Word: lumumba
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...collapse in the Congo spread last week from the army to the government. Cabinet ministers argued heatedly with each other on the streets of Leopoldville. Lanky Premier Patrice Lumumba could seldom be found. With long-suffering President Joseph Kasavubu in tow, he was busy flying from city to city trying to impose a semblance of order...
...Master? Their trip was an embarrassing failure. The authority of Lumumba's central government extended no farther than the sound of his voice. As soon as he left a town or a province, power returned to whoever was strong enough and ruthless enough to wield it. At Elisabethville, capital of the secessionist province of Katanga, the plane was denied permission to land. A spokesman for the Katanga leader, Moise Tshombe, said that President Kasavubu was welcome, but "we refuse to let that other character set foot on Katangese soil." When the two harassed leaders took off from Luluabourg...
...plane landed, the Belgians dutifully drew up an honor guard. Alighting, Lumumba stonily refused to review "enemy forces." A Belgian officer said: "Our presence here is only to protect the whites." Snapped Lumumba: "The whites need no protection, and we do not need your presence." As the two Congolese leaders waited for another plane to take them to Stanleyville, they were surrounded by an angry crowd of Belgian Lumumba was cursed and spat upon...
...desperate effort to regain control of the Force Publique, President Kasavubu and Prime Minister Lumumba promoted a former regimental sergeant major named Victor Lundula to full general and made him commander of the Congolese army. A Belgian colonel in Léopoldville did what he could to help by going on the radio to order all white officers and noncoms to hand in their weapons, since General Lundula was now in command. The troops, he added, would be allowed to choose the white officers they wanted to stay on as technicians; those they did not like would have to leave...
...week's end the Belgian government decided upon armed intervention to rescue and evacuate its citizens in the Congo, who are estimated to number 80,000. Two Belgian officials left Brussels for Léopoldville to put an ultimatum to Lumumba. He was given the choice of inviting Belgian troops to restore order. Should he refuse, the Belgians would intervene on their own initiative. As the Belgian plane took off, the paratroop reservists were assembled at collection points, ready for immediate departure, and army planes warmed up at Belgian airfields to begin the airlift. Either the Congolese government would...