WINDHOEK ELVIS MURARANGANDA
The family of the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Patrice Lumumba, say they will seek justice for his murder from the Belgian government, which was responsible for his death.
This was revealed by his son, Fansiour Lumumba, who was in Windhoek last week, during a meeting with members of the National Youth Council. He also visited Founding President Sam Nujoma.
Patrice Lumumba was assassinated for his pan-Africanism and his vision of a united DRC by operatives of Belgium and the United States on January 17, 1961.
Fansiour said his father was killed by the "westerners", in collaboration with some Congolese, because he wanted political and economic freedom for his people.
According to the son, the family will take on Belgium first; and if that is successful, would likely go for the US.
"We want true justice. As a results of this [Lumumba's assassination], 12 million people were killed in the DRC," said Fansiour.
"Those who killed Lumumba are still living free and no justice was served."
Reportedly, the firing squad that executed Lumumba was commanded by a Belgian, Captain Julien Gat, while the execution order came from the Belgian government.
In October 2000 Belgian Police Commissioner Gerard Soete said at an inquiry into Lumumba's murder: "We did things an animal wouldn't do. That's why we were drunk, stone drunk."
Recordings of the inquiry also indicate that former US President Dwight Eisenhower had said: "Let's get rid of this man" in reference to Lumumba.
Shortly after Congo's independence in 1960, Lumumba, who was the prime minister and minister of defence, sacked a Belgian commander of the armed forces and promoted all Congolese soldiers by one grade, a move which infuriated his detractors.
After his assassination, his body is said to have been cut up and dissolved in acid by two Belgian agents while Soete and his brother dug up the body for a second time, cut it up with a hacksaw and dissolved it in concentrated sulphuric acid. Only his teeth and a skull fragment remained and were kept as souvenirs.
In 1999, during an interview on a Belgian television, Soete displayed a bullet and two teeth that he said he saved from Lumumba's body.