The apology, expressing "profound and deepest regrets," came February 6 after a two-year inquiry by the Belgian parliament into the role played by Belgium in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first and only elected prime minister of the Congo.

Karubi added that the government of the Congo is asking "everyone else who was involved to do a similar investigation. I'm referring to the United Nations, United States, and Russia because this country was the theater of the Cold War and that's what led to the assassination of our prime minister."

The BBC reported that crowds gathered at the "standing parliament"--named because the area has become a gathering place for discussion and debate of politics--responded to newspaper articles reporting the Belgian apology.

"Up to now they have not given us any good reasons for the assassination," said 19-year-old Ben Kabeia. "We must know the true reasons for the assassination."

A man born in 1935 said he remembers when Lumumba was killed. Recalling life under the Belgian colonizers, he told the BBC reporter that "we needed special permits to stay in this district at night. And the Belgians were very harsh with their workers. They used to whip us badly. The assassination of Lumumba was just another sad event on the list."

The BBC report said many involved in the discussion "blame Belgium and other western powers not only for Lumumba's assassination, but also for the backing given for 32 years to the former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who succeeded Patrice Lumumba."

After more than 80 years of colonial rule and plunder by Belgium, the people of the Republic of the Congo achieved political independence in June 1960 with 35-year-old Lumumba, the central leader of this fight, becoming the nation's first prime minister.  
 
Imperialist intervention
Within a month Brussels had built up a force of more than 10,000 troops in Katanga to protect the pro-imperialist forces seeking to separate this province from the Congo. Making their intentions crystal clear, the Belgian minister for Africa, Harold Aspremont Lynden, declared in an October 1960 document that "the main objective to pursue, in the interests of the Congo, Katanga, and Belgium is clearly the final elimination of Lumumba."

U.S. imperialism, for its part, backed the dispatch of thousands of UN troops to occupy the very provinces controlled by the Lumumba government, a step initially requested by the Congolese prime minister, but one that opened up greater opportunities for direct intervention by the U.S. imperialists in the Congo.

At a National Security Council meeting on July 21, 1960, CIA director Allen Dulles described Lumumba as "a Castro or worse." The following month Dulles sent a cable to the CIA station chief in Leopoldville insisting that Lumumba's "removal must be an urgent and prime objective and that under existing conditions this should be a high priority of our covert action."

According to a U.S. Senate report, the CIA in September 1960 sent one of its scientists to the Congo carrying by diplomatic pouch a "lethal biological material" (a virus) specifically intended for use in Lumumba's assassination. But after Lumumba was taken prisoner, he was sent into enemy territory in Katanga where he was assaulted, tortured, and shot by an execution squad supervised by a Belgian captain.

One reflection of the honor in which the slain revolutionary leader is held in the country is the recent unveiling of a statue of Lumumba in the capital Kinshasa.

The Belgian inquest into the assassination was begun in 1999 following the publication of The Murder of Lumumba by Ludo de Witte. The book documented the role of Belgian government officials--under cover of UN "peacekeeping" troops sent to the Congo and in collaboration with Washington--in the murder of Lumumba.

The commission completed its work last November, concluding that former Belgium ministers bear a "moral responsibility" for Lumumba's death, that the government and Belgium's late King Baudouin knew of plans to kill Lumumba, but that there was no evidence that Belgium officials directly ordered his assassination.

"Some members of the government and some Belgian actors at the time, bear an irrefutable part of the responsibility for the events that led to Patrice Lumumba's death," stated Foreign Minister Louis Michel, adding that the Belgium government demonstrated "apathy" and "cold indifference" towards Lumumba. Michel also announced that Belgium would contribute some $3 million to create a Patrice Lumumba foundation, supposedly to promote democracy in the Congo, and would contribute annually $500,000 to the fund.  
 
 
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