April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

Patrice Lumumba said: ‘It was we who made Kasavubu what he is. As you
well know, he has no majority in this Parliament. He tried to form a
government and failed. Yet, out of our desire for national unity, we
generously offered him the highest office in the land - the presidency -
instead of giving it to someone from our own side, the majority side.’
Lumumba continued: ‘We made that sacrifice in order that we could
achieve the unity without which we cannot build our new nation in a
stable atmosphere. And now he turns round to say that he has sacked, me,
the leader of the majority! It was by my hand - this hand - that he was
appointed President. It is an insult to our people, who voted us into this
Parliament. How can a person who commands a minority of votes in this
House sack the one who has the majority? It is not done anywhere that
there is a parliamentary system. It cannot be done in Belgium! Why must it
be allowed to be done here?’
The vote of confidence Lumumba got surprised Kasavubu, whose strategy
for neutralising Lumumba was plotted from Brussels and Washington. The
Belgians and the Americans were left with egg on their faces, for they had
given money to Kasavubu to bribe many of the MPs! The MPs had taken the
money, and yet voted against Kasavubu! The Americans and the Belgians
were outraged.
But with the full weight of the CIA now in support of Belgium’ objective of
throwing out Lumumba, his was a lost cause. In the midst of the confusion
following the mutual sackings, Sergeant (promoted Colonel) Joseph-Desire
Mobutu, staged a coup d’etat on 14 September 1960 against both Kasavubu
and Lumumba. Or so he claimed. (Mobutu, remember, had been a Belgian
secret agent of long-standing but also doubled for the CIA. The Belgians
then planted him in Lumumba's office as Lumumba’s army chief of staff,
and though Lumumba made sure that he also appointed an army
commander who was loyal to him, General Victor Lundula, this Lundula
was barely literate and no match to the far more literate and everscheming
Mobutu.
When Mobutu struck, his pretext was that he wanted to ‘bring peace’ to
the country and save it from the ‘squabbling politicians’. This was classic
coup-makers’ language. Time Magazine ran a hilarious account of Mobutu’s
coup in its issue of 26 September 1960.
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897597,00.html)
In his book, ‘The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba’, the Belgian writer,
Ludo De Witte, gives us a detailed description of what was happening in
Congo at the time. ‘Belgian military chiefs’, De Witte wrote, ‘made nightly
visits to Mobutu and President Kasavubu to plot Lumumba's downfall.’ A
Belgian officer, Colonel Louis Maliere, ‘spoke [to De Witte] of the millions
of francs he brought over [from Belgium] for this purpose.’ The Belgian
plot to kill Lumumba was nicknamed ‘Operation Barracuda’ and was run by
the Belgian Minister for African Affairs, Count d'Aspremont Lynden,
himself.
As mentioned earlier, the CIA was also fully on board. This is how the
informative magazine, US News and World Report, described one aspect of
the CIA effort. The head of the CIA, Mr Allen Dulles, cabled the CIA station
chief in Leopoldville that:
‘In high quarters here, it is the clear-cut conclusion that if [Lumumba]
continues to hold high office, the inevitable result will [be] disastrous
consequences…for the interests of the free world generally. Consequently,
we conclude that his removal must be an urgent and prime objective.’