were wondering whether it would not he the other way rcS whether the king wouldn’t he hooted So then hey ^?aded cleverly spreading rumours among the Congolese.

U was whispered into their ears that Haudoum I was a u \ J » Ji . would have Patrice Lumumba

Sse^from jail i^ito which the “bad white men” had thrown

'’’tIipv were obliged to release him only when the notorious •J id table” conference started in Brussels at wh.ch tl^ irdependence of the Congo was fixed for J>-ne 30 1%0.

umumha arrived at the conference with marks of the man- ac "s on his wrists. Like the other Congolese leaders he was ^iect of exaggerated attentions. Money was offered to him. Hytocritic^* expressions of regret at his ill-treatment were

"'of'cmimrCount Gobert d’Aspremont-Lynden, the Grand M^i^echal of’ the Court of Baudouin 1, was not at the confer- ence in person. But his nephew, Count Garold de Aspre- mont-Lvnden, was. The interests of the first, the administrator of the Vatanga Company, were defended second.

Now that nephew is silting in the Belgian Cabinet.

Minister cLshof van der Meersch also addressed the con- fere^ He pressed his hand to his heart and was pro use r5ds expressions of love for the Congolese. II is son a natur- alised American citizen, arrived in Belgium He had come to Brus.sels to explore the ground m the in^eresU of powerful financial corporations in the H.S.A Ulhere behind the scenes were MM. Gil let and Coimin, President and Serai Director of the Union Miniere, Humble, resident of I’Union des colons of Katanga, who practically came out in support of Tshomhe. Colonel Weber was there, too the man who was replaced by the French Colone Trinquier as head of Tshombe’s legions, the legions of the

LumiJmhrwas hard at work organising his view of the coming general elections m lonialisls had done their best to create « sition groups against him hearing a tribal aiactcr. t y to work still more intensively to fan inter-trihal am-

172

mosity. They were sot on securing the election of a Congo- lese Parliament that would serve them faithfully. Al- ready at that time they kept Tshomhe in reserve.

Proclaiming the “independence” of Katanga? Why, what for? Everything in good time! The thing was, first, to try to keep the Congo whole. So the colonialists put on winning smiles for Lumumba...,

A Belgian officer directs rifle practice by the puppet Tshombe

But when the elections were held, when Lumumba’s Party won a sweeping victory which made it impossible to create a parliamentary majority against him, they got the wind up. The colonialists started lo manoeuvre. Lumumba was to be in the government but not as its head. The idea was to make him a political captive, to use his name and prevent him

from proscculing his own policy. It was like trying to make an elephant play the role of a mouse!

When this plan failed the Union Miniore people called in their reserves. They praised Tshombe to the skies. They proclaimed the “independence” of Katanga, from where they hoped to reconquer the whole of the Congo—

What happened next, everyone knows. The first armed intervention by Belgium, the United Nations, Mobutu.... The Central Government of the republic hamstrung by Ham- marskjold. The soldiers of this government disarmed on the pretext that all bloodshed was to be avoided.... At the same time T.shomhe armed his forces with impunity! In the end Lumumba was delivered over to him bound hand and

^^Now w-hen the assassins have done the foul deed required of them, there are “kind souls” in international and Belgian imperialist circles who cry, “We didn’t want that!”

What did they want? That the assa.ssins should behave like goody-goodies?

The imperialists knew what victim to choose. They dealt a dastardly blow at the symbol of Congolese independence and liberty. But do they really believe that in destroying the symbol they will destroy the cause it stood for? Lumumba was the object of their blind hatred. Things reached a point during the recent general strike in Belgium when the reac- tionary newspapers frequently represented the most respect- ed leaders of the workers, the most courageous fighters for the cause of the working class, as people who “emulate Lumumba”! Actually, this cry of hatred was an admission of glory.

Following the expressions of horror which the murder of Patrice Lumumba and his two associates have evoked in the Congo and throughout the world, I hear the stirring cry “Justice!” This cry has reached Belgium, where those who paid the assassins are hiding in their rich salons and where they shed the blood of the workers during the strike. The blood of the Prime Minister of the Congo, the blood of the workers of Belgium—the circle is completed. Imperialism stands branded with the badge of infamy,

lU

ON BEHALF OF 101 MILLION

CABLE TO THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL FROM THE SECRETARIAT OF THE WORLD FEDERATION OF DEMOCRATIC YOUTH

With deep indignation we have heard that the imperial- ists and their Katanga agents have murdered the Prime Min- ister of the Congo, Lumumba, and his two associates. These criminal deeds endanger the independence and security of the Congo and Africa and even world peace.

On behalf of the 101 million members of our organisation we vigorously protest against this hideous crime and demand that the culprits should be severely punished, that the agents of the imperialists should be disarmed, and that the author- ity of the lawful government should be restored.

THE TORCH OF LIBERTY

“ LA DEPECHE DU CAMBODGE ”

Cambodia

Tshombe will not celebrate victory. His days are numbered. In committing this crime he has doomed himself to speedy oblivion. But Lumumba will become the symbol of Con- golese independence. Future generations will see him as a man who held aloft the torch of African liberty, a martyr of the new Africa, a victim of colonialism and imperialism.

THE UNION MINIERE: A GANG OF ASSASSINS

STATEMENT OF THE POLITICAL BUREAU OF THE FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY

“The murder of Patrice Lumumba, the head of the Congo’s lawful Government, and his associates is one of the most abominable crimes of colonialism. The responsibility for this crime rests upon the Belgian colonialists, their crea- tures, and all their accomplices.

176

■This odious crime against the whole Congolese people, the victims of which were their most outstanding represenla- t ves,” continues the statement “was perpetrated only be- cause of the procrastinations of theCn. ed Nations and the cLplicity of its Secretary-General Hammarskjöld. This only goes to prove the urgent necessity for reorganising the

United Nations’ Secretariat. c ,u n }

‘The Gaullist regime was the most active ally of the Bel- gian colonialists on the question of the Congo. De Gaulle s Representative at the United Nations was the only one to oppose the release of Lumumba, which was demanded by many countries. By encouraging inercenanes like Colonel Trinquierand other fascists, who placed themselves at the service of the gang of assassins from the Union Miniere du Katanga, the French Government has dealt a new grave blow to the honour and interests of France. ij

•Together with public opinion throughout the world, the French people indignantly protest against a crime which has shown that the irrevocably doomed colonialist regime

will stop at nothing to keep itself going.

‘The murder of Patrice Lumumba and his companions stimulates the liberation struggle of the Congolese people and all the oppressed peoples. The nations of the world will support this just struggle all the more resolutely.

‘The people of France will oppose the complicity oMhe French and Belgian monopolies, upon whom lies the blood of the Congo’s patriots, by its active solidarity with the Congolese people and with all the peoples who are fighting for their liberty.”

the boomerang will find the

MURDERERS

Pablo ANDRADE,

Mexican Journalist

The murder of Lumumba pronounces a harsh and final sentence upon the obsolete system of colonialism ‘ouml^l on crimes and plunder, which will inevitably be dest^; The murder of Lumumba is a boomerang thrown by uu.

176

murderers and colonialists, which is rushing hack at ter- rific speed to strike both them and their allies—Yankee imperialism.

The crime that has been perpetrated will destroy the illu- sive hopes in the “benevolence” of agonising imperialism, which the imperialists themselves are lauding.

LUMUMBA WILL LIVE

“ DIE WELT”

F.R.Q.

For many Africans Lumumba will go on living as a martyr of his country’s freedom and the victim of an imperialist plot.

THE ADVENTURISTS’ PLANS FOILED

“ LA VOCE REPUBBLICANA ”

Italy

Lumiimbism is a political movement which cannot be elim- inated by the murder of its leader. The international le- gion of adventurists whom Tshombe is recruiting in France among the executioners of the Algerian people will hardly stand up against this movement.

HIS DEED IS A BANNER

“ KAYHAN ”

Iran

The name of Lumumba belongs now not to a single man but to all Black Africa. It has become a banner of struggle for independence.

177

THE CONGO’S ENEMIES STILL FEAR THE HERO

“ ES SABAH ”

Tunisia

Like many other leaders who have hecomc history, Lu- mumba still lives. Lumumha dead will he more dangerous for such as Tshombe and his colonialist masters than Lumum- ba alive.

TRUE SON OF HIS PEOPLE:

AN OBSTACLE TO THE COLONIALISTS

“ KUDRET "

Turkey

Lumumba, that true son of his people, stood in the way of the colonialists. The murder of Lumumba is the handiwork of bandits—the stooges of the colonialists in the Congo. The death of Lumumba will bury colonialism.

A BRAZEN ATROCITY

“ AKAHATA ”

Japan

The imperialists have inscribed a new page in the his- tory of the crimes which they have committed. The chief culprits of these crimes are the Belgian colonialists. How- ever, they would never have committed this murder so bra- zenly had they not been sure of the support of their NATO allies.

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HEAD HUNTING HAS BECOME A HIGHER FORM OF POLITICS FOR THE “CIVILISERS’’

"NEW YORK POST”

“The only practical thing to do,” said the quiet American to an after-dinner salon of other Americans, “is to put Lu- mumba out of the way. That will end the problem.”

That was three weeks ago, or just about the time Lumum- ba was, according to some reports, put to death in the pri- vacy of his prison, and two weeks before the Katangese an- nounced his murder by villagers after his “escape”. The quiet American was once a U.S. representative in that part of the African world and consequently the salon’s African expert. He has now had his practical solution and we have been properly shocked. (Even the Belgians have expressed a public shock of horror w'hile enjoying a more private shock of delight.) How hypocritical can we, the civilised, be? We have taught the Africans how to convert the prac- tices of tribal warfare into state policy, decked out in official statements to an assembled press. Thus head hunting has become a higher form of politics.... The quiet American has had his practical solution of the Congo problem—the elimina- tion of Lumumba. The moralist has been dismissed as the non-realist. We shall soon see whether the quiet one was right or whether the result will be a massive civil w’ar accom- panied by a massacre of all whites.

In either case, of course, the practical men will have clean hands or will have washed their hands of the whole business.

“What,” they have been saying, “can you expect from sav- ages?” But who have been the savages and who the civi- lised? On a street just off the Place de la Concorde, Col. Trinquier ... has been recruiting mercenaries for the Katanga army. It’s already quite an army, composed of Belgian, German and French professionals skilled in the art of dirty fighting and known to the local savages as The Ugly Ones. They make quite a black man’s burden.

179

.How many Frenchmen can honestly share a civilised shock at the hypocrisy and horror of Lumumba s murder, knowing that they have had before them for years the. r own case of Mau.-ice Audin, the Algerian professor re pored “missins in flight”, when alt the evidence points towards his dyingunder French torture? And the French have been civ- ilised for centuries.

LUMUMBA’S MURDERERS ARE IN THE WEST

Michel BOSQUET

“IJEXPRESS”

France

The machiiicitions have come to a head. The crime has been proved. In whose interests was it to have Lumumba

j 0

™ Lumumba was kidnapped, taken to Katanga and led through the local villages, the inhabitants of which were invited to beat the prisoner with whips and sticks in order to “wash away their sins and avert the evil spirit . Rumoure of Lumumba’s death had been current for over a month.

Who betrayed him? The evidence points to Mobutu, for- mer agent of the Belgian criminal investigation police.

Nevertheless, the writer of the article considers Mobutu to have been merely a tool in the murder of Lumumba. “Other people were interested in this murder, he says, “among them Maurice Delarue, adviser to the Brazzaville Government and now director of the Katanga secret police.

The mining and metallurgical companies (of Belgium), the article goes on to say, find it much more profitable to ship their produce by way of Portuguese Angola and Brit- ish Northern Rhodesia than by way of the river Congo, t is much more advantageous also to pay taxes to a sing e Katanga “state” and thus save wholly or partly million old francs which Katanga used to pay to the Central Government of the Congo. Therefore, the complete separa- tion of Katanga (which Tshombe is out to achieve) is part of the strategy of the mining companies, the framing o which the Belgian company Union Miniere du Haut-Kataiiga

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CHILDREN OF KASAI PROVINCE Living proofs of the chaos and ruin in the Congo caused by the treacherous activities of the Kasavubu-Mobutu clique

entrusted in December 1959 to ex-M.P. Waterbouse, an

ultranationalist Englisbiuan.

Those responsible for Luinuuiba s murder wanted to wm over to their side the “Western world”. In effect, according to the general opinion, the report of Ltimumba’s death was to provoke the e.xtermination by Lumumhi.st forces of about three thousand Belgians .still remaining in Kivu and Orien- lale Province. Belgian troops from Buanda-Urundi and from Katanga, supported by Mobutu’s army (whose staff, located in Brazzaville, is composed entirely of Belgians), w'ere to rush to the rescue of the three thousand Europeans....

“Thus,** writes Bosquet, “the colonial war of conquest would, according to the classical scheme, become a crusade in defence of the West, a crusade in which Fiance, Gieat Britain and the United States would be involved directly

or indirectly.” . .u- i i i a

Last December, at the moment when this plan was launched,

there were good chances of it succeeding. It was assured of benevolent neutrality on the part of the United States and support on the part of France. The United States screened the coup effected by Mobutu, whom they were inclined to regard as a “strong man”, wdio at the head of a military government would oppose the uncompromising nationalism

of Lumumba. • t m u

The United States also covered up the secession ot Ishom- he’s government which is advised, financed,^ armed and run by Belgian functionaries of the Union Miniere, w'hose elec- toral tricks brought him into power....

Katanga seceded in order to be free to continue arming and announced that it would fire upon the United Kations force if it tried to penetrate into its territory.

This threat at the time was sheer bluff. The Katangese troops were unreliable and lacked unity, and many African soldiers would have shot their Belgian officers in theback rather than shoot at the African soldiers of the United ISa- tions force. What is more, the United Nations could have forced Belgium, under pain of applying sanctions, to with- draw her soldiers and arms from Katanga. But no ultimatum to this effect was put to Belgium. France objected to it, and the United States look a neutral stand. Hammarskjolu capitulated....

1S‘Z

The United Nations defended the secession and reoccupa- tion of Katanga. Shortly afterwards it defended the coup made by Colonel Mobutu and the resumption of Belgian control in the political and military fields, for which Mo- bulii was merely a screen. The only political consequence of United Nations intervention was that it deprived Lu- mumba and his allies of Soviet technical aid, while at the same time providing freedom of action to those who supplied funds to his adversaries. Public opinion in many countries which were swept by a wave of stormy demonstrations out- side the Belgian embassies and consulates, was not mis- taken in this respect.

The writer of the article points out that “meantime, the authority of the Government of Gizenga, Lumumba’s’suc- cessor, steadily expanded”. Bosquet considers that “Lu- imiiubism, which is assured of military aid, in case of need, on the part of the more dynamic countries of the conti- nent (Guinea, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, the U.A.R.), was in- dubitably the embodiment of African emancipation, the future of Africa, the future of the Congo”.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, who is held morally responsible for the murder of Lumumba, writes the author, will find it difficult to hold his post in face of the boycott by the Soviets and the non-committed African republics. The United Nations mission has been a failure. The Soviet Union demands the withdrawal of the U. n'. force, Belgian troops and Katangese “legionaries”. The Government of Gizenga is assured the recognition of the neu- tralist and socialist countries. Pan-.\fricanisrn, afterseven months of civil and colonial w'ars, is winning a decisive victory in the Congo, and the United States, which has been too long covering up neo-colonialist operations during the Eisenhower set-up, has no other alternative but to curtail its lo.sses by refusing aid to the losers and switching it over to the future winner—the Government of Gizenga,

NATO: THE POWER BEHIND THESE

TSHOMBES

“ THE SPECTATOR ”

Great Britain

II is death means there can he no peace, no settlement in'Vhe'Congo-nol at least unlil ihe Tshonihes and the MobuUis have either themselves met violent ends, or been ousted.

♦ ♦ ♦

“The Spectator’ is only half right. Of coiii*se, the political set-up that is being implanted in Katanga mid Kasai, in Leopoldville and Equateur Province gives the gang of niurderei-s and thugs all the rope

also knows w ho has created and maintains the puppet cliques which are provoking bloodshed in

the Congo. . , . « i • u

The Tshombe regime is maintained by iSelgian bayo- nets bv the military aid of the whole colonialist West. ThereaVe 750 Belgian officers in the Katanga gendarm- erie. Tshombe's agents are recruiting more ‘Woluii- teei-s’" in Brussels and Paris, in Capetown and Salis-

Tlie Belgian military bases in the Congo after the proclamation of the republic's independence have become arsenals for the bands of Tshombe, Kaloiulji and Mobutu. Arms lielonging to the Force Publique—tanks, armoured cars, guns, planes, submachine-guns and ammunition—have been handed ^»er to Ikem. This was done w ith the connivance of the I iiited INa- tions Command. ‘‘Control” by the U.N. force over the large Belgian military base ol Kamina in Katanga means nothing in elfect. No foot of any Lnited Nations soldier has trod upon the NATO military base in Ki- tona near Portuguese Kabinda.

Tlie West organised an airlift for delivering military supplies to Katanga. According to the London “Daily

m

Mail”, between ,fuly 11 and September 8 last year as much as KM) tons of arms—mortars, submachine- guns and automatic rifles—were flown out to Elisa- bethville direct from Brussels. The supply of arms is being kept up in a steady stream. This was admitted in the report of General Kikhi, Hammarskjdld*s military adviser. Weapons are continuing to arrive via Brazzaville and Dar-es-Salaam, from the Union of South Africa and Ruanda- Urundi.

These weapons are now being used by the Tshombe- Kasavubu-Mobutu gangs to shoot all those who do not agree with the policy of dismemberment and provocations.

The world knows who is responsible for provoking war in the Congo. No one believes the inspired articles in the leading American newspapers concerning the ^‘stream of weapons” which is alleged to be pouring into Stanleyville from the United Arab Republic and other countries of Africa.

We remember how the 24th U.S. Infantry’ Division stationed in West Germany was alerted last July. We know that American transport planes Hercules C-130 carried out shuttle operations between Frankfurt- on-Main and the Congo.

While the Western delegates on the Security Council are sighing hypocritically over “the fate of 14 million sufTering Congolese” the transport planes of the U. S. Seven Seas Airlines are still touching down at the Elisabethville airport. These planes were chartered to carry U.N. troops, but they are transporting jet fighters to Tshombe made in France on Belgian ordeis.

The countries of the North Atlantic bloc are directly responsible for the Congolese tragedy, the end of which is not yet in sight. “The chaos that has been rife in the young African republic since July,** writes the influential “Ghana Times”, “is the handiwork of NATO, with the U.S.A. playing an ugly role in this affair.... The name of the U.S.A. is stained with the blood of the Congolese who have been killed since the beginning of the crisis in the Congo.”

ISO

The Wesleni states refuse to take etFective measures to put a stop to the agsfressioii of tijeir NATO partner. Wliat is more, as the facts now prove, tlierc exists a collective, if disguised, support of Belgium’s bank- rupt political and military policy in the Congo on the part of the NATO countries.

The Western policy-makei-s would, apparently, like the independent African countries to continue confining themselves to declarations and expressions of indignation at the expansion of Belgium’s and NATO's amied intervention against the Congo Bc- public, so long as it is only declarations. But it won’t wash, gentlemen! These are different times!

THE CYNICISM OF THE “FREE WORLD”

“ SCiNTEIA ”

Rumania

The cynicism and cruelty with which the murder of the Congolese people’s three leaders was planned and carried out in defiance of the world’s opinion show this crime to be an infamous piece of villainy on the part of dying colo- nialism.

Those whose hands are stained with the blood of the uni- versally respected leader of the Congolese people are scoun- drels; they are the puppets Tshombe, Mobutu and their like, who will stoop to any villainy for a few pieces of silver. But the real butchers, the chief culprits of this crime are their bosses—the Belgian colonialists and their NATO allies, who have been plundering the wealth of the Congo for scores of years, and who, in order to preserve their privileges and domination in that country, did not hesitate to start open aggression against it.

The murder of Lumumba and his associates strikingly exposes the hypocrisy of the imperialist advocates, who hold forth in the United Nations and shout from the house- tops about “human rights”, about “observing the law” and about their “generosity” towards the countries who are striv- ing after national independence.

m

At this crucial stage in the Congolese drama (he chief responsil)ility rests with the Secretary-General of the Unit- ed Nations and the U.N. Command. Instead of carrying out the obligations imposed upon them by the decisions of the Security Council, Hammarskjbid and his representa- tives in the Congo served as a screen for the colonialists, acted as their accomplices. The U.N. Secretary-General and his representatives in the Congo did nothing to prevent the abominable and barbarous crimes against the three Con- golese patriots.

IMPERIALISM IS THE MURDERER OF PATRICE LUMUMBA

From a speech by President NASSER

U.A.R.

“Responsibility for what has happened in the Congo we lay at the door of imperialism. In helping the Congolese people, who are fighting for their freedom, we are raising aloft the banner of liberty.... If the Congo falls, this will enable imperialism to continue its intrigues to the extent of suppre.ssing other countries who are aspiring towards freedom.”

Referring to the dastardly murder of Congo’s Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, President Nasser said that Lumumba’s chief executioner was Tshombe. “Next comes Kasavubu, agent number one of imperialism, behind whom, in turn, stands imperialism.”

The President of the U.A.R. stated that Kasavubu, who had unlawfully seized power in the Congo, dissolved Parliament, liquidated the legal Government of the Congo and subordinated the country to imperialism, enjoy^ed the support of the United States. “If the U.S.A. supports Ka- savubu after the murder of Lumumba, that clearly signifies that it is an accomplice in Kasavubu’s heinous crime. That is the only way we can see it....” Imperialism, declared Nasser, “is out to liquidate the freedom of the Congo and take over control of the country.... The United Nations sent troops to the Congo, but they were used against Lumum-

1S7

ba. After Lumumba was arrested, tbe U. N. force went away, giving tbe agents of imperialism a free band to liquidate the patriots. How can we be silent when imperialism and its stooges are killing patriots, the true sons of the people?

“If the agents of imperialism and imperialism itself are done away with, the banners of freedom will he rai.sed and genuine peace, based on justice, for which we are striving, will be established,” President Na.sser said in conclusion. ‘That is why w’e support the Congolese people in their strug- gle for freedom and independence.”

THE WATCH ~DA6

M. STURUA

Who is he?

His friends (oddly enough, he has them!) answered Ihis question variedly.

“Dag?” some of them queried. “Why, he’s a typical snob! You should hear the way he quotes Rainer Maria Rilke and Thomas Eliot, how he savours the refined psychologism of Proust. And his prose, modelled after the style of the great Frenchmen? And the unique collection of Braques, Picassos and Matisses adorning his bachelor apartment, the masterpieces of the abstractionists on which he spends the greater part of a U.N. Secretary^-General’s astronomical salary? Say what you like, but Dag’s a typical snob. We say nothing about the time Dag was working in the Swedish Foreign Ministry, when he was considered the smartest man about town. Nobody could wear a suit, a hat and bow-ties the way he did.”

“Dag a snob?” others protested. “Who gave you that idea? Dag’s a typical ascetic, a child of nature. Take his solitary outings in the mountains, his hiking jaunts through the alpine meadows with a rucksack on his back, during which he cooked his own meals on a primus stove. And his con- firmed bachelor habits, his unhappy first love and subsequent misogynic tendencies? No wonder when asked today about his attitude towards the gentle sex, Dag answers with a wry smile, ‘I’m married to the world.’ Say what you like, but Dag’s a typical ascetic.”

Then suddenly we learn that Dag is neither a snob nor an ascetic, but just an ordinary flunkey of the colonialists, a criminal, a murderer. To be sure, it wasn’t his friends who told us this. We got it from the blood-curdling tragedy that was enacted in the jungles of Katanga. Hammar- skjold’s hands, the same well-groomed hands that turn over the leaves of the elegant volumes of Rilke and Eliot, were stained with the blood of Lumumba and his associates. The votary of abstract art turned out to be a master of concrete killings.

1S9

One is reminded of those ghouls in ITillor’s death camps, who, after sending ofT a regular party of victims lo the death vans or to the incinerators, came home to engage in the most innocent pursuits: some to carpenter bird-houses, some to embroider cushions and others to grapple with the traii- scendenlal postulates of Kant’s philosophy or, scenting them- selves to kill the smell of singed human hair, to delight in the inner music of Stefan George’s staccato stanzas. Is it not symbolic that one of Hitler’s most brutal S.S. units bore the name of edehveiss, a delicate alpine flower? Mr. Dag Hammarskjdld, we should remember, also loved to ramble about the alpine meadows!

But the snob and ascetic did not become a flunkey of the colonialists all of a sudden. This w^as the natural crown- ing of his career, the natural evolution of his character.

To begin with, in many ways he took after his father Hjalmar wdio w-as Prime Minister of Sweden during the First World War. Hjalmar’s cruelty was a byword. No won- der he was nicknamed Hjalmar Hungerskjold. Yet Hammar- skjdld senior, too, had had snobbish proclivities and literary ambitions—he had translated the Spanish lyric poets and WTitten poetry in the style of early German romanticism. “Cruelty and gentleness were remarkably combined in him,” Hjalinar’s contemporaries said of him.

Like father like son. Indeed, Dag Hammarskjdld stepped into his father’s boots as member of the Swedish Royal Academy, where he occupied a high-backed chair marked No. 17 with a sign “Statesman” on it. The solemn act of ini- tiation took place at the rococo palace on the Stortorget (Market Square) in the pre.sence of the royal family. Accord* ing to the tradition a lighted taper and a glass of water stood in front of the chair.

Already at the dawn of his political career Dag Hain- marskjdld had grasped two maxims, which were to be- come his political credo. First, lo be ahvays on the side of the strongest, the powers that be. Second, never to say what you think. Gdsta Ykskyl, who knew' Hammarskjdld well, WTote in the Swiss new'spaper Die. Tat: “Dag never belongs to any opposition. He ahvays has the weight of ‘prevailing opinion behind him'. Dag’s opinion is that of the powers that be.”

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Jailer-General

CARTOON BY KUKRYNIKSY

(Hammarskjdld with U,A, Charter)

In 1936, for instance, when I he scales were l ipped in favour of the Social-Democrats in Sweden, llanimarskjold, who always trimmed his sails to the wind, joined the labour government without hesitation. Even his conservative friends were shocked and began shouting about Dag’s “opportunism”, about his having forgotten that he was a baron, the scion of a family which had been raised to the nobility by no less a person than Charles IX as far back as the year 1610. Dag parried these accusations by saying coolly; “My friends, you forget that I am a liberal conservative.”

The “liberal conservative” knew the art of keeping his mouth shut, as though he had the Royal Academy’s tradi- tional glass of water in it as a sort of permanent fixture. His flow^ery phrases were meant to conceal their meaning- lessness. According to his schoolmates, a fitting epigraph lo the work he presented for his diploma would have been the following w^ords from Through the Looking-Glass:'*’ ‘I could have used bigger words,’ said the Red Queen with infinite pride.” When one of his colleagues tried to read the thesis he ran into an absolutely unintelligible passage and asked its author to explain it. Dag became deep in his reading, but after several minutes he said: “I don’t understand it myself.”

One thing he did understand, though, and that was Bismarck’s precept that a diplomat’s tongue w^as given him to hide his thoughts. His interviews, complained the Sw^ed- ish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, consist of platitudes and massive banalities. One journalist complained that of all politicians Hammarskjöld was the most difficult to quote. Another said that an analysis of Hammarskjöld’s purple patches revealed the fact that in an hour’s speaking he con- trived to say nothing at all. Hammarskjöld himself was fond of repeating: ‘The Secretary-General should be seen but not heard.”

It is to this quality of his—devotion to the powers that be and an ability to conceal his thoughts—that Hammar- skjold largely owes his election to the post of Secretary- General. The West German magazine Der Spiegel frankly wrote that because ot his reticence Hammarskjöld showed up to advantage compared with his Norwegian predecessor Trygve Lie, who had the manners of a loud-mouthed tout and demagogue. The more refined Dag promised to do a

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cleaner job than the blustering T rygve Lie. He was an expert on compromise, Der Spiegel avowed.

At first Hammarskjöld lived up to this description. He modestly called himself the “head clerk in the world’s office”, invariably referred not to his own opinion but to the opinion of “headquarters” and proclaimed universal com- promise as his purpose. But gradually Hammarskjöld, the slippery eel, began to show up in his true colours. Yes, he was a head clerk, but curiously like the one in Chekhov’s story, who. for the sake of a sinecure, was prepared to run round his desk and crow like a cock in order to^ please his master. It soon became clear that the opinion of “headquar- ters” implied the opinion of the U.S. State Department, into a branch of which Hammarskjdld was trying to convert the United Nations. At last it became clear that Dag had concluded the greatest of all compromises with his con- science, if he had one.

An aristocrat by blood and a toady by calling, he hates the people, the working masses with all the fibres of his raean little soul. Once, on a sudden frank impulse Hammarskjöld, forgetting the Bismarckian precept, blurted out: “Peoples are made to be ruled.” The head clerk of the State Department is perfectly well aware that he has no one to rule except the typists and stenographers of the U.N. That is why he has attached himself like a barnacle to the powers that be-the monopolies—and beguiles himself with the illusion of powder.

Even a cursory review of his activities as Secretary^- General of the U.N. leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind that Dag. in defiance of the U.N. Charter, dances to the tune of the Western Powers whose interests he serves.

At the Tenth Session of the U.N. General Assembly Hammarskjöld sided openly with the colonialists. He pre- sented himself at the meeting of the Committee on Socic^ Questions on October 11, 1955, which was examining a draft convention on human rights, and reeled off a speech against including in this convention the right of nations to self- determination.

The same year Hammarskjöld flew to China where he acted in the capacity of American advocate on behalf of the eleven air spies who were sentenced by a court of justice of the Chinese People’s Republic. He also opposed the

193

Gonova Summit Conference, declaring that the only real foundalion of peace was the atom homh.

In lySl), Hammai’skjold did his hit towards whipping up the so-called “Hungarian (jiiestioir*. Overstepping his ad- ministrative functions, he fell over backwards in his attempt to put through unlawful resolutions directed against the Hungarian People’s Republic and the Soviet Union. His heart heat in unison with the counter-revolutionaries and the fascist putschists. But it all but ceased beating when it came to stopping Anglo-French-Israeli aggression against Egypt.

It was the same in the Syrian conflict and during American and British intervention against the Lebanon and Jordan. Hastening to the rescue of the American marines stranded in the sands of the Lebanon, he tried to supplant them by a police corps under the mask of the United Nations. When the Security Council found itself paralysed by the Anglo- American veto, Hammarskjöld grandiloquently declared: ‘The Secretary-General will take action without the sanction of the Assembly or the Security Council should he consider it necessary to help filling any vacuum that may arise in the peace and security systems.... This will mean a further extension of the activities of the U.N. observation group in the Lebanon.”

Hammarskjöld, as usual, tried to spread a verbal fog, but a single ill-chosen word gave him away at once. The word was “vacuum’\ The world had not forgotten theEisen- hower-Dulles Doctrine, which called for the filling of all possible vacuums that formed in those places in the Middle East where the peoples were hitting back at the colonialists. The filling of vacuums, translated into ordinary language, would mean replacing the old colonialism by a new, Ameri- can, colonialism. It was desirable that this replacement should be effected with the aid of a U.N. screen. And Dag Hammarskjöld frantically went to work making it.

He worked just as frantically to get a U.N. international force set up, the very same “peace force” which the ill- starred United States President Eisenhower had dreamt of. In effect, it was an attempt to use mercenaries for achiev- ing colonialist aggressive aims which had nothing in common with the aims and principles of the U.N. Charter. Apparenl-

m

ly, Dag Hamrnarskjiild could not get over Trygve Lie’s experiment in Korea and was determined at any cost to go one better. And go one better he did in the Congo.

You remember him saying that he was married to the world? We don’t know about his intimate attachments, but his political liaisons—as we have now seen for ourselves—are of a definitely one-sided character.

Thus, Hammarskjöld admits West German revanchists and Syngman Rhee riff-raff into the U.N. in the capacity of observers, while he hangs a huge padlock on the gate of the skyscraper on East River to keep out the representatives of the G.D.R. and the Korean People’s Democratic Republic. When the stooges of imperialism and the cat’s-paws of SEATO brewed a bloody mess in Laos, Hammarskjöld went to the trouble of flying out to Vientiane to take them under his protection and stormed and raved against the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam. When the U.N discussed the fate of the Gaza area in Palestine and the Gulf of Aqaba question, Dag barked at the Egyptian sphinx and offered a prayer in honour of Tel-Aviv and its transatlantic patrons.

And so the malady has been accurately diagnosed: Dag Hammarskjöld is suffering from a dangerous form of political distemper.

This malady has assumed disastrous proportions in connec- tion with events in the Congo. Faced with a desperate dilemma, Dag Hammarskjöld threw off the mask of impar- tiality and revealed his true features. The head clerk became a hangman.

Dag had a direct hand in the writing of the tragic Odys- sey of the Congolese nation. His style no longer reveals traces of the influence of Rilke or Eliot, but now smacks strongly of the Compagnie generate du Congo and the Union Miniere. Dag Hammarskjöld put his well-groomed hand to the dismemberment of the Republic of the Congo. Mindful of the colonialist motto “divide and rule”, Dag provocatively ignored the lawful Government of Patrice Lumumba, thereby opening the floodgates of separatism and encouraging Tshom- be, Kalondji, Mobutu, Kasavubu and other traitors and hired

assassins. i c i

Hammarskjöld’s visit to the Congo played a truly fatal role in the destinies of that much-suffering country and its

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finest sons. Never had Ihe prestige of the United Nations fallen so low through the fault of its Secretary-General. Landing in Leopoldville with his retinue of 220 Swedish soldiers wearing U.N. stripes, he did not even take the trouble of paying a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Lu- mumba. The next morning he set his course for Elisabeth- ville to meet Tshombe.

There Dag underwent a transformation. Once more he was a model of urbanity and good breeding. Before the face of the whole world this first servant of the United Nations made obeisance to a dirty piece of material called “the flag of independent Katanga’'. Under this flag he drove about with Tshombe in the latter’s limousine. Only at the last moment did it occur to one of his secretaries to pull a rumpled blue U.N. flag out of his pocket which their generous host—Moise Tshombe—graciously permitted to be attached next to his “presidential” colours.

Hammarskjdld’s retinue of Swedish soldiers was put up at Saint-Gregoire-!e-Grand College, belonging to the Benedictine monks, while Dag himself was accommodated at the villa of the Belgian Union Miniere. By an irony of fate, the room in which he spent the night was papered blue, and two white telephones stood on the bedside table. But the blue wallpaper awoke no voice of conscience, which re- quired that the Secretary-General should he true to the blue flag of the United Nations, and he used the white telephones to arrange his shady affairs. The Western press agencies in those days reported that every one of the villa’s five rooms had a bath. But, as one journalist aptly remarked, not in all these baths taken together could Mr. Hammarskjöld wash off the dirt he had wallowed in when folding the traitor Tshombe to his bosom.

Things went from bad to worse. The remorseless logic of political metamorphosis turned the colonialists’ accom- plice into a full-fledged criminal, turned the advocate of imperialism into a vulgar murderer. It was once said of Hammarskjöld that one could merely guess at his thoughts and beliefs hy the disdainful droop of his mouth. Now it is enough to glance at his blood-stained hands. The il- legal arrest of Lumumba by the Kasavuhu-Mobutu thugs was virtually sanctioned by Hamrnarskjbld’s staff. With his

m

Dag and his nurseling Gat

(The Inscription: U.N, Flag)

Prime Minister of the Congo Patrice Lumumba and his two asso- ciates were murdered by the Belgian captain Julien Gat of Tshombe ’s body-guard

Gat, they say, goes in for murder.

Yet the meek and timid Dag Cloaks the bloody Belgian monster Jn the sky- blue UNO flag.

S. MAliSJIAK

kno\vl('dgc and coiis(Mil liis assislant,llio American R. Rnnrho, wired Kasavnbu lo make short work of dissidonis and eslablish a slrong-inan regime. Kasavnbu was no fool. lie look the cue immediately. The role of the “strong man” was assumed by ex-Belgian nark Mobutu, and the dissident Lumumba was imprisoned in the Thysville camp.

But the Thysville cage was not secure enough and Kasa- vubu decided to hand Lumumba over to his deadliest enemy Tshombe. The whole tragedy was enacted by the book before the eyes of the world. The colonialists and their agents insolently defied international law and public morality and made a mockery of the decisions and Charter of the U.N., while the Secretary-General of that organisation did every- thing he could to prevent anyone from averting the Congolese tragedy.

The storm burst at last. Playing the old “e.^^cape” game, Lumumba’s executioners put the patriot out of the way. A Belgian captain of Tshombe’s secret police by the name of Julien Gat shot Lumumba and his faithful companions Okito and Mpolo.

And what was Hammarskjdld doing? He knew of the dark deed that was being planned and did everything in his power to obstruct the w^ork of the Security Council, whose effective intervention he feared. Moreover, when Lumumba was al- ready killed, he joined Tshombe in the dirty game of stag- ing the flight version. According to an Associated Press report, Thomas Kanza, a spokesman of the lawful Congolese Government, staled in his address to the Harvard University undergraduates on February 16 that Hammarskjöld had known about Lumumba’s murder long before it was made public, but had kept silent about it. Yet Dag had hypocrit- ically demanded the release of the dead man!

Now Hammarskjöld has found himself a new occupation. He makes pharisaically indignant speeches from the United Nations rostrum, sheds crocodile tears and hypocrit- ically demands that the culprits should be punished. The world has not witnessed such a repellent spectacle fora long lime. Like Pontius IMlale Dag i.s trying in vain to wa.sh his hands of the affair. The blood on them will not be washed off either by crocodile tears or French perfum- ery.

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The whole world condemns this high-ranking murderer with the blue stripes and the black soul. During a protest demonstration outside the U.N. building in New York, the people chanted: “Syndicate of murderers—Hammarskjdld, Tshombe, Ka.savubu, Mobutu!” “Who should be kicked out? Dag Hammarskjöld!” And many people pronounced Dag like Dog.

Dag now comes to the U.N. building closely surrounded by a posse of body-guards. The fear of Nemesis haunts him. No wonder he has a bad conscience.

Strictly speaking, Hammarskjöld politically has been a dead man for quite a time. His corpse is decomposing before our very eyes. The Soviet Union and many other countries have refused to have any dealings with him, have refused to recognise him as an officer of the United Nations. The Soviet Government has demanded his removal from the post of Secretary-General on the grounds that he is an accom- plice and organiser of the gruesome plot against the leading statesmen of the Congo, who has sullied the name of the United Nations. This demand is supported by honest people all over the world.

The Sw^edish press is looking out for a new job for Dag in the event of his dismissal. The Stockholm Aftonbladet deplores the fact that he pledged himself, in accordance with tradition, not to engage in politics at home for a period of five years after his resignation. And so, neutral jobs are being sought for him—a professorial chair in a university, the post of bank manager, the head of a tourist agency (seeing his love of mountain climbing), and so on. But all are agreed on one thing—that “Hammarskjöld’s continued tenure of his present office would be a paradox”, as the French newspaper Combat expresses it.

There are people in the West, though, who w ould like to perpetuate this unnatural paradox. One cannot read with- out a sense of violent protest, without a feeling of profound revulsion, how the representatives of the colonial powers go out of their way to express their “confidence” in Hammar- skjold. The British representative, describing Hammar- skjold’s merits, went so far as to say that his actions in the Congo were “talented”.

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Talented actions? Well, well, a talented murderer is doubly a murderer.

Speaking one day at a meeting of the General Assembly llammarskjdld let fall a high-flown phrase to the effect that he had a good compass and knew where to steer. His- tory has shown that Dag’s compass had a criminal aberra- tion«

Chapter 6

THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS BLAZE IN WRATH THE SOVIET PEOPLE AS ONE MAN DEMAND; BRING THE VILE MURDERERS TO JUDGEMENT!

A mighty tide of wrathful protest sweeps the streets of Accra and Moscow, of Cairo and London, Bamako and Prague, Colombo and Paris, Delhi and Havana. Its tre- mendous force is directed against the criminals who brought about the foul murder of Patrice Lumumba, Congolese Premier and national hero, and of his fellow- fighters Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo.

There is not on our globe—there cannot be—an honest man or woman whose heart does not brim over with grief and indignation. Wrath grips the world. And that is easily understood. An international crime has been committed, committed methodically, in cold blood; and it is not the black flag of piracy that the criminals flaunt, but the blue banner of the United Nations.

The Statement of the Soviet Government in connection with the murder of Patrice Lumumba points with the utmost clarity to those guilty of the tragic death of this noble son of Africa and expresses the demands of the entire Soviet people. This statement has evoked great satisfaction among broad sections of interna- tional public opinion. It will be included, beyond all doubt, in the indictment presented to the court of history that one day will pass judgement upon colo- nialism.

7-1728

201

The imirder of Patriee Luimiinba is the work of the colonialists, who have repeatedly resorted to physical annihilation of leadei-s of the national-lihcration inoveinent in the countries of Asia and Africa.

Brinsi^ the inurderei*s to justice!

Above all othei's, it is the Bcl^nan colonialists who bear the responsibility for the tragic death of laimumha and his fellow-fightei*s. As everyone knows, the Province of Katanga, to which the imprisoned Congolese leaders were transferred, is entirely under Belgian control, the puppet Tshombe being maintained on Belgian money and propped by Belgian bayonets. The colo- nialists and their contemptible lackeys—Mobutu, Tshombe and Kasavubu—hated Lumumba mortally and did away with him as soon as he was in their hands.

In vain does the Belgian Government attempt to create the impression that it had nothing to do with the murder of the Congolese people's hero. It is not just any Belgians, after all, that function in Katan- ga. It is officeis of the Belgian army and officials of Belgian state institutions. As to the “civilising” mission of the Belgian authorities, that has been manifested clearly enough, and not only in the Congo but at home in Belgium as well. The world has not forgotten the workers' blood that was shed in the streets of the Belgian cities during the recent general strike. Those who ordered gun-fire against the Belgian working people have never been wont to spare bullets against the patriots of the Congo.

But, as anyone can see, the Belgian colonialists would never have dared undertake this crime in the Congo had they not had the support of their allies in the North Atlantic bloc. From the day that the Con- go's independence was proclaimed, the coalition of colonial powers encouraged the Belgians in their schemes to destroy this independence, to split up the Congo and continue plundering her. The governments of the Western Powers thwarted every proposal, every measure, calculated to stop the Belgian aggression against the Congo, and did everything they could to

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undermine the work of the legitimate government, headed by Lumumba, and of the Congolese Parliament. And so, Belgium's allies, too, share her grim respon- sibility for the murder of Patrice Lumumba.

Confronted by the mighty rise of the national-libera- tion movement in Africa, the colonialists have begun—as in the Congo—to use the flag of the United Nations to screen imperialist aggression directed toward the preservation of colonialism. To this the peoples will never consent. It is time an end was put to the use of the flag of the United Nations in evil cause.

With loathing and contempt, the world names among the killers of Patrice Lumumba that Judas—Hammar- skjdld. There is no measure, truly, to the baseness of this vile menial whom the colonialists have bought for thirty pieces of silver.

The Congo's Prime Minister has been killed; but the lawful Government of the Republic of the Congo, headed by Antoine Gizenga, carries on the struggle for freedom and independence. And the government is supported by the people. Frightened by this support, the Belgian interventionists and their puppets have launched a military campaign against the stronghold of independence in Stanleyville.

The honour of the peoples of Africa and of all the world demands that they defend the freedom of the Congo, that they do not permit her to be drowned in blood. F]very assistance and support must be accorded to the national government at Stanleyville.

The Soviet Government regards such assistance as the sacred duty of all freedom-loving states. It is pre- pared, jointly with other states friendly to the Republic of the Congo, to accord all possible assistance and support to the Congolese people and their lawful government.

Patrice Lumumba has been killed; but the people of the Congo are fighting on, advancing to the victory of the just cause of freedom and independence. The blood of Patrice Luiniimba will become the banner of the Congolese people in their struggle.

Pravda, February 16, 1961

7 ^

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UNANIMOUS APPROVAL OF THE STATEMENT OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT

SOVIET MEN AND WOMEN FIRMLY DECLARE at MEETINGS:

V. NESTEROV,

Grinder, Moscow Watch Factory

I heartily approve our government’s statement. Tshombe and Mobutu should be arrested immediately and brought to trial. Their bandit gangs must be disarmed. Out of the Congo with the colonialists!

Milkmaid T. A. SEMYONOVA,

Hero of Socialist Labour,

Red Dawn Collective Farm,

Dedovichl District,

Pskov Region

I’m a rank-and-file village woman. I lost my husband in the last war. I have an only son, the joy and treasure of my life, and I don’t want to lose him in a new war. Mr. Hammarskjöld does more to promote war than peace. It was with his connivance that the butchers of the Congolese people did to death the freedom fighter Patrice Lumumba.

Mr. Hammarskjöld has soiled himself with blood. If he has children, how can he look them in the face? And how, after this, can he be trusted to hold his high position in the United Nations? The butcher must be punished!

Academician N. M. SISAKYAN

Patrice Lumumba is a symbol of the rightful struggle for liberation not only of the people of the Congo, hut of all peoples fighting for independence. The imperialists will

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not succeed in intimidating the freedom-loving continent of Africa. Right is on the side of those who have caught up the banner which Patrice Lumumba bore until his villainous murder.

Telegram from

the PCHELINTSEV family,

Nikola yev ^

Indignant at murder of Lumumba and his fellow- fighters. We cry shame on the Belgian colonialists. Would like to give a home to orphaned children of Congolese patriots.

K. PODOLYAN,

librarian,

Kishinev

I should like to give a home to a child of one of the Congo- lese patriots fallen in the struggle for a free and independent Congo. We can provide the child with all he needs.

LET JUDGEMENT BE PRONOUNCED!

Far off in the jungles of Katanga, life has ended and im- mortality set in for Patrice Lumumba, hero of the nation- al-liberation movement in Africa. In sombre silence, the peoples bow their heads in memory of the Congolese Danko, whose bleeding heart lit up the dark continent from coast to coast.

Wrath blazes in the hearts of Soviet men and women. And it is in their name that the Soviet Government has issued its Statement in connection with the murder of Patrice Lumumba.

We do not know as yet who it was that struck the final blow, ending the tragic Odyssey of Patrice i.umuinba. But we do know who it was that guided the murderers' hands. The blood-stained trail leads back to the huge Belgian

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iiioiiopolios—to the I iiion Miniere, to the Compa^nic ^eiurale clu Conu'o, to the llothseliilds. It was they—past inastei's in the art of weaviiu? the Brussels laee of intrij^rue ami conspiracy—who locked their souls to the voice of conscience and threw open their purses to willing merce- naries.

But the trail of blood does not stop there. The Belj^ian colonialists would not have dared so to challenge world public opinion had they not felt the support of tlieir dear allies—of a reicular coalition of colonial powers, united on the principle of hand wash hand into all sorts of ajij«jressive groupings.

The trail of blood leads, further, to the United Nations—to that organisation's so-called Secretary-General, Dag Ilaininarskjdld. This lackey of the colonialists has stained the blue colours of the United Nations with shame indelible. The grim meaning behind the tactics of delay and procrasti- nation to which he resorted in the Security Council is now entirely clear. He was waiting for the fuse of the planned killing to burn down to the charge. In those fearful hours when the leaders of the Congolese people were seized by the hirelings of the Belgian colonialists, when they were thrown into prison, subjected to inhuman treatment—that polished ‘•gentleman”, Dag Hainmarskjdld, did not lift a finger to save their lives. And now he mumbles hypocritical for- mulae about “inquiry”, in an attempt to save what he has never owned—his good name. It will do you no good, Mr. Hammarskjhld, to try to wash your hands like Pontius Pilate. Your hands are stained in the blood of Patrice Lumumba and nothing can remove that stain!

And, finally, the trail of blood leads to those despicable puppets of the colonialists, the Kasavubus, Mobuius, Tshom- bes, Kalondjis, Ileos and the like scum—traitors, adven- turers, outcasts. For thirty pieces of silver, devaluated into American dollars, they carried out the evil deed. For them, too, the day of reckoning will come.

The murder of Lumumba and his fellow-fighters is an act of desperation on the part of decaying colonialism—a sign not of strength, but of weaknCvSS.

The national-libc^ration movement of the peoples of the Congo, the peoples of Africa, the peoples of all the world,

m

cannot be killed, cannot be drowned in blood, cannot be trampled in the dust. It is unconquerable, immortal; it will be victorious. The Prime Minister of the Congo has been killed—but the lawful government of the republic, headed by* Deputy Premier Antoine Gizenga, continues to function. It has the support of the entire people. The banner of liberty waves proudly over Stanleyville.

The blood of Patrice Lumumba calls not only for venge- ance. It calls upon the peoples to be on their guard against the insidious plotting of the colonialists, who brazenly disregard all standards of international law and ethics and make a mock of the decisions and Charter of the U.N. Vig- ilance now is more essential than ever. It must be constantly remembered that the threat of aggression is gathering over Stanleyville. The honour of the peoples of Africa, of the peoples of all the world, demands that they do not permit freedom to be drowned in blood.

The wrathful and determined words of the Statement issued by the Soviet Government come from the heart of the entire Soviet people.

The puppet Katanga Minister of the Interior, speaking at a press conference in Elisabethville, refused to reply to questions as to where Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito had been buried. The graves would be kept secret, he said, to prevent their becoming a place of pilgrimage. Wretched clown! It is beyond his power to understand that the people never forget heroes who have laid down their splendid lives in the cause of freedom!

Wrath and hatred flame in the hearts of all honest men and women on this earth. The peoples have already set up in their hearts the monument that one day will stand on the as yet iinfound grave of Lumumba—dauntless fighter for the new, independent Africa.

Izvestia, February 15, 19G1

WHAT IS THIS WE WITNESS, PEOPLE OF OUR PLANET?

Leonid SOBOLEV

What is this we witness, people of our planet?

What is this we witness—tell me, people of the multitude of nations so long united in that seemingly mighty and noble organisation called the United NationsI Why was it set up, this organisation, and why are vast sums of money spent on the upkeep of its machinery and its troops, if, in the proof, it cannot so much as save the life of a man for whose well- being millions of men and women the world over have been so deeply concerned? Can it be that a handful of political bandits, dangling a lure of eight thousand dollars, and a hand- ful of murderers caught by this lure, were stronger than the vast U.N. machinery, stronger than the special U.N. troops dispatched to Africa, stronger than the U.N. Secre- tary-General—Dag Hammarskjöld?

It would be a different story had he not been warned, had he not known for months that the life of that devoted patriot, Patrice Lumumba, hung by a hair. But he knew it all so welll Time and again, loud voices from many lands had warned Hammarskjöld that Lumumba was in danger, that he was being beaten, that he was being ill- treated, that he had been thrown into prison, that he would surely he killed.

What excuse is there for Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary- General of the United Nations? None whatever!

He knew all that was going on. Entrusted with the honour of the world-wide organisation of nations, he not only failed this trust—more, he openly betrayed it. He became the accomplice of the villains, w'ho bought still other villains—the actual murderers. He gave his services to those who had heaped up monstrous capital by plundeinng the Congo, and had no desire to give up the possibility of continued plunder.

The clues to this vile murder lead upward. They join somewhere away up at the top level of big capital, at the top level of the Belgian concerns, in the .secret plans of the Belgian ministries that cater to these concerns.

No, not tears—wrath rises in the hearts of all honest men and women on our planet. There have been monstrous crimes in our planet’s history. There have been murders com- mitted in palaces and in cloisters; there have been the poi- sons of the Borgias and the daggers of the Venetian bravos, the torture-chain hers of the Inquisition and the bullets of the S.S. But all that happened before the founding of that world-wide organisation, conceived as the tremendous triumph of international humanism, of international intel- ligence and conscience—the United Nations.

That organisation’s Secretary -General, Dag Hammar- skjold, must now answer for Lumumba’s blood. His words are honey-sweet, but his hands are stained with blood, and no one can clear him—not its one-time majesty, internation- al capital, now losing jewel after jewel, colony after colony, from its crown; no Belgian concerns, eager to keep the Congo in slavery, nor yet the Belgian statesmen. Mobutu and Tshom- be, too, must answer—those bandits who killed the head of the lawful Government of the Congo, the hero of this he- roic country.

The time is not far off when the free Congo will erect a monument to Patrice Lumumba, hero of the twentieth century—the century in which colonialism will have been wiped out for all time to come. And those who come to honour this monument will recall with scorching contempt the name of Dag Hammarskjöld, who brought shame not only upon himself, but upon the great work that all mankind had designed.

HE LIVES IN OUR HEARTS

V. MAYEVSKY

Patrice Lumumba....

People who have met him will remember him always—this tall African, with his thick horn-rirnmed glasses and his little beard; will remember his smile, the least bit ironic, and the least bit sad, his quiet voice and restrained ges- tures. llis enemies spared no effort to paint him as the next thing to a vampire. But in reality he attracted and won

210

1 fi.gli di Lumumba non sanno niente

Caro papa come stai?

4Ajt Km. f urvn/»ni/i^

t yt VTV'

w

This letter was written from Cairo by Lumumba's nine- year-old son Frangois: “Papa, I miss you. Write to me soon. How are you, and what are you doing? How are Roland and Mama?... I embrace and love you.” Lumumba never read this letter. He was murdered before it was written.

hearts by his true modesty, simplicity, sociability. Tn those August days of 1900 wo saw him iu tho streets of Leopold- ville, surrounded by enthusiastic crowds; heard his speeches at press conferences and had the chance to talk with him and to press his manly hand.

And now—these tidings of the foul murder of Lumumba and his fellow-fighters—tidings that might have been ex- pected at any moment, yet in the possibility of which we w'ere so reluctant to believe.

The barbarous colonial system is on the verge of complete and final collapse. Crushing blows have been dealt the colo- nialists in Asia, and the soil of Africa is ablaze beneath their feet. The imperialists of Britain, France, Belgium, Portu- gal, supported by the North Atlantic bloc, stop at nothing in their vain endeavours to retain at least a part of what they once controlled. They have rushed hundreds of thou- sands of French soldiers, armed to the teeth, into Algeria, They are trampling the rights of the peoples of Kenya and Uganda. They are shooting down patriots in Angola and Mozambique. And the use of terrorism against the national leaders of the Asian and African countries has become one of their habitual methods.

The peoples have not forgotten the villainous attempts upon the life of President Sukarno in Indonesia; the tragic death of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Ceylon; the treacherous murder of Felix Moumie, heroic fighter for the freedom and independence of theCameroons. And now the enemies of Africa’s freedom and independence have killed Patrice Lumumba—have killed him because there was no measure for the hatred which this heroic son of the Congo aroused in them.

Patrice Lumumba thwarted the crafty plan by which the Belgian monopolies had hoped to retain the colonial regime in the Congo unimpaired under a veil of fictitious independ- ence.

Fearlessly repudiating the schemes of the Belgian oppres- sors, the Congolese Premier, supported by the Parliament and the people, set about consolidating independ- ence of his country. This the colonialists could not forgive. They spared no effort to bring about chaos in the Congo. With the assistance of such traitors to the people as Kasa-

212

vubu, Mobutu and the like, they blocked tbe exercise of Lumumba’s powers and threw him into prison.

And this man who had believed that the sufferings of the Congolese people were ended now endured new torment in his fight for the victory of his just cause. Patrice Lumumba died the death of a hero, true to his cau.se to the last breath.

The Belgian colonialists’ puppets in Katanga try to clear themselves with all sorts of lying tales about the circum- stances of Lumumba’s death. The New York Times and New York Herald Tribune, after their sinister campaign of in- citement to the murder of Lumumba, now industriously spread Tshombe’s lies, and for their own part brazenly de- clare that Lumumba’s death was the fault of none other than Lumumba himself—whom the New York Times describes as agitator and trouble-maker. But no one is fooled by this malicious slander from people who have lost all semblance of honour and conscience.

The peoples know who killed Patrice Lumumba and his fellow-fighters.

They were killed hy the Belgian colonialists—patrons and counsellors of the puppet regime in Katanga. Disregarding the will of the Congolese people and the decisions of the Security Council of the United Nations, the colonialists are attempting by force to retain their positions in the jroung African republic and to reduce its independence to a fiction.

They were killed by the traitor clique of Tshombe, .Mobutu and Kasavubu w hich has usurped power in the Congo and has laid the country open to plunder by the Belgian colonial- ists and their allies.

They were killed by Dag Hammarskjöld, contemptible lackey of the imperialists, who betrayed Lumumba to the butchers and sanctioned his murder.

The peoples of all the world demand punishment for those who brought about Patrice Lumumba’s death. The murderers will not escape judgement. Sooner or later, just retribution will overtake them.

A HURRICANE OF WRATH.

AN AVALANCHE OF PROTEST

FROM LETTERS TO "PRAVDA"

The tragic tidings stirred the entire Soviet people. “Punish the murderers of Lumumba!”—“Call the colonialist crimi- nals to judgement!”—“Prosecute the murderous bandits Mobutu and Tshombe!”—“Out of the United Nations with Hammarskjöld, organiser of the murder of Lumumba!”—write Soviet men and women in letters and telegrams to the editors of Prarda,

One letter, addressed to Mrne. Opanga Pauline Lumumba, bears the signatures of more than a hundred and thirty vet- eran members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, people who themselves experienced the hardships of revolu- tionary struggle for the freedom of the people—among them V. Karpinsky (member of the C.P.S.U. since 1898), A. Rich- ter (member of the C.P.S.U. since 1904) and F. Taube (mem- ber of the C.P.S.U. since 1910). “The statement of the So- viet Government calling for trial of the murderers of the finest sons of the Congolese people has our fervent and vig- orous support,” write these veteran Bolsheviks. “We are sure that the courageous Congolese people, with the support of the peoples of all the world, will carry to victory their struggle against the hangmen Mobutu and Tshombe and the Belgian colonialists, to free their country from colonialism.”

A telegram from the workers of the Kandalaksha Fish- Processing Plant declares, “Shocked at villainous murder of Patrice Lumumba, national hero of the Congolese people, and his fellow- fighters at hands of agents of Belgian colonial- ists with direct connivance of U.N. Secretary-General Hammarskjöld. Demand that the United Nations severely punish those responsible for this crime. Demand complete disarming of Mobutu’s and Tshombe’s bands, restoration of power to lawful government and normal activity of Congo- lese Parliament.”

Similar demands are expressed in letters and telegrams received by Prarda from the slaff of the Kara-Kalpak branch

214

of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences in Nukus; from the work- ers of I he Novosibirsk factory of ferro-concrete conslruc- lions and plaster goods; from the miners of Pit No. 2 of the Estonian Shale Trust; from lecturer Drogalina of the Pyati- gorsk Pedagogical Institute; from General Pronik in Kiev; from the crew of the Ballika; from housewife N. Karnau- khova in Primorye Territory; from I. Khromchenko, Moscow physician; from reserve officers Savelyev and Petrov in Che- boksari; from pensioner I. Rakov in Nalchik, and many, many others—shocked and indignant at the news of the crime committed in Katanga.

The letters pouring in to Pravda offices wrathfully condemn that wretched lackey of imperialism, Dag Ilammarskjold, an accomplice in the murder of Patrice Lumumba. “From the very first,” metal worker G. Tolich accuses, addressing himself to Hammarskjöld, “all your activities in execution of the ‘U.N. operation in the Congo’ were directed against the Central Government headed by Patrice Lumumba. It is you who are to blame for the tragic death of this true son of his country, this finest of Africans.”

Hammarskjöld is termed butcher and murderer in letters from the fifth-year students of the Novocherkassk Polytech- nical Institute; from P. Khikheyev, a Stalingrad teacher; from N. Volodin of Pushkino; from research worker A. Pos- kotin of Khabarovsk; from V. Lysenko, a physician in the town of Obninsk; from grinder S. Grigoryev and engineer L. Krivelsky.

Soviet men and women take deeply to heart the fate of the colonial peoples. Feeling that the United Nations might be of no small assistance to these peoples in their struggle, Soviet public opinion is concerned for the prestige of this international organisation and wants to see its officials carry out the true will of the peoples, not that of the colo- nialists. Prompted by these feelings, V. Ivanov, a Moscow resident, writes: “The murder of the Prime Minister of a sovereign state and of members of his Cabinet, organised by U.N. Secretary-General Dag Ilammarskjold and fi- nanced by the former masters of the colony of the Congo, strikes a heavy blow at the prestige of the United Nations. How very right was Premier Khrushchov in describing this dishone.st and cruel man as a lackey of the capitalists. ...The

216

retention as Secretary-General of the United Nations of this man who has not only forfeited the peoples’ trust, but has stained himself with crime, will lead to the disintegration of this organisation and to complete loss of its prestige. The first thing for the states to do right now is to expel this man from the service of the United Nations.”

There is no end to these letters, alive with protest, passion- ate, demanding. In them we read clearly the feelings of the Soviet people—feelings excellently expressed in these lines, addressed to the fighters for Congolese freedom and independence, which were sent to Pravda by the Riga mechanic M. Sotnikov:

Congo!

Your struggle is sacred.

It leads you ever on.

Greetings, soldiers of freedom!

The Soviet people are with you!

Denouncing the crimes of colonialism, Soviet men and women in their letters and telegrams express grave w'arning to those who trample the freedom of the peoples, their just demands.

Pravda, February 24, 1961

Chapter 7

Concerning the meetings of the Security Council

THE U.S.S.R. DEMANDS: Colonialists,

HANDS OFF

THE CONGO!

The Security Council has repeatedly adopted decisions calling upon Belgium to withdraw her troops from the terri- tory of the Republic of the Congo. But all these decisions have been ignored by the aggressor state. Belgium has but made an empty show of evacuation of her troops from the Congo.

From the very outset of the Belgian aggression against the Republic of the Congo, the Soviet Union has upheld in the international arena the just cause of the Congo. The Soviet Government sharply condemned the acts of provo- cation against the young republic and demanded that the resolutions adopted by the Security Council on July 14 and 22 and August 9 and the decisions of the extraordinary ses- sion of the General Assembly, be carried out. It was the So- viet Union that moved the discussion at the Fifteenth Ses- sion of the General Assembly of the threat to the political independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of the Congo.

The Soviet delegation opposed recognition of the creden- tials of the “Kasavubu delegation’’. The colonialists, how- ever, admitted this traitor and political clown. And Kasa- vubu, on his return from New York to Leopoldville, set to work, jointly with the Belgians, to prepare the physical destruction of Pat rice Lumumba and other Congolese patriots.

In those tense days when there was no news from the Congo as to the fate of Luinuinba, V. A. Zorin, Soviet repre-

218

sentative in the United Nations, in a letter to Hammar* skjold calh'd for immediate verification of the press reports tliat the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo and his fellow- fighters had been killed.

“These reports,” the letter declared, “disturb us deeply, as they do other members of the Security Council, in view of Mr. Lumumba’s outstanding importance as a prominent national leader who heads the struggle of the Congolese people against colonialism and for complete independence for his country.

“The Soviet delegation to the United Nations expects that you will take immediately all necessary steps to verify through United Nations channels in the Congo, and in partic- ular in Katanga, all reports as to what has become of Mr. Lumumba and his associates, and inform the members of the Security Council without delay.”

A (/a hi Hii mmar skjold—aeces- sovi/ to the crime in the Con<jo—did not lift a finfjer to save the life of Linmimha, bat btj his con- duct encouraged the cutthroats of the Mobutu-Kasavubu-Tshombe band.

AFRICA:

WE ARE NOT TO BE HALTED!

New York, February 3, 1961

Convened at the request of Ceylon, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, the United Arab Republic and Yugoslavia, to dis- cuss the question of I he alarming and dangerous situation in the Congo, the Security Council sat for two days. These were somewhat unusual sessions, unusual, above all, in the number of stales not members of the Security Council which expressed the desire to participate in the discussion of this

219

important question. When the President of the Council invited them to be seated at the round table of the Council, it was a tight fit. Side by side with the delegates of Britain, France and Belgium sat representatives of the new slates of Asia and Africa, only so recently ruled by these colonial powers. The delegates of former colonies made their one-time masters yield room to them at the Council table. And that was symbolic. As though to put the final touch to this symbolic scene, the French representative exclaimed nerv- ously:

“But, gentlemen, we cannot invite so many to our table. We are the Security Council, not the General Assembly!”

And that, in the course of three meetings of the Coun- cil, was the first and the last speech made hy a representative of any of the colonial powers, aside from two minutes of indistinct mumbling on the part of the Belgian delegate. Not one of the delegates of the colonial powers had the cour- age to take the floor.

Never before, local newspapermen agree, had the Security Council hall resounded to such impassioned and stirring declarations against colonialism. Truly, this was a passing of judgement—a stem and merciless judgement of the colo- nialists begun at the initiative of the Soviet Union at the Fifteenth Session of the General Assembly; judgement of those who today are tormenting the Congo, attempting once more to force the Congolese people to their knees.

“Colonialism,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Unit- ed Arab Republic declared in his statement, “is trying to prove in the Congo that it is not yet dead, that not all its fangs have yet been drawn.”

“We know by our own experience,” said the representa- tive of Morocco, “that colonialism, when it is dying, is like a mad dog. The colonialists mark their road to the grave with prisons, torture, shootings. In the Congo the coloni- alists are strangling the will of the people, defying it with the help of mercenaries and their bayonets.”

The repre.sentative of the young African Republic of Mali termed the conspiracy in the Congo “the wolfish solidarity of the NATO colonialists”.

“When they torture Lumumba,” the Mali delegate ex- claimed, “they torture all Black Africa. They are trying to

220

intimidate the Africans, to show them what may he done to an African leader if he slops taking orders from the colo- tilists **

“But even in prison,” declared the U.A.R. representative, “Lumumba is stronger than his torturers; and evcnllammar- skjold was recently compelled to admit that the problem of the Congo cannot be settled without Lumumba.”

With bitter regret the speakers pointed out that the colonialists’ accomplices from the United Nations, by their criminal actions in the Congo, had undermined the prestige of this international organisation in the eyes of all free- dom-loving peoples the world over. Wrath arid paiii 111 eel the voice of the Moroccan delegate when he declared that the United Nations troops in the Congo acted against the pe^le rather than against those who oppressed the people. The United Nations troops,” he continued, “stand by passively and watch the intensifying Belgian intervention. The Unit- ed Nations has done nothing to stop the puppets unbridled activities. The resolutions adopted by the Security Coun- cil remain scraps of paper.”

The Indian delegate agreed with the delegate from rocco, declaring that the U.N. troops w^re helping the anti-popular regime of Kasavubu and Mobutu.

“The Belgians and their puppets could not hold out even two days in the Congo,” the Mali delegate declared, address- ing himself to Hammarskjöld, “did the United Nations act in the interests of the people rather than of the colo- nialists.” The same delegate further declared. We Africans consider the Secretary-General personally responsible for the arrest of Lumumba and for what becomes of him.

Every step Hammarskjöld had taken in the Congo was subjected to such crushing criticism that any honest man, so

criticised, would have resigned. o • »

The convincing speech of V. A. Zorin, Soviet re p resen - ative to the United Nations, evoked great interest in all present at the meeting of the Security Counci . i„-o,i

^ The situation in the Congo, the Soviet delegate declared, was altogether intolerable and growing steadily worse. Be - gian military, paramilitary and ® i'

remained on the territory of the republic. Actually, the It cisions of the Security Council on the question of the Congo

221

had been fnistrated by the pxocutive organs of Iho United Nations and tbo organisation liad proved incapable' of secur- ing peaceful sell lenient, of tbo grave internat ional crisis brought about by the Helgian aggression in the Congo.

If iho situation in the Congo was to be corrected and the prestige and good name of the United Nations restored, the Soviet representative pointed out, the Helgian colonial- ists must be completely and quickly expelled from the Con- go; all the national leaders, and above all Lumumba, must be set at liberty; the lawful government and the Parliament must be re-established; the Mobutu and T.shombe bands must be disarmed and steps must be taken to achieve the country’s genuine integration and to secure its genuine in- dependence.

The Soviet Union, for its part, was ])repared to do every- thing necessary for the adoption of measures which would really promote the establishment of peace and order in the Congo.

B. Strelnikov Pravda correspondent

BATTLE IN UNITED NATIONS HALL

New York, February 16, 1961

It was with the greatest difficulty that we got through to the point where passes are checked at the entrance to the United Nations headquarters. Thick crowds filled all the approaches to the building and lined the iron fence before it. Mounted and foot police kept trx'ing to push the people back down the adjacent streets. But the crowds—Negroes, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans; workers, black and white, from Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx—were not to be intim- idated. The police were furious but there was nothing they could do.

High overhead the demonstrators flourished slogans, daubed in red or black paint on squares of plywood declaring that the headquarters was a centre for a murder corpora- tion, that Hammarskjöld was a murderer, that Hammar- skjold’s hands were stained in the blood of Lumumba. They chanted slogans in chorus, demanding stern punishment for the murderers of the African hero Patrice Lumumba.

222

We showed our passes and went inside. The third-floor corridor leading to the Security Council hall, always so quiet and shining with cleanliness, was unrecognisable—crowded with delegates, American citizens, and newspapermen from Washington and other cities, all trying to get into the Coun- cil hall, which was already full to capacity. The public gal- lery, with its four hundred or so seats, was crammed and noisy .

Patrick Dean (Britain), President of the Security Coun- cil, declared the sitting open. On his desk lay the Soviet draft resolution. Everyone was expecting that the first speaker would he Soviet representative V. A. Zorin. But Dean gave the floor to the American delegate, Adlai Steven- son. , ,

The gallery, and even the newspapermen, expected that

the U.S. representative would have something new to say, something worth while to propose, at this moment of crisis not only for Africa, but for the United Nations. But Steven- son said nothing new. It might have been Lodge in the speakers’ stand. Stevenson commenced by defending Hammar- skjold and then began a sudden attack on the peaceful pol- icy of the Soviet Union. Hardly had he begun his anti-Soviet inventions, however, when he w’as compelled to break them off. Never before, in all the existence of the United Nations, had delegates, or newspapermen, or U.N. employees wit- nessed such a scene as now took place in the Security Coun-

From all over the gallery loud voices sounded: “Mr. Ste- venson, don’t be a hypocrite!’’, “Shame on the defenders of Lumumba’s murderers!”, “Dag is a murderer”, "We demand immediate removal of Hammarskjöld !”,“Long liveLumuniba!” Stevenson had to stop speaking. Council President Dean ordered the guards lo quiet the gallery and to remove the noise-makei*s. Hammarskjöld’s gendarmes rushed to the gal- lery, but quiet did not ensue. It was not single individuals, not dozens of individuals, that were protesting. All hearts

were overflowing with indignation. ,i i i •

Then Dean gave an order unheard of in all the history of the United Nations: “Clear the gallery!”

What followed was fantastic. Hammarskjöld s guards attacked men and women alike, striking out at heads and

223

faces, dragging women across the floor, throwing people out into the hall and then into the street, where they were pounced upon by the city police, who had been sent to Ihe spot by Mayor Wagner. The battle in the gallery continued. Cries and groans, blood on hands and faces. A photographer from the New York Mirror who happened to be in the gal- lery was beaten half to death and carried out unconscious. The United Press International correspondent had his head badly hurt and barely managed to get away bleeding se- verely.

The “clearing” of the gallery took almost half an hour to complete. When all was over, the U.S. representative went on with his speech.

N. Karev.

Izvestia correspondent

CLEAR THE COLONIALISTS OUT

OF THE CONGO AND THEIR ACCOMPLICES

OUT OF THE UNITED NATIONS

DRAFT RESOLUTION PROPOSED BY THE SOVIET UNION

The Security Council,

regarding the murder of Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo Patrice Lumumba and of outstanding statevsmen of that republic Okito and Mpolo as an international crime incompatible witli the Charter of the United Nations and as a flagrant violation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to the Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted at the Fifteenth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations,

vigorously condemns the conduct of Belgium, which has led to this crime;

coasiders it necessary to apply to Belgium, as an aggressor state which by its conduct has brought about a threat to international peace, the sanctions provided for by Article 41 of the United Nations Charter, and calls upon the member states of the United Nations to apply these sanctions without delay;

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orders the command of the United Nations troops sent to the ConfTo by decision of the Security Council to arrest Tshomlie and Mobutu immediately for investigation and trial, to disarm all military and gendarme units under their control, to secure the immediate disarmament and with- drawal from the Congo of all Belgian troops and all Belgian

‘‘‘^ISolves to end the “U.N. oiieration” in the Congo and recall all foreign troops from that country within a month s time, in order to give the Congolese people the opportunity themselves to decide their internal affairs;

considers it necessary to remove D. Ilammarskjold from the position of Secretary-General ol the as an accomplice and organiser of the murder of the leading statesmen of the Republic of the Congo.

THE TIME FOR TALK IS OVER—THE TIME HAS COME TO ACT

The Soviet Union deinands lininedlale withdrawal of the Belgian aggressors from the Congo, to secure peace In that country and to restore its independence.

At the evening session Soviet representative V. A. Zorin made a detailed analysis of the Soviet draft resolution. This draft, he pointed out, set forth a programme of ac ion which would radically change, radically improve the situ^ lion in the Congo. It condemned the “^gressors, d^

manded removal of the colonialists and of their puppets Tshombe and Mobutu, declared the necessity J>f amoving Hammarskjöld from the post of Secretary-General of the Unit- ed Nations and gave the Congolese people the opportunity to decide their own fate.

After this speech the Security Council proceeded to vote on the draft resolutions that had been presented. By major- ity vole, the Council passed the resolution presented by

Liberia, the Unilod Arab Republic and Ceylon. Nine mem- bers of Ibe Council voted for Ibis resolution. The U.S.S.R. and France abstained. The resolution thus adopted, while demanding the withdrawal of all Relgian personnel from the Congo, as a whole is weak and indecisive.

Further, the Security Council considered the second draft resolution presented by the United Arab Republic, Ceylon and Liberia. Sharply condemning the unlawful arrests and killings of political leaders in the Congo, demanding that an end be put to these crimes and recommending that the United Nations take every nece.ssary step, even to the use of armed force, this resolution was clearly not to the taste of certain members of the Council. U.S. representa- tive Stevenson proposed amendments designed to rob the reso- lution of its force and to confuse the question, so clear to all the world, of the persons responsible for the brutal murders of political leaders of the Congolese people.

Hoping to reach mutual agreement, the authors of the draft agreed to some of the amendments proposed by the American representative; but they firmly rejected the two above-mentioned, which would have emasculated the res- olution entirely.

One of these amendments was put to the vote and rejected, inasmuch as one of the permanent members of the Council, the Soviet Union, voted against it. Ceylon and the United Arab Republic also voted against.

After this defeat, the U.S. delegation tried a new ma- noeuvre designed, objectively, to shield the murderers.

Soviet delegate V. A. Zorin took the floor and sharply condemned the attempts of the Western Powers to hide be- hind a smoke-screen of platitudes.

The next U.S. amendment voted called for the exclusion from the preamble to the resolution of the words, “brutalities and murders in Leopoldville, Katanga and South Kasai in the Congo”. It was rejected, inasmuch as a permanent member of the Security Council, the Soviet Union, voted against it, as did also two of the authors of the draft reso- lution—the United Arab Republic and Ceylon.

Then the resolution was put to the vote as a whole. Six delegations—those of the U.S.S.R., Ceylon, the United Arab Republic, Liberia, Ecuador and Chile—voted for

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ihP resolution. None voted again.st, but rive-the Britain, France, Turkey and tbe Cliiang Ka.-shekite-ab-

"^Thut due to the stand of the Western Powers, this reso- lution proposing measures to pul a slop to the crimes ill the Congo, failed to receive the necessary majority of

seven and was rejected. .

Soviet delegate V.A. Zorin made a few remarks in connec- tion with the results of the voting. The voting on the last resolution, he said, showed that those who had been so ready with words of protest and regret over the terrorist re- nressions in the Congo, when it came to condemnation of Ih^e mpressions and the adoption of concrete mea.sures to combat them blocked the adoption even of a simple and limited resolution. That threw light on the discussion The Security Council had been witness to the most distort the true slate of affairs. As a result of the tactics ot the colonialists, no resolution

actions of the agents of colonialism had been adopted. Thus, Sratfli-colomalism of cortaio of the powers remamed but

*^'”Furlh'er*^*lbe Soviet representative pointed out that tbe resolution of the three Asian and African statM which had been adopted by the Security Council, despite Us short- “in;% °gSf te'of value. He “Hed upon the Un,M

Nations to lake firm measures, basing

tion for the immediate withdrawal from the Congo of tbe Bel

S aggressors, in order to secure peace in that country and

f; Testovs independence. The Soviet L"-."' h'

for its part, would continue undevialingly its struggle for

the genuine liberation of the Congolese people.

Pravda, February 22, 1931

PROCRASTINATION LEADS TO NEW CRIMES

As the sitting of the Security Council ''f J”

its close, the news arrived that six ot ^ ‘

-Slate .Minister Lumbala; Chairman ol the l.o^erumen

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of Orionlalo Province Finnnf; Chief of (he S(anleyville Geiidarinerie Fafaki; ConsiiKant (o (he Prime Minisier of (he Congo Elengeza; Chairman of (he League of Congolese Youdi Nzuzi, and Jangara—l>ad been killed in (he (own of Bakwanga, af(er (heir (ransfer (here from Leopoldville.

Wi(h hypocrUical expressions of regret, Hammai-sk jijld declared his “indigna(ion" in connec(ion with these murders.

What hitter irony—(hat the man who sits at the desk marked “Secretary-Genera I” should keep reporting to the Security Council ever new tidings of killings in the Congo. Every time he takes (he floor, it is to announce—not the withdrawal of (he Belgians from the Congo, not action taken by the United Nations (o protect the Congolese people, but new victims fallen at the hands of the colonialists! '

The colonialists have worked out a savage plan for the murder of all members of (he lawfully elecled Congolese Parliament who support Lumumba, so that the imperialists’ puppets will have a guaranteed majority in case Parliament should be convened. Kasavubu and Kalondji have already set about the execution of (his new villainy.

Effective measures must be taken to stop the unbridled reaction in Leopoldville, Kasai and Katanga, to put an end to the imperialist interference in the internal affairs of the republic, to help the Congolese people in their effort to free themselves for good and all from the painful heritage of infamous colonialism.

What more can tve add to these documents, to the hero's uonderfid verse, to his letters? Need any more he said of him, of his life, of his striiyyle and his death?

This hook had already been made up tvhen, at the end of February, the news- paper ^VUnitiT' published a report from its Paris correspondent to the effect that a letter written by Patrice Liimiimba before his death had been published in the Tunisian tveekly ^ A frique- Action • ^VUnitcV' correspondent tcrote:

^The Tunisian tveekly ^Afrique-Ac- tion' carries a letter written by the leader of the Congolese people, P. Lumumba^ to his wife Pauline. The weekly heads this document, *Last Letter of Lumum- ba'. It offers no explanation of how it came into the hands of the editors.

^It is surmised that Patrice Lumumba wrote it when he teas told that he was to be transferred from Thy sr die to Misabethville, in Katanga. It is thus clear that Lniuuinha had a presentnnent of death. And this presentiment proved prophetic."

Chapter 8

PATRICE LUMUMBA’S WILL

My dear wife, I am writing these words to you not knowing whether they will ever reach you or whether I shall be alive when you read them. ’

Throughout my struggle for the independence of our country I have never doubted the victory of our sacred cause, to which I and my comrades have dedicated all our lives.

But the only thing which we wanted for our country is the right to a worthy life, to dignity without pre- tence, to independence without restrictions.

This was never the desire of the Belgian colonial- ists and their Western allies, who received, direct or indirect, open or concealed, support from some highly placed officials of the United Nations, the body upon which we placed all our hope when we appealed to it for help.

They seduced some of our compatriots, bought others and did everything to distort the truth and smear our independence.

What I can say is this—alive or dead, free or in jail—it is not a question of me personally.

The main thing is the Congo, our unhappy people, whose independence is being trampled upon.

That is why they have shut us away in prison and why they keep us far away from the people. But my faith remains indestructible.

I know and feel deep in my heart that sooner or later my people will rid themselves of their internal and external enemies, that they will rise up as one in order to say ‘No’ to colonialism, to brazen, dying

colonialism, in order to win their dignity in a clean

'^"we are not alone. Africa, Asia, the free peoples and the peoples fighting for their freedom in all cor- ners of the world will always be side by side with the millions of Congolese who will riot give up the struggle while there is even one colonialist or colonial- ist mercenary in our country. j u

To my sons, whom I am leaving and whom, per- haps, I shall not see again, I want to say that the future of the Congo is splendid and that I expect from them, as from every Congolese, the fulfilment of the sacred task of restoring our independence and

our sovereignty. xl ^

Without dignity there is no freedom, without justice there is no dignity and without independence there are no free men.

Cruelty, insults and torture can never force me to ask for mercy, because I prefer to die with head high, with indestructible faith and profound belief m the destiny of our country than to live in humility and renounce the principles which are sacred to me.

The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brus- sels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations.

It will be the history which will be taught in the countries which have won freedom from colonialism

and its puppets. . • u

Africa will write its own history and in both north

and south it will be a history of glory and dignity.

Do not weep for me. I know that my tormented country will be able to defend its freedom and its independence.

Long live the Congo!

Long live Africal

Thysville prisou LUMUMBA