LUMUMBA’S DEATH

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30365, 14 February 1964, Page 14

LUMUMBA’S DEATH

(N.Z. Press Assn —Copyright) MADRID. February 13 Mr Moise Tshombe. former President of the Cong s Katanga, charged yesterday that the Congo Premier (Mr Cyriile Adoula) ordered the body of Mr Patrice Lumumba immersed in acid so.it would “disappear for ever” and so thwart a United Nations investigation of Mr Lumumba’s murder. Mr Tshombe, who is living in Madrid in self-imposed c - ile. told a news conferen. e that Mr Lumumba, first Premier of the Congo, an i two other prisoners—Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo died at the hands of an escort which brought them to Eiisabethville in late January !9<»l. The prisoners were brought to Elisabetihville under arrest against his wishes, said Mr Tshombe.. Beaten Up “They were in a lamentable slate, having been beaten up by their escort. ‘This escort turned even more aggressive once the aircraft arrived on Katangan soil and we have every reason to believe that it was then that the escort dealt the finishing stroke.”

A United Nations investigating commission expressed the belief in November, 1991. that Mr Lumumba and his fellow-prisoners were slain by a Belgian colonel serving as a mercenary in the Kafangan forces, in the presence of Mr Tshombe and other Katangan officials.