Dr. John Garang

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

Following his house arrest, Lumumba made the decision to escape; this would prove a fatal mistake. Smuggled out of his residence at night in a visiting diplomat's car, he began a long journey towards Stanleyville. Mobutu's troops were in hot pursuit. Finally trapped on the banks of the Sankuru River, he was captured by soldiers loyal to Colonel Mobutu.

He appealed to local UN troops to save him. The UN refused on orders from headquarters in New York, reasoning that he had escaped from UN protection. He was flown first to Leopoldville, where he appeared beaten and humiliated before journalists and diplomats.
Further humiliation followed at Mobutu's villa, where soldiers beat the elected prime minister in full view of television cameras. Lumumba was dispatched first to Thysville military barracks, one hundred miles from Leopoldville.

After the military personnel of Thysville mutinied, a more secure place was sought. It is established that Belgium wanted Lumumba taken to Katanga, which was under the rule of an enemy of Lumumba, Moise Tshombe. The Belgian Commission investigating the assassination of Lumumba reached the conclusions: that Belgium wanted Lumumba arrested; that it was not particularly concerned with Lumumba's physical well being; while informed of the danger to Lumumba's life it did not take any action to avert it.
Lumumba was beaten again on the flight to Elizabethville on 17 January 1961. He was seized by Katangan soldiers commanded by Belgians and driven to Villa Brouwe. He was guarded and brutalized still further by both Belgian and Katangan troops while President Tshombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.

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

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

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

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

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

The Belgian Commission finds that Belgium had not actively sought the death of Lumumba by his transfer to Katanga, but did not show foresight either; he died within five hours of his arrival there. Neither did they try to establish his welfare at any point. Interestingly the same report mentions that there had previously been U.S. and Belgian plots to kill Lumumba. Obviously either they failed or they were abandoned. Among them was a CIA sponsored attempt to poison him, after U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower apparently ordered the CIA to eliminate Lumumba [2] . CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb was a key person in this by devising a poison resembling toothpaste.[3][4][5]. However, the plan is said to have failed because the local CIA Station Chief, Larry Devlin, had a conscience issue and did not go forward.[3][4][6]

The Belgian commission's 2001 report led to an official apology. In February of 2002, the Belgian government apologized to the Congolese people, and admitted to a "moral responsibility" and "an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba." In July of the same year documents released by the United States government revealed that while the CIA had been kept informed of Belgium's plans, they had no direct role in Lumumba's eventual death. [3]

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

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

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