Treachery at Coquilhatville

The inside story of Moise Tshombe’s capture in Coquilhatville is that it was planned that way—from the start. The background of the Coquilhatville conference is this. President Joseph Kasavubu was deeply in debt to Tshombe, in a way which the world did not realize: because Tshombe had taken the rap for him over Lumumba’s death.

I made an extensive investigation of the whole Lumumba case in the Congo in March. My findings were: 1. Katanga had not wanted to accept Lumumba when Kasavubu sent him there. 2. Kasavubu insisted on sending Lumumba to Elizabethville because he knew that Lumumba was near death owing to mistreatment by Kasavubu. 3. Lumumba died on the plane en route to Katanga on January 18, from a combination of heart failure, beatings, unhealed wounds and months of abuse. 4. Photographs taken of Lumumba’s arrival in Elizabethville were really shots of Lumumba’s two wounded companions and Lumumba’s corpse. 5. Lumumba’s body was kept in a deepfreeze while Tshombe and his advisers considered how best to conceal the true facts.

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Philippa Schuyler

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The inside story of Moise Tshombe’s capture in Coquilhatville is that it was planned that way—from the start. The background of the Coquilhatville conference is this. President Joseph Kasavubu was deeply in debt to Tshombe, in a way which the world did not realize: because Tshombe had taken the rap for him over Lumumba’s death.

I made an extensive investigation of the whole Lumumba case in the Congo in March. My findings were: 1. Katanga had not wanted to accept Lumumba when Kasavubu sent him there. 2. Kasavubu insisted on sending Lumumba to Elizabethville because he knew that Lumumba was near death owing to mistreatment by Kasavubu. 3. Lumumba died on the plane en route to Katanga on January 18, from a combination of heart failure, beatings, unhealed wounds and months of abuse. 4. Photographs taken of Lumumba’s arrival in Elizabethville were really shots of Lumumba’s two wounded companions and Lumumba’s corpse. 5. Lumumba’s body was kept in a deepfreeze while Tshombe and his advisers considered how best to conceal the true facts.