Post by
topdop on Jan 07, 2019 11:03am
On the Cusp of Change...
I have just posted this on my Seeking Alpha KAT Blog:
On the cusp of the Electoral Commission releasing DRC results, it should be requisite reading for any invested party to go back and look at history, specifically how the US almost messed up here royally a few generations ago.
Given that long history and open support of such a brutal and corrupt dictator in Mobuto and for almost 40 years, don't believe for a monent the US will permit the DRC to degrade into chaos if Kabila won't move on:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba
The US (and to a lesser extent the European non-communist nations) (Belgium, UK) nearly "lost" the DRC to Communist influence when Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) (served from June until September 1960) OPENLY COURTED THE RUSSIANS.
This aggressive cold-war jostling very sadly didn't end well for Lumumba. It is a widely known fact that the murder of Lumumba subsequently was revealed as a uniquely rare US SANCTIONED STATE ASSAINATION, the work of the CIA, the Belgians and the Brits and one of the only, if ever, documented assassinations by a western power.
Mobutu, serving as chief of staff of the army AND SUPPORTED BY THE US AND BELGIUM, deposed the nationalist democratically elected government of Lumumba in 1960. And with tacit approval from his outside sponsors, Mobutu installed a government THAT ARRANGED FOR LUMUMBA'S EXECUTION IN 1961.
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Except: "Shortly after Congolese independence in 1960, a mutiny broke out in the army, marking the beginning of the Congo Crisis. Lumumba appealed to the United States and the United Nations for help to suppress the Belgian-supported Katangan secessionists. Both refused, so Lumumba turned instead, to the Soviet Union for support.
"This led to growing differences with President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and chief-of-staff Joseph-Dsir Mobutu, as well as with the United States and Belgium, who opposed the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
"Lumumba was subsequently imprisoned by state authorities under Mobutu and executed by a firing squad under the command of Katangan authorities. Following his assassination, he was widely seen as a martyr for the wider Pan-African movement.
"Lumumba was sent first on 3 December 1960 to Thysville military barracks Camp Hardy, 150 km (about 100 miles) from Lopoldville. He was accompanied by Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, two political associates who had planned to assist him in setting up a new government. They were fed poorly by the prison guards, as per Mobutu's orders. In Lumumba's last documented letter, he wrote to Rajeshwar Dayal: "in a word, we are living amid absolutely impossible conditions; moreover, they are against the law".[68] In the morning of 13 January 1961, discipline at Camp Hardy faltered. Soldiers refused to work unless they were paid; they received a total of 400,000 francs ($8,000) from the Katanga Cabinet.[130] Some supported Lumumba's release, while others thought he was dangerous. Kasu-Vabu, Mobutu, Foreign Minister Justin Marie Bomboko, and Head of Security Services Victor Nendaka personally arrived at the camp and negotiated with the troops. Conflict was avoided, but it became apparent that holding a controversial prisoner in the camp was too great a risk.[131] Harold d'Aspremont Lynden, the former Belgian Minister of the Colonies, ordered that Lumumba, Mpolo, and Okito be taken to the State of Katanga.[132]
"Lumumba was forcibly restrained on the flight to Elisabethville on 17 January 1961.[133] On arrival, he and his associates were conducted under arrest to the Brouwez House, where they were brutally beaten and tortured by Katangan and Belgian officers,[134] while President Tshombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.[135][136][137]
"Later that night, Lumumba was driven to an isolated spot where three firing squads had been assembled. A Belgian commission of inquiry found that the execution was carried out by Katanga's authorities. It reported that President Tshombe and two other ministers were present, with four Belgian officers under the command of Katangan authorities. Lumumba, Mpolo, and Okito were lined up against a tree and shot one at a time. The execution is thought to have taken place on 17 January 1961, between 21:40 and 21:43 (according to the Belgian report). The Belgians and their counterparts later wished to get rid of the bodies, and did so by digging up and dismembering the corpses, then dissolving them in sulfuric acid while the bones were ground and scattered.[138]"
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The Kabila regime will be encouraged to take their "Swiss Pensions" as I've said in this Blog over a year ago.
And let's hope that that transition is with no loss of life.
These are my views only. Thanks for reading