(ANSA) — BRUSSELS, JUNE 20 — Belgium is grappling with its colonial past and, after 61 years, is returning the remains – in reality just a tooth – of tortured former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba to the Congo and dissolved in acid in 1961. The handover ceremony took place this morning at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. The former prime minister’s family will now return the relic to their homeland, which has been preparing for a three-day national mourning for their national hero of independence from June 27-30. The coffin will be displayed at the Palais du Peuple, the seat of the Congolese parliament, and the official funeral ceremony will take place on June 30, the date of the 62nd anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a mausoleum built on the eastern outskirts of Kinshasa .
The assassination of Lumumba, followed by the disposal of the body, dismembered and dissolved in acid, represents one of the darkest pages of relations between Belgium and its former colony, which became independent on June 30, 1960. Lumumba won the country’s first free elections in June 1960 and was appointed prime minister before he was assassinated.
The tooth was extracted from what little remained of the body by Belgian police officer Gerard Soete, who years later said he was acting on orders from Inspector Frans Verscheure. Soete took the rest with him to Belgium, where it is kept to this day.
In 2011, François Lumumba, the assassinated leader’s eldest son, pointed the finger at a dozen Belgian officials and diplomats, initiating an ongoing “war crimes” trial in Brussels. (HAND).
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