MURDER
KASAVUBU_TO "INVESTIGATE. .
The charge levelled by Tschombe that Patrice Lumumba, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito were delivered to him in dying condition by the government of Kasavubu, Adoula.and Bomboko in collusion with the - Belgian government [see World Outlook February 7] scems to have stung the three Congolese puppets. Their first reaction was to dismiss Tschombe's declarations, Now they have decided to reconsider,
On February 5 Justin Bomboko, who is Minister of Justice, announced ‘from Leopoldville that: "since Moise Tschombe himself has decided to speak publicly of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and his friends and has had the impuwicnece to throw the responsibility for this murder on the central government, the latter feels released from the shackles which were imposed on it out of respect for the recommendations of the U.N. and has decided to resume the judicial inquiry and action already started,
. Bomboko declared further: "Mr, Moise Tschombe did not receive from President Kasavubu nor from any minister of the central. government the slightest instruction or suggestion to proceed with the mur~ der of Patrice Lumumba,
"If, as he affirms, Mr. Tschombe is innocent of the triple assas- Sination of Patrice Lumumba, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, it will “do him no good to agitate the international press. To clarify the mattor, he necd merely roturn to the Congo and place whatever he knows at the disposition of the law,"
5s
Three observations can be made about this declaration. (1) The author is one of thosé accused by Tschombe of having suggested that he murder Lumumba. He is the right man to reopen the investigation which his government had previously closed} (2) If Bomboko succeeds in proving that Tschombe was the actual executioner or. gave the actual orders for the execution of the three Congolese martyrs, he still faces the question: How did the central government of Kasavubu- Adoula-Bomboko come to place Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito on a plane and deliver them to Tschombe with his butcher's reputation? Let Bomboko begin his new "investigation" by clearing up this not unimportant mat+ ter, (3) Was the United Nations involved in hushing up the facts in. the murder of Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito? This is clearly implied in Bomboko!s latest declaration. Did the UN, then, play a direct role in the foul execution of the Congo's outstanding nationalist leaders?
As for the Belgian government, it betrayed its guilty conscience by seizing all the copies of the issue of Pourquoi Pas? that contained Tschombe!s sensational revelations, Who is to investigate its role in this bloody business?
CHOU