[ad_1]
Belgium on Monday handed during the last stays of slain Congolese chief Patrice Lumumba — a tooth — to his household, turning a web page on a grim chapter in its colonial previous.
Chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw gave the family a small, brilliant blue field containing the tooth in a televised ceremony, and stated authorized motion they’d taken to obtain the relic had delivered “justice”.
The tooth was positioned in a casket that was then draped within the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which celebrates Lumumba, who was murdered by separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961, as an anti-colonial hero.
Lumumba’s assassination — and the brutal historical past of Belgian management of the Congo — have been enduring sources of ache between the 2 international locations.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo reiterated that his nation’s authorities bore a “ethical accountability” over the killing.
“I would really like, within the presence of his household, to current in my flip the apologies of the Belgian authorities,” he stated.
“A person was murdered for his political convictions, his phrases, his beliefs.”
Lumumba’s son Francois informed Belgium’s RTBF broadcaster that his family had been ready “greater than 60 years” for this occasion.
“I believe it’s going to present solace for the household and the Congolese folks,” he stated.
“We’re opening a brand new web page in historical past.”
A fiery critic of Belgium’s rapacious rule, Lumumba grew to become his nation’s first prime minister after it gained independence in 1960.
However he fell out with the previous colonial energy and the USA and was ousted in a coup a number of months after taking workplace.
He was executed on January 17 1961, aged simply 35, within the southern area of Katanga, with the assist of Belgian mercenaries.
His physique was dissolved in acid and by no means discovered.
However the tooth was stored as a trophy by a type of concerned, a Belgian police officer.
The tooth was seized by Belgian authorities in 2016 from the daughter of the policeman, Gerard Soete, after Lumumba’s household filed a grievance.
‘Nationwide mourning’
The casket containing the tooth is about to be flown again to the DRC the place it will likely be formally laid to relaxation at a memorial website.
The nation is about to carry three days of “nationwide mourning” from 27 to 30 June — its 62nd anniversary of independence — to mark the burial ceremony.
Lumumba’s older son Francois filed a grievance in Belgium in 2011, pointing the finger of accountability for his father’s killing at a dozen Belgian officers and diplomats.
The investigation for “conflict crimes” remains to be ongoing however solely two of the focused officers are nonetheless alive.
A Belgian parliamentary fee of enquiry in 2001 concluded that Belgium had “ethical accountability” for the assassination and the federal government introduced the nation’s “apologies” a 12 months later.
De Croo stated Belgian officers “selected to not see, selected to not act” to cease the killing, even when they’d circuitously meant it to occur.
Lumumba’s kids have been additionally acquired Monday by Belgium’s King Philippe, who this month travelled to DR Congo to precise his “deepest regrets” over the colonial previous.
Historians say that thousands and thousands of individuals have been killed, mutilated or died of illness as they have been pressured to gather rubber below Belgian rule. The land was additionally pillaged for its mineral wealth, timber and ivory.
[ad_2]
Source link