Word: schrijver
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Belgian Congo, young King Baudouin arrived on a hastily planned flight from Brussels to see for himself what could be salvaged from Belgium's tattered colonial policy. Until last week Minister of the Congo Auguste de Schrijver clung fiercely to the line that the Belgian Congo Africans must be content with local self-rule now, with a gradual transition to independence in 1964. His plans collapsed when Joseph Kasavubu's big Abako Party and other native groups announced a boycott of territorial elections, the first step in De Schrijver's plan for a slow evolution. As nervous...
Stunned by the tactics of the Congo leaders, De Schrijver told Parliament in Brussels that independence might be possible in 1960, after all. giving in to Kasavubu's demands for direct national elections early in the year. Hours after De Schrijver made his new offer, the 29-year-old King himself announced he was flying immediately to the Congo despite the objections of his ministers...
...Brussels, Parliament was called back into special session to discuss the riots. Minister of the Congo Auguste De Schrijver announced that he would visit the Congo himself this month to confer with Congolese leaders. "I ask, nay I implore, all concerned to renew the dialogue between Belgians and Congolese," said De Schrijver plaintively. The Socialist opposition wanted De Schrijver and the government to be ready to negotiate independence now with the Africans. "Why wait for elections when you know the major parties will boycott it?" demanded Socialist Leader Léon Collard...
There is a good chance that the Congolese African leaders will boycott De Schrijver's conference as well as the December elections. "Nineteen Sixty will be a year of war and misery," predicted Troublemaker Lumumba before he was led off to jail by the Stanleyville police. As if fearing this prediction was all too accurate, Belgians began flying troop reinforcements south to the Congo...
...week's end, as reconnaissance planes droned ineffectively over the bloodstained jungle around Luluabourg, Belgian officialdom was hopefully awaiting the reaction of Congolese politicians to Schrijver's timetable for independence. But to outsiders-and to many Belgians as well-it seemed doubtful that any timetable, however reasonable, could ward off the chaos that was descending upon one of the world's richest colonies...