Congo crisis

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Areas of power during the Congo crisis; in the West Kasavubu , to the east Gizenga and southern Katanga .

The Congo Crisis (often referred to as the Congo Chaos ) was both a violent national crisis within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an international Cold War crisis that lasted roughly from 1960 to 1965.

Beginning of the crisis / Belgian invasion

During the crisis that occurred immediately after gaining independence in 1960, the Force Publique mutinied against its Belgian officers and against the government. The armed forces felt they were at a disadvantage after independence, as the Congolese soldiers did not hold any officer positions and these positions were continued by Belgian officers. This led to serious riots in the country, in some cases to a collapse of public order and attacks on the Belgians who remained in the country. At that time, around 10,000 Belgian regular soldiers were in the two military bases Kamina and Kitona , which, according to a military assistance pact between the Congo and Belgium, were only allowed to operate in the country with the approval of President Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba . After the attacks, the Belgian government had its troops deployed from the military bases, although this meant a clear breach of the agreement. But since Belgian citizens were actually in danger, Kasavubu and Lumumba initially accepted this step. However, when the Belgian troops began to "restore order" in the country on the orders of the Belgian Defense Minister Arthur Gilson , de facto began to regain control of large parts of the country, the situation escalated. On the one hand, there was a mass exodus of the Belgians who were still in the country, which then led to the collapse of the economy, because at that time the Belgian citizens occupied all posts in the country's economy and administration. Up to the time of independence, only 18 Congolese people had been allowed to graduate in Belgium. On the other hand, the rich mining province of Katanga now split off under Moïse Tschombé and the protection of Belgian troops. A little later, South Kasai joined this secessionist movement . The intervention of the Belgians was rejected by Prime Minister Lumumba as a violation of the Congolese sovereignty and seen as an invasion of an independent country by the old colonial power, which is why he asked the United Nations for help.

The United Nations then dispatched a UN peacekeeping mission from July 1960 to June 1964 , based on UN Resolution 143 of July 14, 1960, which gradually replaced the Belgian troops across the country. However, the blue helmets did nothing against the secession movement of Tschombé. The western states did not support the Congo either, which is why Lumumba and Kasavubu turned to the Soviet Union on July 14, 1960 . Belgian historian David Van Reybrouck believes that Lumumba was less interested in ideological reasons to turn to Khrushchev , but rather, for pragmatic reasons, to turn to the only power that promised him help after his country became a pawn Belgian imperialist interests. As a result, the local crisis became a battlefield for the global Cold War . Since the Congo is an important supplier of cobalt and uranium , Lumumba (for himself probably unconsciously) became the deadly enemy of the Americans. In particular, the mining of uranium was of crucial importance for the USA. B. the uranium for the Manhattan project came from the Congolese Shinkolobwe mine .

Constitutional crisis

In September 1960 there was a constitutional crisis in the capital Léopoldville , during which President Kasavubu and Prime Minister Lumumba declared each other to be deposed. Although both were initially political partners, they became increasingly entangled in a personal argument that was fueled by their respective national and international supporters. President Kasavubu envied Lumumba the numerous privileges of the Prime Minister and preferred heads of government who followed his will; Lumumba, on the other hand, was disappointed that he had "only" become head of government even though he had won the elections and headed the largest national party.

Assassination of Lumumba

After consultation with the United States , Colonel Mobutu finally launched a coup d'état , who deposed Lumumba and enabled Kasavubu to appoint a prime minister he liked. This was followed by a CIA murder assignment against Lumumba, which the head of the organization in the Congo, Lawrence R. Devlin, did not carry out. Instead, Lumumba was abducted to Katanga and murdered in January 1961. Lumumba's supporters formed an anti-government in Stanleyville headed by Antoine Gizenga , who controlled the eastern part of the country.

Civil and international proxy war

In November 1960 the Congo had become an international battlefield with 4 different governments and 4 different capitals, each with its own army and international allies.

Death of the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld

In September 1961 there was a mysterious crash of a UN airplane near Ndola Airport , in the border area between the breakaway province of Katanga and Northern Rhodesia , today's Zambia . The then UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 other people were on board . Hammarskjöld was on his way to Ndola for a peace negotiation meeting with the Congolese politician Moïse Tschombé, who was supported by Belgium and western secret services.

Simba uprising

After these events, the UN blue helmets ended the Tschombés secession in the two Katanga campaigns in 1963. With the capture of the Orientale province by government troops, the unity of the Congolese state was restored. In 1964, the Simba uprising , supported by Lumumba's supporters, began in the east of the country , but was quickly put down by Congolese, American and Belgian troops as well as white mercenaries. For this purpose, the United States Air Force stationed the United States Air Force in the Congo, consisting of 13 North American T-28 fighters, 5 Douglas A-26 bombers and 3 Curtiss C-46 transport aircraft, while Belgium provided paratroopers from the Para-Commando Brigade . Even the intervention of a small Cuban expeditionary force under Che Guevara on the side of the rebels could no longer turn the tide. Paradoxically, the former enemies Kasavubu and Tschombé allied during the Simba uprising and were able to stabilize the country, which ended the renewed civil war. Belgium, which was relieved by the renewed friendship treaty, then transferred numerous previously Belgian companies to the Congolese state. The Congo seemed to find its way out of the turmoil. This was followed by the 2nd free elections, in which the Tschombé alliance was able to win 122 of the 167 seats in parliament. But Kasavubu deposed the election winner Tschombé (as once Lumumba) on October 13, 1965 and replaced him with the more docile Évariste Kimba . This was followed by the second Mobutu putsch, which was initially welcomed by large sections of the population, as many people feared a renewed Congo crisis or a renewed civil war. The Congo Crisis therefore ended in 1965, although government troops were still breaking up local clusters of resistance by the end of the 1960s.

literature

  • Foreign Areas Studies Division (Ed.): Area handbook for the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) . United States Government Printing Office , Washington, DC 1962.
  • Foreign Areas Studies (Ed.): Area handbook for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo Kinshasa) . US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 1971.
  • Catherine Hoskyns: Congo Since Independence, January 1960-December 1961 . Oxford University Press, London, New York, Toronto 1965.
  • Thomas Kacza: The Congo Crisis 1960-1965 Centaurus-Verlagsgesellschaft, Pfaffenweiler 1990, ISBN 978-3-89085-477-9 .
  • Albert Kalonji Ditunga Mulopwe: Congo 1960. La secession du Sud-Kasaï, la vérité du Mulopwe . L'Harmattan, Paris 2005, ISBN 978-2-7475-8132-5 .
  • Jules Gérard-Libois: Katanga Secession . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, London 1966.
  • Colin Legum: Congo Disaster . Penguin Books, Baltimore 1961 ( online ).
  • David Van Reybrouck : Congo: A Story . 6th edition. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-42307-3 .
  • Peter Scholl-Latour : Matata on the Congo . German publishing company, Stuttgart 1961.
  • Peter Scholl-Latour : Murder on the Great River. A quarter of a century of African independence . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 978-3-421-06307-6 .
  • Jean Stengers: Precipitous Decolonization: The Case of the Belgian Congo. In: Prosser Gifford, William Roger Louis (Ed.): The Transfer of Power in Africa. Decolonization, 1940-1960 . Yale University Press, New Haven 1982, ISBN 978-0-300-02568-2 , pp. 305-336.
  • Albert Wirz: War in Africa. The post-colonial conflicts in Nigeria, Sudan, Chad and Congo . (= Contributions to colonial and overseas history. Volume 23). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982, ISBN 978-3-515-03752-5 .
  • Ludo de Witte: Government commission murder. The death of Lumumba and the Congo crisis . Forum, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 978-3-931801-09-0 .
  • Crawford Young: Politics in the Congo. Decolonization and Independence . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1965.
  • Torben Gülstorff: Trade follows Hallstein? German activities in the Central African region of the Second Scramble . Berlin 2016.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Resolution 143 of the UN Security Council v. July 14, 1960 (English, French), accessed on May 3, 2019
  2. ↑ Lumumba murder: Son announces lawsuit against twelve Belgians. In: The Standard . June 22, 2010, accessed February 5, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Scott Shane: Lawrence R. Devlin, 86, CIA Officer Who Balked on a Congo Plot, Is Dead. In: The New York Times . December 11, 2008, accessed February 5, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Daniel Stern: Eisenhower's toothpaste. CIA in the Congo. In: WOZ The weekly newspaper . August 5, 2007, accessed July 5, 2016 .
  5. ↑ New track on the mysterious plane crash by Dag Hammarskjöld , heise / tp of August 8, 2016