The excerpt is from the chapter titled, “Background to the Congo.” It begins with the winning of formal independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960. The Congolese National Movement won a majority in elections following this victory, and Patrice Lumumba became prime minister. Belgian troops then organized the secession of the mineral-rich Katanga province by Tshombe, a wealthy plantation owner and businessman.

At Lumumba’s request, United Nations troops flew to the Congo. When UN commanders made it clear that they would not drive the Belgian forces out or challenge the Katanga secession, Lumumba requested outside support from the Soviet Union to intervene “should the Western camp not stop its aggression.” The disastrous outcome of these events is recounted below. Copyright © 1965 by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission.
 

“We do not understand that we, victims of aggression, who are at home here, are being systematically disarmed [by the UN force] while the aggressors, the Belgians, who are the conquerors here, are permitted to keep their weapons and their means of inflicting death.”

In Katanga, Belgian troops crushed uprisings of Congolese soldiers and miners, and protected Tshombe’s efforts to suppress opposition from minority leaders in the Katanga parliament. The UN closed broadcasting stations in Leopoldville and commanded Lumumba not to meddle in Katanga.

According to Under-secretary Ralph Bunche, the UN’s mission was to “pacify and then to administer the Congo…” From the very outset, it was clear that the UN did not recognize the duly elected government of Lumumba, and intended to restore a pro-Belgian, pro-U.S. government.

However, world pressure, not only from the Soviet bloc, but from newly independent African nations which threatened to draw their armies out of the U N force, demanded that the UN live up to Lumumba’s request. At this point, the tactics of U.S. and Belgian imperialism temporarily diverged.

The United States recognized the necessity of a temporary maneuver to avoid international criticism….

Consequently, the United States pressured the UN to end Belgian occupation. On August 21, Hammarskjold told the Security Council: “The Belgian chapter in the history of the Congo in its earlier forms is ended. The UN…is in charge of order and security.”

By this time the Congo crisis had had a second important divisive effect, this time on the Congolese themselves. Elements of the next largest political party after the Congolese National Movement, the Abako Party, led by Kasavubu, threw their cards in with United States interests.

Kasavubu, who had been powerless in the original government, now took sides against Lumumba, demanding that he be ousted, and sending a separate delegation to the UN. This gave the UN a considerably stronger hand in the Congo, even though many UN members, led by Nkrumah, held that Lumumba was the head of the only legitimate Congo government….

Unfortunately, Lumumba continued to rely on appeals to the UN, undoubtedly supported in this futile effort by the Soviet Union. Khrushchev held the ill-advised position that “Dag, not the UN,” was responsible. Instead of exposing the UN as a pawn in the hands of the State Department, and building an independent military force in the Congo to protect the legitimate government, Lumumba and his Soviet allies played into the hands of the imperialists and Kasavubu.

On September 5, Lumumba was summarily removed from office, Soviet representatives were ordered out of the country, and a military dictatorship was established under Col. Mobutu. In the UN, the independent nations strongly opposed these moves, blaming them on Belgium, and demanding the restoration of Lumumba—all to little avail. Overridden by the U.S. and her UN lackeys, their motion to restore Lumumba was defeated November 22 by a vote of 53-to-24.

Again Lumumba temporized, this time fatally. Remaining in Leopoldville until the end of November, his belated effort to escape was doomed to fail. On December 1st, Lumumba was seized, publicly mauled in a truck before U.S. TV cameras and imprisoned in Leopoldville; this while UN forces stood by.

On January 18, Kasavubu, in return for a “round-table conference” with Tshombe, handed prisoner Lumumba over to the Belgian stooge. A January 18 AP dispatch reported that on Lumumba’s arrival at the Katanga airport, Swedish-UN soldiers watched while “Lumumba and the other two were dragged off the plane…. They were clubbed, hit in the face with rifle butts, kicked and pummeled.”

And, as it became clear upon UN investigation months later, Lumumba and his two aides were subsequently murdered. Their deaths were reported by Tshombe, February 12.  
 
 
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