Katanga Massacre Alleged And Denied

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29316, 22 September 1960, Page 13

Katanga Massacre Alleged And Denied

(H.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LEOPOLDVILLE, September 21. Reports of a horrifying massacre of tribesmen loyal to Mr Patrice Lumumba by Belgian-led Katanga troops are being denied by one set of United Nations officials and supported by another. Support comes from officials in Leopoldville, the denial from those in Katanga. Those who support it claim that soldiers of Mr Tshombe have raided villages in northern Katanga and indulged in an orgy of murder, rape and looting.

These officials say it is understood that the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Dag Hammarskjold, has sent Mr Tshombe “one of the most strongly worded protests he has ever made.” United Nations sources in Leopoldville said people of the Baluba tribe were being brutally liquidated in Katanga. The Katanga gendarmerie were going around in lorries tying people’s hands behind their backs and shooting them. Women and children were being killed.

The United Nations sources described the massacre as “the

most brutal yet to have taken place in the Congo.” No figures of the number dead were available, but they were sufficient to cause anger among United Nations troops, it was stated.

There have been reports of entire Baluba villages in northern Katanga being pillaged and women raped. There are Belgian officers in the Katanga gendarmerie. It was not known if they were involved in the reported slaughter. The United Nations sources said a full report was being demanded from those responsible. Reuters said 68 men. women and children had been killed by gendarmes in one village alone and the total casualty figures might run into hundreds. In Elisabethville, senior United Nations officials said they had no information to support the massacre reports, British United Press said. One senior United Nations

official said: "I can only assume that this statement refers to the events of last week in the southcentral Katanga coalmining town of Luena. "Even then, if this is true, the use of the words ’massacre’ and ‘liquidation’ seems a little strong. Certainly there were grave incidents in Luena, but in the light of the more than 2000 killed in the fighting and savagery round Bakwanga, the casualties in Luena were small.”