Suchergebnisse

The assassination of L.D. Kabila, forty years to the day after the1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba, revived memories of the fate of the Congo's first (and only) democratically elected leader, but in Belgium, the case of Lumumba's assassination had already been re‐opened by a solidly documented exposé challenging what had for some time been the 'official version' of the murder. Written by Ludo DeWitte, this account identified those members of the Belgian establishment whom it saw as having deliberately engineered Lumumba's overthrow and 'final elimination'. Its publication directly led to the creation of a parliamentary commission of enquiry whose final report was released in November 2001. Much of the investigation took the form of an examination of archival and testimonial evidence. Most witnesses were not seriously challenged, and cross‐examination was usually gentle and ineffective. Yet, considering the perceived need to achieve some form of national consensus, the enquiry cannot be dismissed as a whitewash. The report concludes that 'certain members of the Belgian government and other Belgian participants were morally responsible for the circumstances leading to the death of Lumumba.' The commission also identifies what it correctly views as dysfunctions in the decision‐making process that prevailed in 1960–1961. Reactions to the report suggest that, for many of those involved in those violent events, stereotypes and cold war clichés die a reluctant death.

The assassination of L. D. Kabila, forty years to the day after the 1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba, revived memories of the fate of the Congo's first (& only) democratically elected leader, but in Belgium, the case of Lumumba's assassination had already been reopened by a solidly documented expose challenging what had for some time been the "official version" of the murder. Written by Ludo DeWitte, this account identified those members of the Belgian establishment whom it saw as having deliberately engineered Lumumba's overthrow & "final elimination." Its publication led directly to the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry whose final report was released in Nov 2001. Much of the investigation took the form of an examination of archival & testimonial evidence. Most witnesses were not seriously challenged, & cross-examination was usually gentle & ineffective. Yet, considering the perceived need to achieve some form of national consensus, the inquiry cannot be dismissed as a whitewash. The report concludes that "certain members of the Belgian government & other Belgian participants were morally responsible for the circumstances leading to the death of Lumumba." The commission also identifies what it correctly views as dysfunctions in the decision-making process that prevailed in 1960/61. Reactions to the report suggest that, for many of those involved in these violent events, stereotypes & cold war cliches die a reluctant death. Adapted from the source document.

From the break between Belgium and the Congo in July 1960 to the mid-1980s. Partial contents: The embattled government of Moise Tshombe, 1964-65; Claiming a nation's birthright: the Mobutu regime's first years; Mobutu in decline: Angola and the Zairian debt problem.

In many ways, dependency has been the keystone of Zairian foreign policy since independence. Domestic preoccupations—political or economic stability, legitimacy or sheet regime survival—as perceived and interpreted by an oligarchic elite, rather than any ideological premise or any projection of Zaire's role in a global or regional context, have been the only consistent and predictable determinants of Zairian foreign policy. The successive regimes have seldom been able to fully control their domestic environment or even to insulate it from external manipulations. Within a narrowly circumscribed set of options, however, Zairian foreign policy—especially under Mobutu—has demonstrated considerable dexterity at playing off one patron against another, and thus at limiting some of the potentially adverse consequences of the country's lack of a solid power base.