DR Congo Rebels reject ceasefire .. 47 years after the execution of Patrice Émery Lumumba ..

Mobutu & NIXON

MOBUTU.. early days...

Lumumba captured

Lumumba in Power ..

It is 47 later, the events that led to the execution of Patrice Lumumba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba) 47 years ago , are repeated, again and again in DR Congo.

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DR Congo Rebels reject ceasefire
Posted on Saturday 25 October 2008 - 10:25
Solomon Tembang Mforgham, AfricaNews reporter in Limbe, Cameroon Photo: Christophe Rigaud

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21243
Rebels in Congo have rejected UN calls for a ceasefire. This comes amid growing concerns that renewed fighting is fueling a humanitarian crisis. The rebel leader said he requested peace negotiations under a neutral mediator and there has been no response to the call made in a letter to the head of the UN's mission in Congo.
"The only response we have is the condemnation of the international community of the UN Security Council. We are surprised by this. And we are saying that we are asking for these negotiations. If there is [are] no negotiations we are going to fight this [Congolese] government until we will be free forever," Nkunda is quoted to have said. Nkunda said in his letter that he was withdrawing from a January peace agreement with the government in Kinshasa and was expanding his struggle to free the entire nation of 65 million people. The United Nations Security Council on 22 October, 2008 called on all armed groups in eastern Congo to lay down their arms and surrender without preconditions.It also called on the armed forces of Congo and neighboring countries to cease any support for the belligerents.The hostilities have strained relations between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda who accuse each other of supporting rebellions against them.Nkunda previously said his forces were defending ethnic-Tutsi Congolese, called Banyamulenge, who immigrated from Rwanda decades ago. They are being targeted by remnants of Hutu militias that fled into eastern Congo following the Rwandan genocide 14 years ago.Several other rebel groups, including the Uganda-based Lord's Resistance Army, have also been staging attacks in northeastern Congo. The latest fighting broke out again in late August. Humanitarian groups say it has led to a resurgence of atrocities against civilians and has displaced more than 100,000 people.

An estimated three million Congolese died during two civil wars in the mid-1990s. A peace agreement several years ago ended most of the violence and brought national elections two years ago. But it failed to end hostilities in parts of eastern Congo.

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As I believe, that not only the US policy, but the world interest will focus on Africa for the next decade. The election of Obama will accelerate this turn of the US policy towards Africa. DR Congo is the Central “Republic” of Africa bordering with REP of Congo, Angola , Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and Tsad. Almost with all countries of central Africa. The situation and the politics of DR Congo will be f major importance. After 47 years of the execution of Patrice Lumumba the coyntry is in the same turbuland situation that was just after the declaration of its independence.

For this reason I submit hereafter links and pictures regarding the history of DR Congo and Patrice Lumuba.

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Democratic Republic of the Congo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

Formerly the Belgian colony of the Belgian Congo, the country's post-independence name was the Republic of the Congo until August 1, 1964,[3] when its name was changed to Democratic Republic of the Congo (to distinguish it from the neighboring Republic of the Congo)

In May 1960 in a growing nationalist movement, the Mouvement National Congolais or MNC Party, led by Patrice Lumumba, won the parliamentary elections. The party appointed Lumumba as Prime Minister. The parliament elected Joseph Kasavubu, of the Alliance des Bakongo(ABAKO) party as President. Other parties that emerged included the Parti Solidaire Africain (or PSA) led by Antoine Gizenga, and the Parti National du Peuple (or PNP) led by Albert Delvaux and Laurent Mbariko. (Congo 1960,dossiers du CRISP, Belgium) The Belgian Congo achieved independence on June 30, 1960 under the name "Republic of Congo" or "Republic of the Congo" ("République du Congo"). Shortly after independence, the provinces of Katanga (led by Moise Tshombe) and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new leadership. Following five years of instability and civil unrest, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, now Lieutenant General, overthrew Kasavubu in a 1965 coup. He had the support of the United States because of his staunch opposition to Communism. Western powers appeared to believe this would make him a roadblock to Communist schemes in Africa. Historians have also argued that Western support for Mobutu was related to his allowing businesses to export the many natural resources of Zaire without worrying about environmental, labour, or other regulations.

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Patrice Lumumba <-> Mobutu Sese Seko

Patrice Émery Lumumba >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba

(2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was an African anti-colonial leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped to win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in coup during the Congo Crisis. He was subsequently imprisoned and murdered in controversial circumstances with orders of Mobutu Sese Seko. No statement was released until three weeks later despite rumours that Lumumba was dead. His death was formally announced on Katangese radio when it was alleged that he escaped and was killed by enraged villagers. Shortly afterwards, Belgian Police Commissioner Gerard Soete and his brother dug up Lumumba's corpse, cut it up with a hacksaw, and dissolved it in concentrated sulfuric acid. Only some teeth and a fragment of skull survived the process, kept as souvenirs. In an interview on Belgian television in 1999, Soete displayed a bullet and two teeth that he claimed he had saved from Lumumba's body.

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more info >> http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/congo-maps.htm

Very important documents here ..>> http://www.dlynnwaldron.com/lumumba_contents.html

........Lumumba in Stanleyville- D'Lynn Waldron's 1960 headline story
........D'Lynn Waldron's commentary on this written in 2001
........Lumumba's telegram regarding troops being brought in, etc.
........D'Lynn Waldron's commentary on her time in the Congo written in 2001
........Lumumba's typed statements on his policies for the Congo with D'Lynn Waldron's handwritten questions
........Patrice Lumumba's statements on his policies for the Congo in D'Lynn Waldron's handwritten interview notes
........Lumumba's statements about the Belgian Admin and General Janssens in Stanleyville (document is a VERY large file!)
........Cable with Lumumba's statements sent by D'Lynn Waldron and not published by Scripps-Howard Newspapers
........Messages carried between Lumumba and General Janssens by D'Lynn Waldron with Lumumba's handwritten comments
.......D'Lynn Waldron's report on conflict between General Jannsens and Patrice Lumumba
.......Refusals of Belgian Administration to transmit D'Lynn Waldron's press cables about Lumumba
.......TIME Magazine's slanders of Patrice Lumumba May 1960
......D'Lynn Waldron's cable to American Consulate in Uganda about hitch hiking out of Congo through Ruanda Urundi
........A GALLERY OF PICTURES OF PATRICE LUMUMBA
........Response to a reader asking why Lumumba was assassinated
.......Raoul Peck's movie "Lumumba" a discussion by D'Lynn Waldron
.......Ludo De Witt's book "The Assassination of Lumumba" a brief review by D'Lynn Waldron
.......E-Mail with historical data concerning her father and family from Dorothee Gizenga
THE TRIBAL WAR IN THE KASAI FOSTERED BY BELGIUM BEFORE INDEPENDENCE TO CREATE CHAOS ALLOWING THEM TO TAKE BACK THE CONGO'S MINERAL-RICH AREAS OF KATANGA AND THE KASAI.
.........The Tribal War In Luluabourg- D'Lynn Waldron's 1960 headline story
.........Kasai section of D'Lynn Waldron's book "Secret in the Heart of Darkness"
........Henry N. Taylor killed filling in for D'Lynn Waldron in Luluabourg the Congo
........Journeys on the Congo and Kasai Rivers
D'LYNN WALDRON IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ESCAPE FROM THE SECRET POLICE
.........D'Lynn Waldron escapes the secret police in South Africa
D'LYNN WALDRON'S PHOTOS AND SKETCHES OF AFRICA
.........A large gallery of Africa Photographs
.........Gallery of Lumumba photographs
........OLD PICTURE MAP OF THE MAJOR TRIBES OF THE PRE-COLONIAL CONGO
.........Sketch of man in the interior, on the Congo River
.........Zanzibar Photographs

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Mobutu Sese Seko ..>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko

Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga (October 14, 1930 – September 7, 1997), known commonly as Mobutu, or Mobutu Sese Seko , born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for 32 years (1965–1997) after deposing Joseph Kasavubu. He formed a totalitarian regime in Zaire which attempted to purge the country of all colonial cultural influence and entered wars to challenge the rise of communism in other African countries. His mismanagement of his country's economy, and enriching himself off its financial and natural resources, makes his name synonymous with kleptocracy in Africa. Mobutu died on September 7, 1997 in exile in Rabat, Morocco, from prostate cancer. He is buried in Rabat, in the Christian cemetery known as "Pax."

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U.N. Congo mission under attack http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/10/27/congo.united.nations/index.html?eref=edition_world

Gunshots could be heard as he spoke on the phone. The man, who did not want to give his name for security reasons, said the attack had resulted in several deaths and that U.N. security forces returned fire in an attempt to disperse angry crowds near the U.N. compound.
It was unclear who was doing the attacking, but a local reporter told CNN that people demonstrating were from a village that had been taken over by the CNDP, a Congolese renegade group that seized a major military camp and gorilla park Sunday after heavy fighting. Watch more about the fighting »
The U.N. mission is located in Goma, which is along DR Congo's border with Rwanda.
U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg told The Associated Press that cars were being damaged and windows were being shattered.
Meanwhile, soldiers fled fighting in what appeared to be a major retreat of government forces being attacked by rebels of renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda, AP said.
Reporters watched the soldiers struggle to make a way through thousands of refugees also fleeing along the main road south from a major army base seized by rebels toward Goma.