Assassination of Lumumba
...m Lumumba’s regime it would be easier to put in place those who would be willing to do whatever Belgium wanted behind the scenes while putting up a Congonese government front, for a small fee. This would allow Belgium to create a new government much similar to the one that Lumumba had crumbled, where Brussels would be in charge. The last part of this chapter discussed the creation of a committee to deal with the rapid spread of nationalist ideas which led to the fall of colonialism in the Congo. The committee consisted of three of the governing Christian Social Party’s ministers, Prime Minister Eyskens, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Wigny, and African Affairs Minister Lynden. When the Congo crisis broke out and the Belgium government needed an austere figure to deal with it, Lynden was whom they sent. He was strict and efficient and would do what they asked. Chapter Two was in essence an explanation of the government of Belgium and their motivation to remove Lumumba from office. Chapter Three was entitled “The Death Cell.” This chapter dealt with the meetings that went on to determine how to deal with Lumumba and his final capture. Brussels, Washington D.C., and New York all put in place a campaign to portray Lumumba as a dangerous madman to justify why he needed to be removed. This propaganda was to try to raise support for the cause, which was the re-establishment of a Belgian government, which could not be done with Lumumba in power. Numerous meetings were set up to decide what to do about Lumumba. In late November, Lumumba was still an issue. Finally, he was placed on a form of house arrest. His house was surrounded by two groups of soldiers. The Blue Beret and the ANC. The UN made it clear that they could only protect him as long as he was in the house and could not be held responsible for what happened to him if he left the house. But when Lumumba learned about nationalist forces being set up in Stanleyville he decided to escape to join the people there. Unfortunately he was captured by ANC troops on his flight and was taken to Leopoldville. This is where the beatings began to occur. Lumumba and the other two men captured with him were beaten repeatedly; Pictures were released by the media and many countries began to distance themselves from the UN. The UN in turn asked for the suppression of the pictures. The prisoners were held in Thysville at Camp Hardy. There they lived in deplorable conditions where they were beaten and starved on a regular basis. Many soldiers in the ANC who did support Lumumba were angered by the treatment of the prisoners, and began to become disgruntled. Their repeated attempts to free Lumumba were the cause of his transfer to Katanga. Chapter Four was entitled “The Green Light From Brussels.” This chapter was a more indepth view of what happened with the chaos at Thysville and the decision to transfer Lumumba to Katanga. Chapter Five was entitled “Lumumba’s Last Day.” This chapter details the events leading up to and the assassination of Lumumba. When Lumumba and fellow prisoners arrived in Katanga they were brutally beaten and held captive in a house by Katagan ministers as well as the armed forces. A meeting was held to decide whether Lumumba would be killed or let live. Authorities decided to kill him because they did not want to risk him escaping or gathering Nationalist forces again and overturning the new government they planned to start in Katanga. After being beaten the entire day, Katanga and compatriots were taken to a secluded spot where they were gunned down by the military forces one after another. Chapter Six was entitled “Operation Cover Up”. This chapter discussed how the governments and the UN dealt with the political repercussions of Lumumba’s assassination. They decided to concoct a story to make people believe Lumumba was killed by villagers. They claimed that he and the other two prisoners escaped. After this information was released they then released new information sometime later saying that the three were shot by random villagers. No one believed the story and when the news hit the world people were horrified. Numero...