Aristide, Lumumba and the bloody track record of United Nations "Peacekeeping"

Aristide, Lumumba and the bloody track record of United Nations “Peacekeeping”


CONGO -1960s

There can no longer be any doubt that the United Nations, the governments of the US, Belgium and the UK shared significant responsibility for the assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.

"IN HIGH QUARTERS HERE IT IS THE CLEAR-CUT CONCLUSION THAT IF [LUMUMBA] CONTINUES TO HOLD HIGH OFFICE, THE INEVITABLE RESULT WILL AT BEST BE CHAOS AND AT WORST PAVE THE WAY TO COMMUNIST TAKEOVER OF THE CONGO WITH DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES FOR THE PRESTIGE OF THE U.N. AND FOR THE INTERESTS OF THE FREE WORLD GENERALLY. CONSEQUENTLY WE CONCLUDE THAT HIS REMOVAL MUST BE AN URGENT AND PRIME OBJECTIVE AND THAT UNDER EXISTING CONDITIONS THIS SHOULD BE A HIGH PRIORITY OF OUR COVERT ACTION" - Allen Dulles, Head of the CIA, August 26, 1960

By January of 1961, Devlin was sending urgent cables to CIA Director Allen Dulles stating that a "refusal [to] take drastic steps at this time will lead to defeat of [United States] policy in Congo." That particular cable was dated January 13, 1961. The very next day, Devlin was told by a Congolese leader that the captive Lumumba was to be transferred to a prison in Bakwanga, the "home territory" of his "sworn enemy."

Three days later, Lumumba and two of his closest supporters were put on an airplane for Bakwanga. In flight, the plane was redirected to Katanga "when it was learned that United Nations troops were at the Bakwanga airport." Katanga claimed, on February 13, 1961, that Lumumba had escaped the previous day and died at the hands of hostile villagers. However, the U.N. conducted its own investigation, and concluded that Lumumba had been killed January 17, almost immediately upon arrival in Katanga.

Other accounts vary. Some accounts indicated that on the plane, Lumumba and his supporters were so badly beaten that the Belgian flight crew became nauseated and locked themselves in the flight deck. Another account indicated that Lumumba was beaten "in full view of U.N. officials" and then driven to a secluded house and killed. But a contradictory version indicated that U.N. officers were not allowed in the area where the plane carrying Lumumba landed, and that the U.N. officials only had a glimpse at a distance of the prisoners when they disembarked. By all accounts, however, this was the last time any of the prisoners were seen in public alive.

In a bizarre footnote to this story, former CIA man John Stockwell wrote of a CIA associate of his who told him one night of his adventure in Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi), "driving about town after curfew with Patrice Lumumba’s body in the trunk of his car, trying to decide what to do with it." Stockwell added that his associate "presented this story in a benign light, as though he had been trying to help."

Excerpts taken from: Midnight in the Congo - The Assassination of Lumumba and the  Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjold
http://www.ctka.net/pr399-congo.html


HAITI (2004-2014):

Today, the United Nations is facing a  serious crisis of credibility.  Whether in Ivory Coast, in the Congo or in Haiti, U.N. troops sent to “keep the peace” are repeatedly accused of perpetrating grave human rights violations, including mass murders. This note shall focus on the track record of the Mission des nations unies pour la stabilisation d’Haiti (MINUSTHA), which has been in operation in Haiti since the 2004 CIA-led Coup d'Etat that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's democratically elected government.
       
From the get go, the post-coup, neo-Duvalierist regime the U.S. imposed on Haitians established a relentless focus on destroying Aristide and his popular base. In 2014, the regime has brazenly intensified its attacks on the very person of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Thus, there is growing fear that U.N. "peacekeepers"  will end up repeating in Haiti, the shameful role they played in the Assassination of Patrice Lumumba.



In a 2010 interview, Brazilian diplomat Ricardo Seitenfus accused the U.N. of “transforming the Haitians into prisoners on their own island”. Within a matter of hours, Seitenfus was called back to Brazil and summarily fired from his post as Special Representative of the Organization of American States in Haiti.

Is there tangible evidence in support of Seitenfus’ grave assertions? American investigative journalist Kevin Pina released a powerful documentary that should help answer this specific question without ambiguity.

Pina’s We Must Kill the Bandits is 66-minutes long. Its “in your face” style is both provocative and irresistible. Packed with video evidence, “Bandits” leads the viewer to a disturbing conclusion: As per Patrice Lumumba’s 1960 Congo, in today's Haiti, the United Nations is mobilized as a deadly tool of repression in the hands of powerful countries that are bent on robbing Haitians of their right to self-governance and democratic rule.

We Must Kill the Bandits is available free over the Internet at URL: http://bit.ly/eWFDLd and https://youtu.be/25Mf7Lv5Qo8




Please be warned! This well-researched documentary is graphic and highly disturbing. The film should not be viewed in the company of small children.    


Jafrikayiti
“We now live in a world where powerful countries – all of them so-called democracies – manipulate multilateral bodies to the great disadvantage and suffering of the poorer developing nations“. Rolihlahla (Nelson) Mandela

Interesting notes received from Canadian co-authors of "Canada in Haiti: Waging War Against the Poor Majority": Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton:

Yves Engler shared the following quotes:

"Canadian officials took quite a different position. They celebrated ONUC’s role in Lumumba’s overthrow. A week after Lumumba was pushed out prominent Canadian diplomat Escott Reid, then ambassador to Germany, noted in an internal letter, "already the United Nations has demonstrated in the Congo that it can in Africa act as the executive agent of the free world."[i]

The “free world” was complicit in the murder of one of Africa’s most important independence leaders and the top Canadian in ONUC directly enabled his killing. After Lumumba escaped house arrest and fled Leopoldville for his power base in Orientale province, Colonel Jean Berthiaume helped his political enemies recapture him. The UN Chief of Staff, who was kept in place by Ottawa, tracked the deposed prime minister and informed Joseph Mobutu of Lumumba's whereabouts.[ii] Three decades later the Saint-Hyacinthe Québec born Berthiaume told an interviewer: "I called Mobutu. I said, 'Colonel, you have a problem, you were trying to retrieve your prisoner, Mr. Lumumba. I know where he is, and I know where he will be tomorrow. He said, what do I do? It's simple, Colonel, with the help of the UN you have just created the core of your para commandos – we have just trained 30 of these guys – highly selected Moroccans trained as paratroopers. They all jumped – no one refused. To be on the safe side, I put our [Canadian] captain, Mario Coté, in the plane, to make sure there was no underhandedness. In any case, it's simple, you take a Dakota [plane], send your paratroopers and arrest Lumumba in that small village – there is a runway and all that is needed. That's all you'll need to do, Colonel. He arrested him, like that, and I never regretted it."[iii]

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Anthony Fenton provides a weblink to Spooner's 2002 PhD thesis, on which the book Engler cites was based:

http://tinyurl.com/kp6sxrx

Bon BAGAY!