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Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961)
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1960-1997, Congo: Replacing Lumumba with Mobutu
By Mark Zapezauer
When the Congo (later called Zaire) won independence from Belgium in 1960, Patrice Lumumba became its first prime minister. He was a charismatic leader who enjoyed strong support in parliament, but he was able to hold office for only two months. A leftist, Lumumba attempted to steer a neutral course between the U.S. and the USSR.
The CIA "regularly bought and sold Congolese politicians," but it feared Lumumba would be a thorn in their side even if he were manoeuvred out of power. So, they decided to kill him. CIA Director Allen Dulles ordered Lumumba's death. A 1975 Congressional inquiry decided "a reasonable inference" could be drawn that this was done with Eisenhower's assent.
With the CIA's help, Lumumba was captured in December 1960, by the troops of CIA-backed General Joseph Mobutu, who had assumed control of the government. Lumumba was held for over a month, tortured and killed.
The lure of Congo's vast mineral resources led the CIA into a marriage of convenience with Mobutu [who was finally overthrown in 1997]. Mobutu was worth billions. Almost 40% of Zaire's national revenues went to him and his cronies. The average Zairian makes $190 a year. Mobutu handed out life sentences to student protesters for "insulting the president," tossed opposition politicians into mental hospitals, suppressed religion and the press. Mobutu's brutality eventually alarmed even the CIA, who backed a 1977 uprising against him. When it failed, the CIA and Mobutu kissed and made up.
Source: Excerpted from "Zaire" in CIA's Greatest Hits, 1994.
www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA%20Hits/Zaire_CIAHits.html
By Ellen Ray
The CIA had elaborate plans to assassinate Lumumba. Deputy Director Richard Bissell sent, a CIA scientist [Sidney Gottlieb, using pseudonym] Joseph Scheider to the Congo with an array of biological weapons from the U.S. military base in Fort Detrick, Maryland. These were to "either seriously incapacitate or eliminate Lumumba." The available toxins, according to Scheider's testimony before a Senate Committee, included tularem-ia ("rabbit fever"), brucellosis (undu-lent fever), tuberculosis, anthrax, smallpox and Venezuelan equine encephalitis ("sleeping sickness") ("Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders," Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975, p.21, n.3).
According to Lawrence Devlin, the CIA station chief in Kinshasa (in testimony before the Senate under the pseudonym Victor Hedgeman), he had tried hard to assassinate Lumumba. However, Mobutu and his goons ended up killing Lumumba. Scheider testified that the CIA's toxins were left in Congo with Devlin (Ellen Ray, et al., Dirty Work: The CIA in Africa, 1979, p.350).
Source: "U.S. Military and Corporate Recolonization of the Congo," Covert Action Quarterly, 2000. www.covertaction.org/full_text_69_01.htm
"Witchcraft, Sorcery, Magic and Other Psychological Phenomena, and their Implications on Military and Paramilitary Operations in the Congo," 1964, by James Price and Paul Jureidini, discusses "counter-magic" tactics used by the U.S. to suppress Congolese rebels who were backed by witch-doctors, charms and magic potions.
Source: www.parascope.com/articles/0297/congorpt.htm.
See also Jon Elliston, "Supernatural Subversives in the Congo,"
1997. www.parascope.com/articles/0297/congo.htm
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Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961)
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1959: Police repression kills 30. Lumumba arrested.
Jan. 1960: Freed to attend independence talks in Brussells. Elections and independence agreed.
June 1960: His party wins 33 of 137 seats. Joins others to form strongest group. Becomes prime minister. Five days later, white army officers mutiny. Belgium sends troops. Lumumba appeals to UN.
July 1960: Resource rich Katanga province breaks away. Lumuba appeals to USSR for support. Moscow sends planes. Lumumba is labelled a communist.
Sept: CIA-backed General Joseph Mobuto topples Congo government and arrests Lumumba. He escapes but is re-arrested, beaten up and jailed.
Jan.17, 1961: Flown to Katanga and murdered.