Heroes of the independence of the ex-Congo Belgian, the Prime Minister had been overthrown during a coup d’etat and executed with the support of mercenaries of the old colonial power.
Le Monde with AFP
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) postponed the restitution ceremony by Belgium of a “relic” of the ex-Prime Minister of the country, Patrice Emery Lumumba, announced the Congolese Presidency Wednesday, January 5th .
Heroes of the independence of the Belgian ex-Congo, in June 1960, became the first leader of the new country, Patrice Lumumba had been overthrown a few months later during a coup. He had been executed on January 17, 1961 with two brothers of arms by separatists from the Katanga region, with the support of mercenaries of the former Belgian colonial power.
Initially, Belgium had officially submitted on June 21, 2021 to President Felix Tshisekedi a tooth a Belgian police commissioner claims to have levied on the Lumumba Corps when he helped to make him disappear. This refund and a series of expected tributes then had already been postponed due to an “exponential” increase in CVIV-19 cases, as of 17 January 2022, for the 61 e anniversary of the Death of Lumumba.
Dissolved body in the acid
“The restitution and repatriation ceremony of the former Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is postponed next June, on a date around the celebration of the Independence of the DRC, on June 30,” said Wednesday at the France-Presse Agency (AFP) An advisor to President Tshisekedi. “Several reasons justify this postponement. But the main focus on the restrictions in the fight against the propagation of COVID-19,” he added, promising “official communication in the coming hours”.
In 2000, the Belgian police commissioner Gérard Soete had told the AFP having cut and dissolved in the acid the bodies of Lumumba and two of his faithful, Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo, murdered at the same time as him . In a documentary broadcast on the German chain Ard the same year, Mr. Soete had stated having preserved Lumumba teeth and had shown them.
In September 2020, Belgian justice had responded favorably to a request from the family of Patrice Lumumba to restore a tooth attributed to the Congolese leader and seized in the family of Gérard Soete. In 2001, Belgium recognized its “moral responsibility” in the death of Lumumba at the end of a parliamentary commission.