The Long Arc of Atonement: Belgium to Try Nonagenarian Nobleman For Six-Decade-Old Congolese Murder
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The Long Arc of Atonement: Belgium to Try Nonagenarian Nobleman For Six-Decade-Old Congolese Murder
BELGIUM
On June 30, 1960, Patrice Lumumba gave a landmark speech at a handover ceremony marking the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s independence from Belgium, telling the audience in an indictment of colonialism that “…(it was a) humiliating slavery which was imposed on us by force.”
With that speech, the fiery critic of colonial rule became an African icon. But the country’s first prime minister also angered the West, especially Belgium and its ruler, King Baudouin, who was in attendance that day, and who, according to witnesses, spoke about independence as if it were a gift from his country.
Seven months later, Lumumba was dead, ousted in coup, shot and dismembered with his body burned in acid – essentially disappeared – with the backing of Belgium and the United States: Belgium opposed Lumumba’s plans to nationalize the country’s mines, while the US was threatened by his closeness to the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War.
Now, more than six decades later, Belgium is set to try one of its scions of society, Étienne, Count Davignon, 92, for complicity in Lumumba’s murder in what is the latest attempt by European countries to atone for their colonial legacies.
“There are very few cases where a former colonial state agrees to address colonial crimes and to consider (trying perpetrators) … even if it’s a very long time after,” Christophe Marchand, a lawyer for the Lumumba family, told the Guardian. “The idea is to have a judicial trial and to (discover) the truth about what happened, and not only the role of Étienne Davignon – because he was just one part in the whole criminal enterprise.”
In June, Belgian prosecutors announced they would try Davignon, who in 1961 was a well-connected diplomat-in-training in the Congo when Lumumba, 35 – along with two other officials – were killed. Davignon is the only one out of 10 Belgians accused of complicity in the murders who is still alive.
If he goes on trial, Davignon would be the first Belgian to face justice in Lumumba’s killing.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Juliana Lumumba, the daughter of the former Congolese leader, told Belgian broadcaster RTBF. “What we’re seeking is, first and foremost, the truth.”
The “truth” about Lumumba’s murder has been the subject of numerous books and articles over the past few decades, and now even two recent films.
Lumumba became Congo’s first prime minister after it gained independence from Belgium, whose rule was brutal even by colonial standards. Meanwhile, besides being despised and feared by Belgium and the United States, he was presiding over a divided country and was ousted in a coup orchestrated by separatists a few months after taking office.
Imprisoned, he escaped but was recaptured and transferred to the southern region of Katanga, where he was executed on January 17, 1961, with the support of Belgian mercenaries.
His body was never recovered.
Davignon, meanwhile, who went on to serve in high-level positions in the Belgian government and also in business, also served as vice president of the European Commission in the 1980s. He is accused of involvement in the “unlawful detention and transfer of a prisoner of war,” his “deprivation of the right to a fair trial,” and his “inhuman and degrading treatment,” Belgian prosecutors said. He had also been charged with intent to kill but that charge is expected to be dropped.
The first hearing in the case is set for January 2026.
The case is the latest effort by Belgium to reckon with its role in Lumumba’s killing.
In 1999, Belgium launched a parliamentary commission to examine the murder after the publication of an explosive book on the subject. The commission concluded that Belgium had “moral responsibility” for the assassination. The government apologized to the Democratic Republic of the Congo a year later.
About a decade later, Juliana Lumumba’s brother François filed a complaint with the courts, accusing the Belgian state of war crimes and torture, and of complicity in the murder of his father.
In 2022, Belgium returned a tooth belonging to Lumumba to his family: It was seized by Belgian authorities in 2016 from the daughter of a policeman, Gérard Soete, who had admitted to dismembering Lumumba and the other two officials, and taking two teeth, while working in the Congo.
These efforts fall short, say Lumumba’s family members, who add that his murder reverberates to this day.
“It was Congolese democracy that was beheaded with Lumumba’s assassination – Congo still suffers from it today,” a relative of the former prime minister, Jean-Jacques Lumumba, told Afrique XXI. “The fact that this democracy was halted in its early stages plunged the country into the chaos we still know.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
EU Civil Servants Demand Right to Protest Bloc’s Stance On Israel
ISRAEL / WEST BANK / GAZA
Civil servants operating European Union institutions in Belgium are planning to challenge restrictions on protesting their employer’s political stance on Israel’s war in Gaza, with many accusing the 27-nation bloc of ignoring its own treaties and international law by failing to pressure Israel over alleged war crimes in Gaza, Politico reported Tuesday.
Since late July, around 1,500 of the EU’s 32,000 staff in Brussels have signed an open letter warning of an “exponential” rise in starvation-related deaths in Gaza if more aid isn’t allowed to enter the enclave, urging action under the EU-Israel trade agreement.
Officials warned that the EU’s inaction makes it impossible to perform their duties without violating their legal and moral obligations. They accused the institutions of imposing “complicity” and suppressing dissent through intimidation, contract terminations and bans on internal petitions.
In response, the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, has insisted that foreign policy is a matter for national governments. It cautioned staff to remain impartial and avoid political activism in the workplace, saying civil servants can use internal letters, union dialogue, and meetings with managers to voice concerns – but not public protests.
The commission has rejected allegations of intimidation, countering that any departures or contract non-renewals were due to service needs and performance.
Even so, the European Council, the bloc’s head of state, confirmed the removal of staff from its canteen during a July protest where seven officials wore “Say no to genocide” t-shirts. The council, however, rejected claims of political suppression.
While some civil servants are considering industrial action, unions remain divided over whether to support strikes amid fears of legal or professional repercussions.
The internal unrest comes as global criticism of Israel has intensified following an airstrike Sunday near Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital that killed six journalists, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al Sharif, who the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed was “the head of a Hamas terrorist cell,” citing documents it obtained from Gaza, the Times of Israel wrote.
The IDF did not comment on the affiliation of the other five journalists.
Al Jazeera rejected the claims and accused Israel of systematically targeting its staff. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called on Israel to provide “clear evidence,” while United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres demanded an independent investigation.
Separately, Argentina’s Association of State Workers (ATE) and a human rights group this week filed a federal court complaint seeking the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his official visit next month, MercoPress added.
The filing cites International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued in November 2024 and accuses Netanyahu of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
The plaintiffs urged the Argentine government to either extradite him to the Netherlands-based tribunal or prosecute him domestically, as per the “aut dedere aut iudicare” (extradite or prosecute) principle.
Nigerian Military Target Bandit Group Terrorizing Local Population
NIGERIA
The Nigerian military launched air and ground raids over the weekend that killed more than 100 gunmen, known locally as bandits, suspected to be members of criminal gangs operating in the northwestern Zamfara state, the BBC reported.
The air force said it conducted the raid Sunday in the restive Zamfara state’s Bukkuyum area, where fighter jets and ground troops targeted a gathering of more than 400 gang members at their camp in the Makakkari forest.
The operation aimed to eliminate the gunmen, suspected of carrying out high-profile kidnappings in the region, after surveillance detected the bandits preparing to attack a farming village.
A spokesperson for the air force said the strikes killed several notorious bandit leaders and dozens of their soldiers, including some trying to flee the area, according to France 24
Armed groups of bandits have plagued communities in northwest and central Nigeria for years, attacking villages, abducting residents for ransom, and setting homes on fire after looting them.
In the past two weeks, armed gangs have attacked nearby settlements, leaving dozens of people dead and abducting numerous others.
In an attack on Bukkuyum’s Adabka village Friday, an unknown number of residents were kidnapped and at least 13 members of security forces were killed.
Nigeria’s banditry crisis began as a dispute over land and water rights between herders and farmers but has now morphed into an organized crime war, with gangs targeting rural communities that have little to no government support.
In these impoverished areas, cattle rustling and kidnapping are lucrative activities, while the gangs also impose taxes on farmers and artisanal miners.
The conflict is worsening malnutrition in the northwest by forcing people to abandon their farms, a situation further complicated by climate change and Western aid cuts.
The violence has persisted despite efforts by the government, with analysts explaining that the military is stretched thin while bandits expand beyond their stronghold in the northwest into central Nigeria.
Bandits, mostly driven by financial gain, have been teaming up with Nigeria’s jihadist groups, which have been engaged in a separate armed insurgency in the northeast for the past 16 years.
Spanish Town Ordered to Drop Religious Gatherings Ban Targeting Muslims
SPAIN
The Spanish government ordered a conservative-led town in the southeast of the country to drop a ban on religious gatherings at public sports facilities, saying the law violated the constitution and is discriminatory toward the local Muslim community, Euronews reported.
The ban targets Muslims celebrating religious events and was passed last week by the conservative local government of Jumilla, a town of 27,000 people, in the southeast region of Murcia.
According to the ban, municipal sports facilities cannot be used for “cultural, social or religious activities foreign to the City Council,” effectively targeting the town’s Muslim community of 3,000, which has been using those spaces to celebrate religious holidays like Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha for years.
The far-right Vox party proposed the ban, which was subsequently amended and approved by the center-right Popular Party (PP), also the party of the mayor of Jumilla.
Spain’s socialist government condemned the ban, which Migration Minister Elma Saiz called “shameful,” urging Jumilla’s leaders to step back and apologize to locals.
Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Victor Torres wrote on X Monday that the Spanish government officially ordered Jumilla to lift the ban, emphasizing that PP and Vox cannot pick and choose who can have freedom of worship, which is a “constitutional right.”
Secretary of the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain, Mohamed El Ghaidouni, opposed the ban and said the local government’s justification for it consisted of “institutionalized Islamophobia.”
Conservative figures in Jumilla, however, stood by it, with Mayor Seve González telling El País newspaper that the ban does not target any specific group and that her government wants to “promote cultural campaigns that defend our identity.”
Vox’s representatives in the Murcia region embraced the ban in explicitly anti-Muslim terms, according to the New York Times, writing on X that Spain is a country with Christian roots and adding that “Spain is not Al Andalus,” which was the historic name of the country when it was under Muslim rule.
The ban is the most recent controversy related to immigration and multiculturalism in Spain.
Far-right protesters and immigrants last month clashed for days in the town of Torre-Pacheco in Murcia after an elderly resident was beaten by perpetrators believed to be of Moroccan descent, an event that led far-right groups to seek retribution against the region’s large immigrant population.
DISCOVERIES
Canine Screen Time
Some dogs might enjoy the new season of Netflix’s “Squid Game,” but what they get out of it depends heavily on their personality and the kind of content on screen.
“The personality of the dog influences their viewing habits,” Jeffrey Katz, a psychology professor and lead author of a new study on the topic, told Popular Science.
The study was launched after scientists at Alabama’s Auburn University wanted to understand how dogs interact with television, and what factors influence whether they watch it.
In their paper, Katz and his team developed a novel questionnaire called the Dog Television Viewing Scale (DTVS) and asked pet owners how their pups reacted to stimuli on TV.
Questions included how frequently the pooches would bark, growl, paw the screen or even respond to other dogs, non-canine animals, and humans.
More than 450 participants confirmed that their dog watched TV, with a majority saying their pet responded more to animal content – especially the visuals or sounds of other dogs.
But their response depended on their personality: For example, excitable dogs were more likely to chase, bark at or try to follow animals on screen, sometimes even looking behind the TV to figure out where the critters went.
More anxious pups, on the other hand, were triggered by sounds, such as doorbells, human voices, or vacuum cleaners.
Meanwhile, some dogs even appear to develop preferences.
Study co-author Lane Montgomery observed this firsthand with her own 3-year-old Catahoula leopard dog named Jax.
“He is especially a fan of dog shows,” she told Science News.
The authors noted that breed, age and sex didn’t particularly affect a dog’s TV behavior. Still, they believe that more research is required to understand what keeps pooches glued to the screen.
Other researchers suggested that our animal friends are just watching because we are watching: Sitting together for shared screen time may offer companion bonding, even if the content itself isn’t always meaningful to the dog.
“We’re sitting on the couch with them, and it’s an enjoyable, companion-level thing to do,” Freya Mowat, a veterinary ophthalmologist who was not involved in the study, told Popular Science.