Who is Ludo De Witte, Belgian author of a resounding investigation into the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1999? In October, he signed a new book on the 1961 murder of the father of Independence in Burundi. Once again, he delved into the Belgian colonial past to identify responsibilities.
Ludo De Witte wrote his first book, Crisis in Kongo (Van Halewyck) in 1996, at age 40. The untranslated work bears this eloquent subtitle: ” The role of the United Nations, the Eyskens government and the royal household in the disappearance of Lumumba and the advent of Mobutu “. This thesis, five doctoral years on the sidelines of a civil servant’s job, corresponds to the beginning of his research on decolonization in the Congo, the former private property of King Leopold II.
What drives this young Flemish with a somewhat rebellious spirit, defender of the Rolling Stones against the Beatles and a big fan of jazz, with no other link with the colonial history of Belgium than those he established with his neighbors, good fathers of the Sacred Heart who went to Central Africa? Everything starts for him from a reading, Moïse Tshombe and the Katangese swindle, written in 1966 by Jules Chomé, Belgian lawyer and supporter of Lumumba.
“ I found to my amazement that the most important assassination of the 20th century for Africa was not elucidated », Explains Ludo De Witte – a surname which means« white »in Dutch. Curious, he begins to investigate and “ fall into the subject “. Already, it is laying the foundations for an investigation into the responsibility of the West, without much media reception at the time. ” King Beaudouin was not dead for a very long time, he had an almost untouchable status, a bit like a saint, and Mobutu still lived, he explains. Christian Democracy, which had played a large role in this affair, was in power. “
When appears Lumumba’s assassination in 1999, the context changed radically: Mobutu fell, war was raging in the former Zaire and the Christian Democrats were no longer in power in Brussels. The detailed investigation, made from the archives of the United Nations in New York and the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gives names and reveals the direct responsibility of Belgium.
A state crime
This book, translated into seven languages, including French at Khartala in 2000 – year of the film’s release Lumumba by Raoul Peck, with whom Ludo De Witte will befriend – has the effect of a bomb. The audience learns how Lumumba’s body was dismembered and dissolved in sulfuric acid. One of the men who did this “work” kept two dnts and a phalanx from the father of Independence.
Gerard Soete, Belgian police commissioner who was in the maneuver, confirmed this on television, which sparked an uproar in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ” It was very difficult for Louis Michel, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to carry out his project of conciliation between the different factions and governments, while the Second Congo War was raging, without mentioning or explaining this state crime. He was forced to set up a parliamentary commission, the aim of which was not to expose the case, but rather to try to digest these accusations.. Ludo De Witte wants proof that when the commission was set up in 2001, the same minister closed the Foreign Affairs archives for all research on Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
The parliamentary committee concludes that ” moral responsibility “, Not from Belgium but from” some members of the Belgian government and other Belgian actors “. The formula is practical: it has no legal consequences, and especially no criminal ones. The reason ? ” As the assassination of Lumumba allows the rise of Mobutu and his dictatorship, an established Belgian responsibility would have opened the door to demands for enormous compensation. », Specifies Ludo De Witte.
” Critique of capitalism ”
Louis Michel apologizes to the Congolese people in 2002. The sociologist, for his part, pursues his career with other subjects. Three years after the attacks of September 11, he publishes Who’s Afraid of Muslims, Notes on Dyab Abou Jahjah, Ethnocentrism and Islamophobia (Van Halewyck, 2004), on the figure of the founder of a Muslim democratic movement, and the subsequent state repression.
Fate in 2014 Mercenaries, secret agents and diplomats, translated under the title as The rise of Mobutu (Investig’Action, 2017). Then, in Dutch and French (2017 and 2019), When the last tree is cut down, we will eat our money: capitalism against the earth (EPO and Investig’Action editions). For him, everything is consistent: ” I did a book in addition to the investigation on Lumumba, another on Islamophobia, linked to the continuous exploitation of the periphery by the center in the world, then a book on climate change, which pleads for a leap towards a more balanced system. It is a critique of capitalism. “
In the meantime, the Lumumba affair catches up with him. The children of the father of Independence lodged a complaint in 2011 against 12 Belgians involved in the assassination. In 2016, a journalist contacted Ludo De Witte: Soete’s daughter, who died in the meantime, showed him “ stupidly What she found in her father’s inheritance, a tooth. Ludo De Witte files a complaint for concealment, a search is ordered, the tooth passes into the hands of justice – the only remains of the remains de Lumumba, who will be officially buried by the DRC. This involvement, rare for a researcher, also leads to a concrete role with the lawyers of the family, who ask him to prepare the historical record on which the complaint will be based.
Inconvenient research
In 2018, Ludo De Witte was invited to a ceremony at the Brussels town hall, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Lumumba square. A debate is planned: ” Lumumba and the fight against imperialism: ideals, principles of equality and justice; The inconvenient fight? Unsaid and hidden files “. Then his invitation is canceled. Afro-descendant organizations denounce censorship. One of the distinguished guests, Raoul Peck, intervenes. Ludo De Witte is invited back, and the mayor apologizes. ” The process does not surprise me, reacts the writer. Important sections of the establishment distrust me. Belgian diplomacy is very reluctant to face the crimes in which it is involved “.
In his latest book, Murder in Burundi, Belgium and the assassination of Rwagasore (Investig’Action, 2021), he lists examples of document censorship by Foreign Affairs. ” It is as if a musician had to play Bach without C and A. Holes in the archives are huge “. Another observation: the hot spots of colonization and decolonization have been revealed by researchers outside the academic world, like him. He quotes the Irish diplomat Roger Casement, whose report on the abuses in Congo in 1903 caused a scandal and led to a Commission of Inquiry, as well as Jules Marchal, a retired Belgian diplomat, author of several books on forced labor during colonization. Belgian in Congo.
To conclude, the researcher launches: ” I embarrass! We know since 1987 that Belgium had a role in the assassination of Rwagasore, because the Belgian resident general of Rwanda-Burundi admitted in his memoirs that the colonial administration explained to the Burundian opposition that it would be happy to her death, and cover her. But the academic world has looked elsewhere! “. And to castigate an elite whose ” nature He says, is laid bare.