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46 ANGRY MEN THE 46 CIVILIAN DOCTORS OF ELiSABETHVILLE DENOUNCE

U.N.O. VIOLATIONS IN KATANGA OF •

ITS OWN CHARTER •

THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS •

THE GEN"EVA CONVENTIONS

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PREFACE BY Mr. PAUL STRUYE PRESIDENT OF THE BELGIAN SENATE

It is our purpose , in issuing these reprints, to recapture for those who care some of the true history of the past twenty years. T alleyrand said that speech was used by man to conceal his thoughts. Today that wily realist would add that "history" has become the means of falsifying the record of past events. We h ope th at the rescue in this series of a few of the honest books of the period, w h i ch h ave been smothered by the Liberal Est abli shment, will cause some thi n rays of truth to pierce through the fog of distortion and falsehood that now e n velo ps A m e r ica . For when man 's past crimes are presented as virtuous accomplishments, he has little ch a nce to avoid the repetition of either the crimes or their cruel results.

REPRINT SERIES

46 ANGRY MEN by T HE CIVILIAN D OCTORS OF E LIZABETH VILLE

Aug ust I , 196 2 Dear R ead er : Unlike mo st of the v olumes in ou r D olla r R eprint Ser ies, t his is not an old book. The ori ginal appeared only a f ew mo nths ago. But it is an im por t ant book. Not becau se of it s au t hors or it s literar y q uality or it s earlier impac t on t hose w ho deter mi ne t he co urse of history, but simpl y because of the fac ts w hic h it presents. There are st ill millions of honorabl e peop le, even othe rw ise well in for med people , t hr oughout t he wo rld w ho believe - as t hese fort y- six doctors believed a year ago - tha t there is some good in the United Nations. We ourselves believe tha t it is sim ply an instrumentali ty in t he Intern ational Communist Conspiracy's p lan of global con qu est. \'(Te believe that today the United Nations organization is alm ost completely controlled by th e Communists; and that those w ho in fest the upe nded ant box on the East Ri ver are ju st as c r uel , murderous, ruthless, and rotten as are their counterparts in other in strumentalities of Soviet power and propaganda, wherever fo un d. These forty-s ix doctors do not go so far. Ob viously many of them still ha ve hopes for the United Nations. We h ave re pr oduced their "book" exactly as th ey p repared it, withou t any c han ges or edi tin g even as to the " lapses" in En glish in their translation from the French - in which, as t heir na tive language, their protest was ori gina lly wr it ten. We think yo u should read t his book fo r - among other reaso ns - its help toward s for m ing yo ur own opi nion of t he United Nations. And you will certainly fi nd it of gr eat and in form at ive in terest in connec t ion wit h t he past , presen t , an d f u t ure activiti es of the ' U nited Na tions in t he Co ngo. Since rely,

AMERICAN OPINION REPRINTS are published by , and may be orde red dir ectly f rom, Robert Welch, lne., Belmont, Massachusetts 02178 . Price one dollar pe r copy, or twelve copies for ten dollars. AMERICAN OPINION magazine is publi shed by the same firm. Subscription rates in United States and Canada are ten dollars per yea r; in all other countries, twelve dollars per year.

46 ANGRY MEN

©

Copyright, 1962 by American Opinion

This copyright applies only to material we have added, as on the inside front cover . Reproduction of the original cont ent s is specificall y authorized by the origin al publishers.

A french edition of this report is available. II existe un e edition francai se de ce docum ent.

Editor responsable Dr . T. VLEURINCK, 96, Avenue de Broqueville, Bruxelle s 15

STATEMENT FROM THE EDITOR

The majority of them Belgian, but also Italian, Swiss, Hungarian, Brazilian and Spanish, these "46 angry men" are the Elisabethville doctors. They practise there for the benefit of underdeveloped populations, what has been called "de luxe medicine" in a perfect "human relations" atmosphere long before the creation of this modish expression. With the candour of honest people, they imagined that the United Nations Organization would only send to Katanga honest WorId citizens respectful of Right and Justice. Therefore their deception could not have been bigger and their indignation could only "scandalize" comm itted fanatics who are insincere or who have guilty conscience. Thus, I am very proud of the honor that my colleagues have shown in asking me to diffuse their evidence and their accusations. I hope whole heartily that with the help of all those who read this, we will be able to disintoxicate World opinion and to obtain a reform of the International organization b y controlling it through a permanent Judicial Institution without which it will soon collapse, held in contempt by all peoples for whom the "Priority of the Right" still means something.

Dr. T. VLEURINCK

PREFACE

SENAT

AN APPEAL TO WORLD OPINION

PRESIDENCE

Belgium, faithful to a long tradition of International cooperation, not lacked in supporting the Vnited Nations Organization of which it always been an active, loyal and devoted member and within which it never ceased to promote conciliation and collaboration of peoples in high interest of peace.

has has has the

Just after the painful events of July 1960, it unreservedly approved the intervention of the armed forces of V.N.O. in the Congo as this seemed to be the only means of reestablishing the dangerously troubled order and of avoiding a clash between the two ideological blocks which oppose each other in the world and the subsequent outbreak of a new Korean war. The action of these armed forces was, at first, useful and meritorious. The "blue helmets" succeeded in occupying the principal strategic centers of the Congo without the use of arms and in maintaining peace there. Afterwards V.N.O. contributed to the protection of the Whites and to the subsistance of the Congolese. Objectivity demands that we be grateful for this. But the same desire for objectivity obliges us to note that the V.N.O. leaders later thought it necessary to engage in veritable war operations in Katanga, a decision which can be justified neither in law nor fact and of which M. Spaak, Belgian Foreign Minister, was able to say that it had been lit certain respects carried out under conditions that were truly inhuman. In the course of these operations, huge industrial riches and sources of supply were destroyed. Numerous lives were sacrified among the civilian population, black and white. According to reliable witnesses, acts of looting, murders and common law crimes were committed by soldiers or by agents dependent upon V.N.O.

In the pages which follow, the forty-six civilian doctors from Elisabethville expose a large number 0; violations of the Geneva Convention. Quite rightly these revelations have provoked an emotional indignation in the heart of public opinion, not only in Belgium, but in many other countries. On October 12, 1961, the Belgian Senate unanimously voted a motion which declared that "it was indispensable and urgent to open an international enquiry to determine whether the serious accusations made against certain agents of the V .N.O. or certain elements of the international forces stationed in Katanga are founded or not, and if necessary to establish the responsability with a view to punishing the persons concerned and making reparations to the victims for prejudice suffered". Vntil now nothing has resulted from this motion of which nobody wm doubt the exemplary moderation. Since then, new operations have broken out in Katanga, new victims have fallen. new crimes have been brought to light. More than ever therefore an impartial international enquiry appears imperiously necessary for the most elementary idea of equity. In all civilized countries common law criminals are subjected to the severity of a Tribune or of an Assize Court and the responsible authorities do not hesitate to ensure, within the unfortunately limited measures of possibility, that any unjust wrongs which their agents would have caused to innocent victims, be indemnified. It would be inconceivable that only the world Organization whose aims and whose "raison d'etre" are to maintain or to reestablish peace within Justice, might escape from a moral duty which is the common law of all legal States. It is undoubtedly possible that the accusations against soldiers and officials of the V.N.O., have been exaggerated or that some of them are inexact. But it is precisely to get to the truth of the matter that an enquiry is so necessary. If V.N.O. has been unjustly accused it should be the first to present itself unreservedly to such investigation. 6

Those who, like the authors of the appeal which we are about to read. animated by a regard for justice which commands respect demand an enquiry, are serving the interests of the United Nations Organization better than those who would like to throw a hypocritical cloak over the dramatic facts which are exposed. World public opinion must not desist in demanding full illumination. It is a question of honour for those who are not resigned to the triumph of Injustice over Right.

PAUL STRUYE President of the Belgian Senate

"A s you know, the United Nations force is a peace force" (from a telegram from U Thant to Mr. Spaak)

• "It is inconceivable that th e United N ations troop s could commit atrocities against civilians" (U Thane 's spokesman in New York , D ecember 14th 1962 .)

An african baby wounded by U.N.a. mo rta r fire .

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To the President of the Central Committee of the International Red Cross, Geneva (Switzerland).

Dear Mr. President, The forty-six civilian doctors of Elisahethville, whose names you will find in the annexed list, have the honour to lodge a complaint against the United Nations Organisation represented by its responsible leaders in New York, in Leopoldville and in Elisabethville, for grave and repeated violations of the International Conventions of the Red Cross in Geneva (August 12th, 1949). Here is a partial list of the violations ascertained : 10 Murder and assassination of unarmed civilians, among whom: Messrs. Ermanllo Prina (Italian), Gianni Mino (Italian), Kipaso Solo (Katangan), Kulemuna John (Nothern Rhodesian), Jose Kabutano (Katangan), Julias Luhunda (Northern Rhodesian), Nasoni Bwalia (Northern Rhodesian), Kiambo Joseph (Katangari), Bwalu Stephane (Katangan), Kawatu Samakayi (Katangan), Sunga Gregoire (Katangan), Charles Kreins (Belgian) and Georges Henrioul (Belgian), all killed on December 5th, 1961. Mrs. Henriette Baratella-Servais delegate of the International gian : hospital orderly of (Dutch: hospital orderly of ber 13th, 1961.

(French), Mr. Georges Olivet (Swiss: Red Cross), Mrs. Nicole Vroonen (Belthe Red Cross), Mr . Sijtse Smeding the Red Cross), all killed on Decem-

Mr. Ghislain Tshibamba (Katangan) and his wife Suzanna Kabena (Katangan), Mr. Guy Stutterheim (Belgian) , Mr. Marc Beugnies (Belgian) and Mr. Guy De Deken (Belgian), all killed on December 15th, 1961. Mr. Guillaume Derriks (Belgian), Mrs. Derriks, his mother (Belgian, aged 87), Mr. Jean Fimbo (Katangan), all killed on December 16th. 9

Mr. Jean-Claude Favre (Swiss), killed on December 18th. Messrs. Willy Alazraki (Belgian), Pierre Cuyt (Belgian), Jacques Drugmant (Belgian) and Eric De Rijckere (Belgian), Georges Vandeput Belgian), all killed on December 19th, 1961. Mr. Kasamba Emmanuel (Katangan), killed on September 13th. Messrs. Kipilipili (Katangan), Muteba (Katangan), Powis de Tenbossche (Belgian), all killed on September 15th. As you will see from our documents, this list includes not one single soldier, nor a single civilian killed by mortar of uncertain origin or stray bullet, or whose doubtful case is not sufficiently proven by conclusive evidence. 2° Injuries to the integral parts of the body (voluntary wounds). 3° Rape. 4° Arbitrary arrests. with or without brutality. 5° Unmotivated machine-gunning of civilian houses. 6° Taking of hostages. 7° Faking and camouflaging equivalent to false testimonies. 8° Multiple thefts and looting from jewels and wrist-watches onwards up to cars, vans and trucks. 9° Bombing of the "Prince Leopold" Hospital in Elisabethville, of the "Reine Elisabeth" Hospital in Elisabethville, of the Shinkolobwe Hospital. Bombing without warning and without delay for evacuation of the hospital and of the missionary buildings of Lubumbashi (in fight zone). 10° Utilisation of the Hospital of the United Nations in Elisabethville for military purposes.

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Occupation, for military purposes, of the hospital of the B.C.K. and the University Clinic in Elisabethville.

12° Murder, wounding, arrests of hospital orderlies of the Red Cross; destruction and damage of civilian ambulances. 10

13° Aerial destruction of several non-military buildings and very great share of responsibilities in the destruction hy mortars of several other civilian or private buildings (houses, schools, social homes, churches, temples, missions, post-offices, offices, factories, fuel tanks, civilian railway material, road transport material, trucks, cars, etc.). 14° Detention in concentration camps of 30000 to 40.000 Balubas, in living and hygienic conditions bordering on genocide (2000 probable deaths in less than a half-year !). Before ending this distressing hut necessary letter, we take the liberty of clarifying the following points: 1) We have nothing against the United Nations Organisation as such. We proclaim that such an organization is necessary for maintaining peace m the world and fair betterment of the underdeveloped nations. But it is our duty to denounce the violations of the spirit of the fundamental Charter of the United Nations and the abuses to which they have led. They have, in effect, brought the U.N.O., a peace organisation, to wage war and bring ruin to a country where peace, order and racial understanding had been maintained. Bit by hit, they brought the U.N.a. to gravely violate principles as sacred as those of the Conventions of the International Red Cross of Geneva while negociations, perhaps slow, would certainly have been able to peacefully solve most of the problems. 2) It is not as active partisans of an independent Katanga that the civilian doctors of Elisabethville have thought it their duty to warn the world conscience, but strictly as citizens of the world, besides being bound by the Hippocratic oath which compels them to fight against death wherever it may come from. They have striven against the epidemic of bombs, mortars, machine-gunning with the only available preventive weapon at their disposal: a vehement protest from the start of the fighting. It seems to he evident that without their warning world opinion, the results would have hcen even more tragic. We are enclosing with our complaint a detailed record of 34 pages referring to some of the established violations. These records have been established through our own investigation, independent of that made in all calmness, by the Magistrature of the State of Katanga. The latter can, unfortunately, only record precise facts, receive under oath several testimonies, try to obtain 11

dispassionately evidence proving the accusations. But it cannot take legal proceedings against, nor judge, nor even inflict just penalties on the unworthy members of the United Nations Organisation, who benefit from an immunity which we believe to be contrary to natural ethics. Consequently, we beseech you to lodge our complaint with the highest representatives of the Organization of the United Nations, to make use of your moral influence, which is very high, in order to obtain the fair setting up of an impartial international investigations committee, to insist with a view to setting up a permanent supreme Court of Justice, capable of trying those responsible leaders and the members of the U .N.O. guilty of crimes and misdeeds either directly or indirectly through neglect, through lack of information, through culpable incompetence, through docile acceptance of orders contrary to natural ethics. The duty of an honest man is to resign when he is asked to accomplish a heinous crime. We remain, dear Mr. President, Yours respectfully, On behalf of the 46 civilian doctors of Elisahethville whose names appear on the liste hereafter: The dean of the medical corps, Dr. Roger Van Grunderbeeck. Elisabethville, February 10th, 1962.

1. Doctor Bone, wife of Doctor Bone (Irsac}; 2. Doctor Lenelle, wife of Doctor Lenelle (Government); 3. Doctor Bereznay (Government); 4. Doctor Bettens (Government); 5. 6. 7. 8.

Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor

Bone (Irsac) ; Bounameaux (Dean of the Medical Faculty); Bogaert (private); Calonne (private);

9. Doctor Camphijn (Government); 12

10. Doctor Cassette (U.M.H.K.); II. Doctor Compere (University); 12. Doctor Collin (University); 13. Doctor Cruces (private, recognised by the Government); 14. Doctor Defru (Government); IS. Doctor Delville (Government); 16. Doctor Demerre (U.M.H.K.); 17. Doctor De Reuck (Government); 18. Doctor Dierickx (Government); 19. Doctor de Scoville (University); 20. Doctor de Souza (B.C.K.); 21. Doctor De Waele (private); 22. Doctor Dumont (University); 23. Doctor Dumont (B.C.K.); 24. Doctor Feuillat (U.M.H.K.); 25. Doctor Geukens (Government); 26. Doctor Jacquerye (private); 27. Doctor Lambotte (University); 28. Doctor Lenelle (Government); 29. Doctor Mattelaer (Government); 30. Doctor Monseur (University); 31. Doctor Pieters (Government); 32. Doctor Quadu (private, recognised by the Government); 33. Doctor Questiaux (U.M .H.K.); 34. Doctor Reintjens (U .M.H.K.); 35. Doctor Rogirst (B.C.K.); 36. Doctor Rosu (private, recognised by Government) ; 37. Doctor Royer (Government); 38. Doctor Schepens (B.C.K.); 39. Doctor Servais (Government); 40. Doctor Sintzof (Government); 41. Doctor Szeles (Government); 13

42. Doctor Van Grunderbeeck (Government); 43. Do ctor Van Remoortere (University); 44. Do ctor Verhaegen (U.M.H.K.) ; 45. Do ctor Verheyen (Government) ; 46. Do ctor Verstuyft (Government). To this li st must he added Do ctor R ella (Gove rn ment) unable to reJom his post in Alhertville and who was a m ember of the confraternity of Elisahethville.

• "The U.N .O. spokeman said that U Thant asked Mr. Linner to convey his congratulations to Messrs. Smith and Urq uhart, to U.N. military command er general Raja and to the troops themselves for the "mastery" which they displayed! •• (World press, December 6th 1961.)

• "Formal orders were given to the V.N.O. troop s so that they would do everything possible to protect and safe-guard the life and properties of the civilian populations and I know they have executed these orders so far as it is possible - Stop - IN TRUTH I HAVE EVERY REASON TO BE PROUD OF THEIR DISCIPLINE AND THEIR CONDUCT: ' (Telegram from U THANT to M. SPAAK.) Photo A.P . A nun brings at the hospital a baby woun ded by U.N .O. mortar fire .

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CONCERNING SOME OF THE VIOLATIONS OF THE CONVENTIONS OF GENEVA BY THE V.N.O. (August 12th, 1949)

MURDERS Article 3: Persons taking no active part in the hostilities shall be treated humanely; in particular, murder of all kinds are prohibited. 1. On December 5th, 1961 : Shortly after midday, the truck of the "PRINA" company returns to Elisabethville from its Lukuni yards. On board the truck are Mr. Ermanno PRINA (22-year old Italian) and Gianni MINO, his cousin (21-year old Italian), their driver and eight workmen of Katangan or Northern Rhodesian origin. The truck is followed by a black car in which are seated two unarmed European civilians, Mr. Charles KREINS (40-year old Belgian) and Mr. Georges HEN· RIOVL (37-year old Belgian) who have arrived in Elisabethville from Jadotville, on business. The two vehicles are within 200 metres of the terminus of the Avenue Redjaf, when suddenly the mercenaries of the V.N.O., massed near the roundabout formed by the junction of the avenue de Saio and the boulevard Baudouin, launch their offensive against the Katangan armed forces, which include no European officers and which are also massed in the same sector. Without taking the slightest consideration of the fact that these vehicles are transporting unarmed civilians, some Indian hirelings open fire on them, bursting their tyres. The occupants jump from the truck and from the car to seek shelter in the ditch adjacent to avenue de Redjaf. Panic- stricken, Mr. MINO, the driver and a workman flee into the bush where they are shot in the back. Their bodies were not found until January 15th, 1962, in a nearby mass grave. That of Mr. MINO had a bullet wound in the left buttock and three bullet wounds in the thighs, which entered from behind, and one of which perforated the left femoral artery. He was therefore shot in the back while fleeing. IS

Mr. PRINA and situated opposite the and allow several of passing by, also take

the seven other workmen crawl as far as the conduits electric post No. 50. The concrete conduits are wide them to crouch inside. Other Katangans, who were cover in the ditch.

After a quarter of an hour, Mr. PRINA, confident in his status of unarmed civilian, decides to leave his shelter, raises both his arms. The Indian hirelings immediately shoot him down with a bullet which shatters his left arm. He is finished off by a bullet in his right lung. Mr. KREINS and Mr. HENRIOUL, as well as Mr. Gregoire SUNGA, are killed while in the ditch; the first one has his face smashed by a burst of fire, the second one is hit by two bullets which pass diagonally through both his lungs and also perforate his heart. Mr. SMEDING, Dutch hospital orderly, who was in tum to beassissinated by the U.N.O. on December 13th, testified having found them lying on their face, their arms folded in front of their head, as though to protect themselves from the firing aimed at them. Mr. PRINA was lying on his back, both his arms still raised above his head. The Indian mercenaries then advanced and from a short distance machinegunned the workmen hidden in the conduit, killing six of them (Messrs. Jose KABUTANO, Julias LUBUNDA, Joseph KIAMBO, KAWATU SAMAKAYI, Bwalia NASONI and BWALU St ephana) and grievously wounding the seventh, Mr. TSHIFUNDA, our witness of this slaughter, who shamming death and half suffocated by the bodies of his companions, only came out the next morning at about 7 o'clock. Together with six other bodies, he was picked up by hospital orderlies of the Red Cross and taken to the "Reine Elisabeth" Clinic, where he was still in treatment at the beginning of January 1962. The 4 other bodies were only removed from the conduit on January 12th, in the presence of the Public Prosecutor.

Result: 4 unarmed Europeans going about their peaceful occupations and 9 Katangan and Northern Rhodesian workmen, with no defence and without being summoned, are assassinated in a cowardly manner by the Indian hirelings. 16

2. On December 10th, 1961

Father Michel's Lancia burned out by bazooka fire from a V .N.a. Swedish armoured car.

At about 2 p.m., Father Alexandre Ferdinando GAGNA (known as Father Michel) goes to the Saint-Paul's convent to collect the Holy Sacrement. His vehicle is discovered later on completely burnt out with his charred hody inside, at the junction of Liege Avenue and Chaussee de Kasenga. It had b een "bazookaed" by a Swedish armoured-car. The ciborium with the Holy Species was found next to the Father's remams.

Brother Adrien gathers the ashes of Father Michel. 17

3. On December 12, 1961, Mr. Henri COUREAUX (Belgian, 49 year old, professor at Elisabethville University) leaves the rectoral office about 2.30 p.m. accompanied by Mr. Jean-Jacques VERMEIR (Belgian, 43 year old, official at the medical laboratory), climb into the University Landrover to return to the house which they inhabit together Avenue de Redjaf in the Uvira quarter. This quarter is cut off from the rest of the town, the families who live there have not been able to obtain the U.N.O. authorisation to evacuate; provisionning is impossible; water and electricity are cut; there are many children! Thus, for three or four days, Mr. COUREAUX and Mr. VERMEIR the latter in a white coat and regulation armband of the Red Cross, daily make the outward and return journey to town via the detour of the Kasapa and the Golf course. This time, they load the vehicule with three drums of drinking water and some provisions for themselves and their neighbours. In order not to pass by the Sabena Guest-House occupied by the Ethiopians nor by the new incomplete hospital with risks to be caught between the fire of mortars and machine-guns, they have had the habit of taking a relatively servicable path which passes close to the race course, at the end of the Kasapa road at Camp Simonet and which brings them out not far from their house. Mr. LIPPERT (Belgian 34 years old, dealer), who also wants to obtain provisions for people in the Uvira quarter, forms a caravan with them by following in his car. Towards 3 p.m., they pass alongside the Kasapa Police Camp, the last area where they are seen alive. They come out at Camp Simonet, penetrate the path which zigzags across a jungle of termite hills, bushes and very high grasses, and find themselves suddenly face to face with an Ethiopian patrol. These make them stop; they descend, perhaps make some movement towards escape and are shot down and finished off. The Ethiopian soldiers get rid of the bodies by throwing them into the hole formed by an old quarry which has since become a lake. Since then, it is the U.N.O. personnel who amble around in the two intact vehicules : they have been satisfied to blot out the indication "Universite de l'Etat" by means of three black marks and to replace it by the inscription : "O.N.U.". (Note: in all civilized countries the driver would be arrested under suspiscion of murder or receiving) ! 18

On February 14, 1962, that is to say two months later, acting upon indications given by an Elisabethville radiesthesist a new search is organized by the medical department and the Katanga Red Cross with the collaboration of the Swedish battalion and the bodies are miraculously found in the corner of the lake under a few spades of earth and dead leaves and under some branches arranged to camouflage the site, half-submerged by the water of the lake swollen by incessant rains. The bodies of Messrs. VERMEIR and LIPPERT are head to foot, that of Mr. COUREAUX is at a sharp angle. They are clothed but their pockets are turned inside out; rings, marriage bands and watches have been stolen. Reaction of the Swedish soldiers : "this sordid theft shows that it was the Ethiopians who did the job !".

Result : 3 European civilian (including one protected by the Red Cross armband) shot down unarmed and robbed by Ethiopian mercenaries. One is killed by a bullet in the jaw and in the heart; another by a bullet in the right lung and a bullet fired into the mouth; the third by an explosive bullet in the right lung.

4. On December 13 th, 1961 : Mr. PAYEN driving a tarpaulin-covered blue jeep and accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Willy SERVAIS, as well as Mrs. MERCIER, having sheltered in the college, try to reach the "Tabarin" establishment not far from the future new "Reine Elisabeth" hospital via the Kasapa. The SERVAIS's hoped to recover their idendity papers as well as part of the important provisions abandoned in their establishment from which they fled owing to the fighting. According to the information which they had been able to get, this area was calm; about 4.15 p.m. they reach the police station of the Kasapa 2, where one assures them that everything is quiet. Taking the avenue d'Uvira, the jeep keeps on in the direction of the future hospital (which has been used as a hotel since July 1960). Suddenly Mr. SERVAIS sees a white vehicle of the forces of the U.N.O. standing in front of the entrance porch of the hospital. Threatening Ethiopian mercenaries appear; Mr. PAYEN gets out of the jeep and while waving 19

a white handkerchief shows that he wishes to pass; with great gestures the Ethiopians refuse and order them to turn back. The jeep starts to turn back, and at that moment, an Ethiopian hireling fires from inside the white vehicle and shoots a bullet into the neck of Mrs. SERVAIS (French, aged 36, nee Henriette BARATELLA) who collapses. As the bullet comes out, it explodes and completely smashes up the lower part of her face, from the wings of her nose down to her chin. While his companions jump from the jeep in order to take cover, Mr. SERVAIS, grabs hold of his steering wheel and at high speed rushes his wife, with the death-rattle in her throat, to the police camp of the Kasapa where she dies almost immediately. Her body is taken to the morgue at about 7 p.m.

Result: one unarmed European woman treacherously assassinated by an Ethiopian hireling, while the jeep was complying with orders received.

5. On December 13th, 1961 : at exactly 2.05 p.m. an ambulance of the Red Cross leaves the public building of the Red Cross at the "Reine Elisabeth" Clinic. Mr. Georges OLIVET (Swiss, aged 34) delegate of the International Red Cross, accompanied by Mrs. Nicole VROONEN (Belgian, aged 35), hospital orderly and by Mr. Sijtse SMEDING (Dutch, aged 25), ambulance driver, go to the headquarters of the U.N.O. in order to get the authorisation to pass by the Square Uvira to try and organise supplies or the evacuation of the families, many of whom with several children, have been blocked for more than eight days in a district which is particularly threatened. Having presumably received the pass, these three heroes reach the Square Uvira, go into the avenue Redjaf, come into contact with several families, and want to keep on their tour despite urgent advice to the contrary given to them by these families who tell them to beware as the area is full of Ethiopians who fire at sight on anyone and anything. They persist however and go as far as the turning, come back, pass a second time, hut at the junction of the avenue Redjaf and the boulevard Baudouin, they come across a bunch of Ethiopians who stop them; Mr. OLIVET gets down, talks with them and then gets back into the ambulance, together with two Ethiopian mercenaries who place themselves in the vehicle behind the orderlies, threatening them with their weapons. The ambulance turns back, turns to the right up the path which leads directly to the Guest House of the Sabena. 20

Many testimonies agree on the preceding events as well as on the fact that the area was completely abandoned by the Katangan forces. It is about 3 p.m. One supposes that the Ambulance people have obtained from the Ethiopian post the authorisation to continue their route by the Kasapa detour via the Avenue des Aviateurs. Suddenly, from the left and from in front, fire is opened on them, wounding the driver Mr. SMEDING with two bullets in the left shoulder, the ambulance shows traces of a dozen bullet impacts. By reflex, the driver finds the force to turn to the right, into a large road leading to the former air terminus and to stop twenty meters further on. The ambulance people get down, the assaillants probably realize the terrible error they have committed in firing on members of Red Cross and through fear no doubt of Court Martial, decide to complete their crime by camouflaging it; from the right, two bazooka rockets are fired on the ambulance. This explains how the two shots could have been placed so close together, almost at the same place. (Another possibility had been envisaged : that after the gunning, the ambulance was stopped in Avenue des Aviateurs, then brought with the victims by the assaillants into the road where they were to be found eleven days Iater.) Whatever happened, Mr. SMEDING, has the skull blown away, the horrible wound reaches as far as the nape of the neck and the top of the back; Mrs. VROONEN is riddled with a hundred-odd pieces of schrapnel with cutting burns in particular in the back, the abdomen, the base of the sternum, the thighs; and Mr. OLIVET, wounded by forty-odd pieces of shrapnel, with cutting burns, in particular on the skull, the nape of the neck and at the thighs (each showing a very large wound) and on the left forearm as well as at the wrist, with an enormous wound blown into them. It is only on December 23rd 1961, i.e. eleven days later, that the ambulances of the Red Cross received permission from the V.N.O . to go and pick up the bodies, found at the beginning of the path which from the avenue des Aviateurs leads straight up to the old airport. They are lying in a lateral ditch, covered with a thin layer of earth. The body of Mr. OLIVET is covered by his personal flag as delegate of the International Red Cross and a Red Cross helmet. 21

Mr s. VROONEN, Red Cross Ambulance worker, assassinated by the Eth iopian mercenari es of V. N .O. on December 13th, 196 1, together with Mr . OLIVET, delegate of the International Red Cross and Mr . SMEDING, am bulance driver.

A.P . photo. A nun dep osites the Red Cross flag on Mr . OLIVET's coffin before prov isional burial in Elisabethville on December 23rd. In the background, the coffin of Mr . SMEDING.

The vehicule, of which 3 tyres have not melted under the influence of the heat shows traces of fire in places; the ignition key is in the "on" p osition; some petrol still remains in the tank. Apart from the bums

The ambulance used by the In ternational Red Cross D elegate, Mr. OLIVET in which Mrs. VROONEN and Mr. SMEDING were also assassinated after a machine-gun and bazooka attack by the Ethiopian mercenaries of U.N.O.

described, the bodies and clothing have not suffered from the action of flames. The glass of the forward windscreen pierced by a bullet hole at about the level of the left shoulder of the driver, had been taken away as well as the roof of the vehicule after discovery. Fortunately a photo exists which still shows the glass an d the roof in position (see page 75) . This camouflaging, these removals, this long delay show sufficiently the embarrassement of the D.N.a. forces dismayed by this "big mistake". According to numerous testimonies, it seems that only the Ethiopians were present in this area. Besides, the Katangans are well acquainted with their ambulances and respect them. The D.N.a. communique puhlished on the day of the "official" discovery of the bodies, slightly contradicts the previous communiques in which the D.N.a. asserted that the ambulance had been kidnapped by alleged European mercenaries of the Katangan Forces; this 23

time the V.N.O. has to come back on what it had previously said and talks of cross-firing. It is the beginning of a confession.

Result: three big-hearted civilians, members of the Red Cross, savagely massacred by Ethiopian mercenaries. Note: It is publicly known that a great part of the Ethiopian contingent is made up of disciplinary troops! This claim deserves to be clarified. It explains the difference in comportment between some Ethiopian sections, who are comparatively correct and the others, evidently made up of the scum of a population. If this is really so the V.N.O. must be blamed for not having insisted that its troops be made up of crack soldiers, worthy of an international peace organisation. Whatever may happen, it is up to the troops of the V.N.O. to display fair-play and to show an example to the populations who are on the way to civilisation. 6. On December l Sth, 1961 : Mr. Ghislain TSHIBAMBA, employee at the Sogelec, living with his family in lodgings in the Vvira district, not far from where he works, receives written permission from the V.N.O. authorities allowing him to remain in his house and also a pass. That same day, an Ethiopian patrol enters his house on the pretext of some sort of control. He shows them his precious paper. Soon after, a second bunch of Ethiopians, on the loot (the whole district has been looted by the Ethiopian mercenaries, as well as the district of les Roches), make their appearance, but on seeing the paper they too leave. Eventually a third buneh of Ethiopians even more threatening make their appearance. His suspicion aroused, Mr. TSHIBAMBA refuses to let them enter; the mercenaries force the door and shoot him down in his kitchen; as well as his legitimate wife, Mrs. Suzanna KABENA, with a burst of machine-gun fire which breaks both their legs, they are plunderd and their house looted. The gang leaves but comes back to finish off the wounded. All this is related by the second wife, concubine of Mr. TSHIBAMBA, who managed to escape this slaughter.

Result : two peaceful Katangan civilians, without defence and with guaranteed V.N.O. protection, are savagely massacred by Ethiopian mercenaries. 24

7. On December 15th, 1961 : Mr. Guy DE DEKEN (40-year old Belgian) taking advantage of a lull in the district of Uvira square leaves the house of his cousin Mr. Sheridan SMITH who had sheltered him; he goes to his car which contains a fair amount of personal belongings, takes out an English novel. His suspicion is aroused by a movement behind him and he runs for the house, leaving the door of his car open. He was seen shot at short distance by an Ethiopian mercenary, by a bullet which passed under his right shoulder in the direction of his heart. Two days later, the body of Mr. DE DEKEN is picked up, his book within reaching distance of him. In the meantime, most probably during the night, the left arm had been cut to the bone from the shoulder to the elbow, by a knife or a sharp machete. The Baluba cannibals who have taken part in the looting, are accused of this (?) Result : without being warned and without plausible motive, a peaceful European civilian is killed by an Ethiopian mercenary.

Mr. Guy DE DEKEN, assassinated by V .N.O. 25

8. On December 15th, 1961 Mr. Guy STUTTERHEIM (31-year old Belgian) and Mr. Marc BEUGNIES (38-year old Belgian), agents of the SAFRICAS, after having fetched supplies, decide to remain together in the flat of the former, at the Residence Rose, an appartment block situated at the corner of the boulevard Astrid and the avenue Leplae. Most of the other neighbours had taken shelter in other di stricts. It is 2 p.m.; in view of possible danger, a friend rings them up, advising them not to remain there. They tell him that they prefer to stay in the flat and owing to their presence thus avoid a possible looting of the building. At 5 p .m., the same person rings them up once more, but instead of hearing the voice of his friend, he hears an uproar of very excited people

T he mortal rem ains of Mr. ST VTTERHEIM still bear traces of fet ters o n hi s for earms and wris ts two months after the odious crime committed by the Gurkha mercenaries of V .N.a .

who seem t o be angry, speaking a completely unk nown language, screaming, and making a terrible noise. What has happened in the meantime? 26

The advance, avenue by avenue, and house by house, of a U.N.O. battalion with the insignias: INDIA-I CR. Mercenaries of First Gurkha regiment! They have invaded the Residence Rose, discovered its occupants and have taken them prisoner. Undoubtedly taking them for mercenaries or snipers, they make them undergo a severe questioning, with blows given with the fist, rifle butts, sticks or truncheons, and also kicks. Mr. STUTTERHEIM, who most probably tried to defend himself, has his wrists tied together. And finally, not having been able to get the information they hoped from these two peaceful civilians, they assassinate Mr. STUTTERHEIM by shooting two bullets in his mouth and Mr. BEUGNIES with a bullet in his heart. Annoyed and encumbered with these two hodies, the Gurkhas try to conceal their crime. In the evening, in a small garden bordering on the boulevard Astrid, to the right and behind a large rose bush, they dig two shallow and close-fitting graves, where they deposit the bodies of their victims shrouded in sheets, cover them with earth, and carefully replace the pieces of the lawn at almost perfectly level with the rest of the lawn. The grass has grown, and nothing can be seen, to such an extent that gardeners cut the lawn of this patch, at the end of January, without noticing anything whatsoever. But things take another turn : a police dog of the Swedish section of the U.N.O. stops dead in front of the rose bush and gives the alarm, on the occasion of a round-up brought about by the Medical Corps and the Red Cross of Katanga. After the second spadeful, dug without much conviction, Mr. Beugnies'shoe appears! A particularly heinous crime: grave maltreatment, assassination and wilful dissimulation of the evidence ! No more is required to send the culprits to the gallows in England or to the electric chair in the United States.

9. On December 16th, 1961 : the triple and particularly heinous assassination of three elderly people brought immortal glory to the U.N.O. 27

Well before dawn, trucks of the V.N.O. transporting Ethiopian troops head for a path which follows high-tension power cables. The villa of Mr. DERRIKS, head of the Vnion Miniere, is situated about 100 metres from this path. One usually reaches it by the avenue de Ruwe which after a little bridge over the Lubumbashi becomes a small private road. The second "boy" of Mr. DERRIKS, Mr. Andre KAPENGA, a witness, relates that nothing special occured until 1.45 p.m. At this moment, the old cook, Mr. Jean FIMBO, has just hrought coffee into the drawingroom, and Mr. Guillaume DERRIKS (60-year old Belgian) and his elderly mother (aged 87) who lives with him, are about to drink it. At that moment, an armoured car of the V.N.O. takes up position on the path alongside the high-tension cables, and is machine gunning the other side of the valley of the Lubumbashi, When the firing has ceased, Ethiopian

Mr. Guillaume DERRIKS (60 years) and his aged mother (87 years) at the time of their last embarkation for Katanga.

mercenaries enter the garden, from the direction of Les Roches, and machinegun the two cars parked in the garage. 28

The "boy" Andre KAPENGA, is panic-stricken; he locks himself in the food-store next to the kitchen. The Ethiopians climb the stairs leading from the garage to the kitchen and with a burst of machine-gull fire shoot Mr. Jean FIMBO, who has sought refuge under sink (a series of bullets, crosswise from the shoulder to the opposite thigh), enter the drawing-room where Mr. DERRIKS who cries out in English: "Not me", is shot down by a bullet (found later in the region of the spleen) and is finished off hy a burst which blows off half of his face and skull.

Right : Bullet holes, mainly from explosive bullets in the room where Mr . and Mrs. DERRIKS were assassinated. Left : Corner where their faithfull servant FIMBO had taken refuge under the sink, and had been shot.

A few seconds later, a third burst hits Mrs. DERRIKS in the right breast (the bullet comes out through her left side) and in the neck, sectioning the carotid arteries, the trachea and the oesophagus. At about 5 p.m., the "boy" Kapenga hears the soldiers once more enter ing the villa, where they run about looting to a slight extent before leaving. Soon after, Mr. KAPENGA ventures out of his hiding place and horrified at the sight of the three bodies runs away and hides himself in a loft. The next morning, on hearing the ch auff eur of Mr. DERRIKS, he comes down and leaves with him; Doctor FEUILLAT and Mr. DEWELF, who had 29

Mr . Guillaume DERRIKS, his head shattered by a burst at point blank range by the vaillant Ethiopian "blue helmets"

and his aged mother, Mrs. DERRIKS (87 years) her throat pierced by another burst from these "valorous soldiers of peace" . 30

come with bread for the DERRIKS family, discover the carnage and give the alarm.

Result: two elderly European civilians, sympathetically known for their generosity, and an old faithful Katangan servant (with 30 years service) are savagely assassinated by Ethiopian hirelings of the U.N.O. The elderly Mrs. DERRIKS was obviously the prototype of the mercenaries which the contingents of the U.N.O. may boast of having slain!

10. On December 18th, 1961 : while driving a jeep on the Munama road with two American newspaper reporters, Mr. FAVRE, civil servant (Swiss, aged 33) without being warned, is shot by a rocket from a bazooka manned by Swedish mercenaries of the U.N.O. The newspaper reporters were only wounded and taken to the U.N.O. hospital. Another "big mistake" very embarrassing for the U.N.O., who defend themselves by pretending that all jeeps are automatically considered as being enemy military vehicles which must be put out of action before they can do any more damage !

Result: One unarmed European assassinated by the Swedish hirelings, without plausible motive and without being warned.

II. On December 19th, 1961 : Mr. ALAZRAKI (30.year old Belgian settler) accompanied by his motherin-law, Mrs. WAUTERS SADAUNE, is driving along the avenue des Usines in his car in order to fetch bread at the bakery temporarily set up in the Union Miniere, At the cross-roads formed by the avenue Lubumbashi, the avenue du Pare and the avenue du Radium, without any warning, his car is machine-gunned by a gang of Ethiopians in ambush behind the school-bus shelter. Mrs. WAUTERS is slightly wounded in the leg while Mr. ALAZRAKI has a broken thigh with a fracture of the bone. He manages, however, to turn and to stop his car between two residential blocks. While fleeing 31

towards a neighbouring house, Mrs. WAUTERS hears the Ethiopian hirelings finishing off her son-in-law; he is assassinated by a bullet fired at point-blank range into the top of his skull. By crawling and dragging his fractured thigh. Mr. ALAZRAKI was trying to seek shelter behind a dog's kennel.

Me. ALAZRAKI, wounded and finished off in a cowardly manner by rhe savage D.N.a. troups.

Soon after, a car driven by Mr. Pierre CUYT (40-year old Belgian) accompagnied by Mr. Jacques DRUGMANT (38-y ear old Belgian) and Mr. Georges VANDEPUT (35-year old Belgian), all three representatives of the Union Miniere and who were getting supplies of bread and paraffin oil from the improvised shop set up by their Company, is machine-gunned at almost the same spot by the same gang of Ethiopian assassins (testimony of Mr. X. who watched the murder from the window of his house). Did they try to escape from their vehicle? Mr. X. could not see what followed as he himself had to seek shelter when the houses on the cross-roads were, in turn, machine-gunned. In any case, it is by chance that the hody of Mr. DRUGMANT was found the next day in a plot of the avenue du Radium, where he managed to drag himself. He had an open fracture of the 32

right instep, caused by a bullet, another bullet had penetrated the right breast as far as the left hemiabdomen, another bullet had gone through his left cheek, another through his left thigh (extracted during the autopsy) and two more had grazed his forehead and his neck.

Assassinated by D.N.a.

The body of Mr. VANDEPUT was to be found, on December 22nd, 1961, in the by -pass canal of the Lubumbashi; he had been killed by a bullet in the heart and thrown into the canal by his murderers. That same day, the body of Mr. CUYT was taken out of the Lubumhashi ; h e had an enormous opening made by a bullet, in the front of the neck, causing th e sectioning of the carotid arteries, the trachea, etc. Again on December 19th, at about the same time, a van of the B.C .K. driven by Mr. Eric DE RIJCKERE, agent of the B.C.K. (40-year old Belgian), who was going to the Lubumbashi station, is fired upon at almost the 33

same spot by the same Ethiopian mercenaries. Having been wounded by a bullet in the abdomen, in the region of the caecum and finished off by a bullet in the left temple, Mr. DE RUCKERE is thrown into the Lubumbashi canal.

Result: Five unarmed Europeans going about peaceful occupations are assassinated, without plausible motive and without having been warned, by the Ethiopian hirelings who robbed them of their wedding rings, their watches, their wallets and other belongings.

12. On December 19, 1961, the Irish battalion makes an assault on the B.C.K. camp, situated at the angle made by Avenue du Luxembourg and Chaussee de Kasenga. An old worker, half-invalid, Mr. SUNDA KATSHEKEKE, maintained on the payroll by pity, and whose job it is to supervise the lavatories is surprised alone in his maisonnette. Panic stricken, he loses his head and brandishes a knife in his trembling hand. He is shot! Result : a poor old man, who could easily have been disarmed has been killed by the Irish.

34

Killed

GENERAL RESULT FOR DECEMBER 1961 Out of 141 bodies from the December events found up to February 28, 1962,32 are those of Europeans including 4 women and 1 is that of a Goanese. Of these 32 only two were volunteers in the Katangese National Guard killed in uniform in combat. Volunteers, and not mercenaries, because these are settlers born or living for many years in Katanga which has become their own country; disgusted by the murders, looting theft and exactions of the D.N.O. they considered themselves in a state of legitimate de fence, an d enrolling without pay they fought alongside their black Katangese compatriots to defend their menaced homes. None of them were soldiers by profession. Of the 30 European civilians, 6 were killed by mortars the origin of which has n ot het been established with certainty, one was seemingly killed by a stray bullet, one was probably shot in h is car by a Swedish armed vehicule and carbonized (the evidence is still insufficient) and 22 undoubtedly assassinated by the D.N.O. sol diers. The list is not closed, alas ! 2 Europeans are still mlssmg, and there is every reason to think they have al so been massacred by the Ethiopians. 22 out of 30 civilians, that makes 73 % assassinated; 24 out of 32, that would make 75 %, in other words 3 crimes for every 4 civilians killed! The Goanese must alas be attributed to the Katangese soldiers, his Indian origi n having made him suspect of espionnage. One crime then, one only on the side of the Katangese ; we regret it but we regret still more the 22 D.N.O. crimes. One crime by the forces of a nation said to be half-civilized, and the 22 by the forces of an International Organization formed to defend peace and civil isat ion , with the following laurel leaves : 15 assassinations of Europeans b y Ethiopians of the D.N.O. , 6 b y the D.N.O. group supplied by India and one by European D.N.O. forces. Of 108 bodies of Katangese or Northern-Rhodesians, 54 are those of soldiers and police killed in comb at ; of the 54 civili ans, 13 including one woman were assassinated by the D.N.O. mercenaries, i.e., 24 %. 35

U.P.!. photo. On December 8th, 1961, a Katangese child killed by the "blue helmets"

is buried und er fire in the grounds of the Reine Elisabeth Hospital.

U.P.I. photo. On December 5th, 1961 , U.N.O. declares war.

First victims : these Afri can refugees whose lorry received a direct hit from the "blue helmets".

V.P.I. photo. The ambulance and the Europeans who attempted to evacuate the persons wounded in this odious attack were themselves constantly under fire from the mercenaries in "blue helmers".

KILLE'D GENERAL RESDLT OF: SEPTEMBER On September 13th, 1961, the civilian telephone-operator Emmanuel KASAMBA was shot in front of his switchboard at the Post-Office, by the mercenaries of the D.N.O. who attacked and overran this strictly civilian building. That same day, Mr. KESTEMONT, agent of the Banque BeIge d'Afrique (unarmed Belgian civilian) who out of curiosity, which was perhaps misplaced, had come to the the corner of the Place de la Poste, was shot by the mercenaries of the D.N.O. The same morning, a jeep full of policemen which was passing at high speed to the left of the Post-Office was fired upon by the D.N.O. mercenaries. With burst tyres and the driver having been hit, the jeep crashed into an electric post. The four wounded policemen were finished off, one after the other, on making the slightest movement (Evidence given by Doctor X., back in Belgium, and who saw the slaughter and was able to photograph it.) On September 15th, three peaceful persons were shot without reason by snipers of the D.N.O. perched on the roof of the Post-Office or on some other neighbouring buildings which they occupied : Mr. KIPILIPILI, agent of the Seven Seas Air Lines, as he was passing in front of the police station, on his bicycle; The student MDTEBA, a Red Cross Samaritan, while passing the corner of the cross-roads formed by the avenue Moero and the avenue Mgr de Hemptinne; Mr. POWIS de TENBOSSCHE (Belgian, official of the Information Service), while entering the Marucchi bakery in order to buy some bread. These D.N.O. snipers seemed to have no other motive of thus killing unexpectedly and without warning, than to terrorise the civilian population by shooting at peaceful citizens, going about their daily occupations, as though they were shooting at clay pipes at a fair!!!

38

WOUNDINCS Article 3 (continued) : Violence to life and person (integrity of the body) are prohibited.

A.P. photo. The ambulance man MOIse SONDA, in white coat and Red Cross armband is machine-gunned and seriously wounded in the right leg by D.N.a. mercenaries in Place de la Poste whilst getting out of his ambulance to pick up wounded victims. His leg had to be amputated. 39

September 1961 During the fighting in September, 20 Katangan civilians and 9 European civilians were grievously wounded in Elisabethville, many of whom by the terrorist firing of the V.N.O. snipers in ambush at the Post-Office and in the neighbouring buildings. Here are some typical accounts:

On September 14th, at 9 a.m. the ambulance man Moise SONDA, dressed in white and wearing the RED CROSS armlet is machine-gunned and badly wounded at his right leg by the mercenaries of the V.N.O. at the Place de la Poste, while stepping out of an ambulance to pick-up the wounded. His leg had to be amputated. The same day, at 2.30 p.m. a car driven by a European accompanied by his wife, their "boy" and his wife, are fired upon, without reason according to witnesses, from the redoubt of the V.N.O. hospital. The two women are wounded. On September 20th, 1961, the head of the fire department of the B.C.K. and his wife, while driving in his car not far from the club of the B.C.K. is without reason deliberately wounded by two bullets in the back, fired by an Irish mercenary standing at the crossroads of the avenue de Saio and the avenue de I'Etoile.

40

December 1961 On December 22nd., the total number of wounded in Elisabethville was as follows : 401, including 179 Katangan soldiers and policemen, 174 Katangan civilians and 48 European civilians (20 had to be taken to hospital, 13 men and 7 women). All the wounded Katangans had to be taken to hospital. The percentage of civilians wounded is higher than that of the soldiers : 55 %. Most of them were wounded by shrapnel from mortar shells of from stray bullets. Some of them, however, were deliberately wounded by the mercenaries of the U.N.O. We are giving here a few accounts of some misdeeds which are known to us and of which the testimony is certain.

On December 5th, at 1.20 p.m. Mr. Pierre RUTIN (agent of the U.M.R.K.) is going by car, an Opel Kapitan, with Mrs. ADRIAENSSEN (agent of the Comelco), to her house, situated at No. 2074 avenue de Redjaf, opposite the future new hospital. She wishes to pick up some personal belongings. A barrage of Katanga soldiers has allowed them to pass but will not allow them to return as .fighting has started. At 6 p.m. they are allowed to return to town along the avenue de Redjaf and the avenue Leplae. His suspicion aroused, Mr. RUTIN drives very slowly, when at about 200 metres from the cross-roads of the avenue Stanley and the avenue Leplae, Indian mercenaries of the U.N.O. open fire on the car which partially turns over into a lateral ditch. The driver lies flat on his face on the floor of the Opel and Mrs. ADRIAENSSEN on the seat. The car is still being machinegunned. The door being jammed, with the roof-lamp alight, Mr. RUTIN is finally hit in the heel (the calcaneum is shattered and the Achilles tendon torn), Mrs. ADRIAENSSEN is slightly wounded at her temple. Both of them remain crouched in the car, without moving, until the next morning at 8 a.m. when they are picked up by an ambulance which takes them to the "Reine Elisabeth" Clinic.

On December 7th, at 9 o'clock, while everything is quiet in the district and cars are moving about freely, Mrs. VAN GOIDSENROVEN, who is talking to two gentlemen in the garden of the house situated at No.2, avenue 41

Lemaire, is wounded at the right shoulder by a bullet deliberately fired from the Fromont camp by an D.N.O. mercenary.

A.P. photo. Clay pidgeons . . . Mrs. VAN GOIDSENHOVEN wounded in the right shoulder by a bullet deliberately fired by a U.N.O. mercenary is taken to hospital by ambulance.

On December 9th, at about 3.30 p.m. Mrs. SZELES and her mother, Mrs. SZIGETHY (aged 79) living at No. 1917, avenue Stanley, in the house of Doctor SZELES (house distinctly recognisable, by the Red Crosses, as being the house of a doctor) hear a convoy of vehicles of the D.N.O. forces approaching. As their house has already been machine- gunned four times, the previous days, by passing D.N.O. convoys, they are suspicious and the two ladies seek shelter in the corridor. This time hand-grenades are thrown against this house, without any plausible reason other than the panic-stricken fear of imaginary "mercenaries". Mrs. SZELES is wounded in the thigh by a piece of exploding hand-grenade. On December 12th, at 5.30 p.m. Mrs. VISSE, having put on a very conspicuous yellow apron (so that one can see that she is a woman) leaves her house, at No. 2223 chaussee de Kasenga, in order to ask for help from the Irishmen of the V.N.O. billeted in the Spandre farm. Raising her arms she reaches the limit of her plot : an Irish mercenary deliberately fires at her 42

from the nearby police camp, about 50 metres away, and wounds her with a bullet in her thigh.

On December 17th, 150 agents and members of their family have spent the previous night in the cellars of the head offices of Union Miniere, so as not to remain isolated in the surrounding districts and to protect themselves from mortar fire. They spend the day there, waiting to spend another night. It is Sunday, traditional day of truce for the hirelings in the Middle Ages. But we are in an age of manifest civilisation. Consequently, at about 4 p.m. without any warning, two Sabres of the U.N.O. attack the head offices with rockets, passing 5 or 6 times over the building, during a total period of from 3 to 5 minutes. Afterwards 12 points of impact are found. By a miracle, no human lives are lost. However, seven people are wounded by shrapnel from the missiles or by pieces of glass: Mr. and Mrs. PLETINCK, Mrs. DE MIDDELEER and Mrs. BEAUVENT, Mr. DERIDEAUX, Mr. VAN CAUTER and Mr. LVOFF.

On December 19th, Mrs. WAUTERS-SADAUNE, mother-in-law of Mr. Alazraki, is wounded in her left knee by a bullet fired by an Ethiopian mercenary, while she was on her way with her son-in-law to fetch some bread at the bakery of the Union Miniere. Her son-in-law is wounded and soon after is fiuished off by the Ethiopian hirelings (Read above the account of this assassination). In the afternoon of the same day, 8 Ethiopian mercenaries enter the house of Mr. Pierre BAUCHAU, avenue des Roches. He lives there with his wife and their 4 children. These looters search the house from top to bottom, striking him with the butts of their rifles, making him fall from the stairs; his right foot is fractured and he is forced to walk 800 metres, in this state, to undergo a whimsical questioning. At 11.30 p.m. he is freed by Colonel MITTRA. Objects of a total "value of more than 120000 francs were taken by the looters and the remainder mostly ransacked.

43

OTHER VIOLATIONS Article 27 : Women shall be especially protected against an attack on their honour, in particular against rape. In December 1961, we have been acquainted with 3 cases of rape committed by U .N.O. mercenaries on European women: On December 20th, 1961, 5 Ethiopian hirelings exact ransoms from the inhabitants of the avenue B., enter the house of Mrs. B. Four of them keep watch in the garden, while a fifth drags Mrs. B. into the house and rapes her. Medically certified soon after by Doctor C. On December 24th. 1961, between 9 p.m. and 11.30 p.m. two Irish hirelings enter a house in the rue de C. and successively rape Mrs. N. and Mrs. A. Odious way of celebrating Christmas-'eve !

Article 31 : No physical or moral coercion shall be exercised against protected persons. (Under the heading of coercion, we include the arbitrary arrests and the forced internments. )

Article 43 : Any protected person who has been interned shall be intitled to have such action reconsidered as soon as possible by an appropriate court. Article 72: Accused persons shall have the right to be assisted by a qualified advocate or counsel, may call witnesses, etc. PRELIMINARY NOTES We will not discuss the right of the U.N.O. authorities in proceeding with the arrests and the expulsion of European officers, mercenaries (or alleged as such) and political advisers (or alleged as such). 44

We will, however make three remarks : 1) There is a way in which to proceed: that of the V.N.a. especially of the Swedish mercenaries has too often been a slavish imitation of the methods worthy of the Gestapo of sinister memory. Armed arrests, hrutalitities, prohibition of taking more than a ridiculous amount of luggage or of setting one's business in order, families abandoned, in one word a lack of humanity and fair-play which should be the characteristic of the V.N.a., even when proceeding with the most disagreable tasks. And let us not forget that it concerned persons of whom the great majority were worthy, honest and honourable people.

2) There is the arbitrary way, which was too often used when choosing the persons to be banned. 3) There is also the fact that as a whole these officers and alleged political advisers played a moderating role towards the Katangan government authorities. Many difficulties would have been smoothed away, without bloodshed if these persons had been maintained in office.

In August and September: practically all the officers and "political" advisers, as well as a fair number of "mercenaries" had been liquidated, often in the elegant way which we have related in the preceding notes. In December: at least 66 persons, whose names are listed below, were arbitrarily arrested by the u.N.a. and detained against their will, without being able to appeal to a magistrate or be legally assisted, and then reluctantly released: Released after 14 days: Mr. Walter.

Released after 10 days: Mr. Requilez and his wife Mrs. Leonard.

Released after 7 days: Mr. Sleypen.

Released after 6 days: Messrs Sartenaer and Verplancke. 45

Released after 5 days: Mr. Alexandre.

Released after 4 days: Messrs. Stoudemann and Van Compernolle.

Released after 3 days: Messrs. De Brouwer, Freudenberg, Martin, Tison (missionary), Van Bellinghen.

Released after 2 days: Mrs. Van Severen; Messrs. Braibant, De VoIder, Hainaut, Heenen, Lidji, Lozet, Vandenbogaert; the hospital orderly Mrs. Vroonen; the hospital orderlies Smeding, Hazan, Sacre and 'I'ietard (Mrs. Vroonen and Mr. Smeding were to be assassined later on. See above) .

Released after 1 day: Messrs. Bauchau, De Brabander L. and De Brabander R, De Laet, Grandjean, Gregoire, Ramaeckers (student), Rosez, Rulmonde, Scheers.

Released after an indefinite number of days: Mrs. Paul; Messrs. Aerts, Bonte, Bouckaert, Caviggia, Claeys, Coucke (baker), Mottet, Ragon, Vandyck, Van Gee!.

Transfered to Leopoldoille and then released: Messrs. Dallemagne, Favereel, Feyereisen, Paul, Tiebaut, Vandeneynde, Van Nuvel, Vrancken.

Transfered to Leopoldcille without known mention of release: Messrs. Baekelandt, Baeten, Bettendorf (baker), Blevy Jacoby, Lefebvre, Pieters, Soul, Van Heeke, Verloy.

(haker),

Commentaries: What plausible explanation can one find for so many arbitrary and mostly brutal arrests ? We have only mentioned those which have been related to us. Alas, there are many more. 46

One sole explanation: the rage of the men of the D.N.O . at not finding signs of the mercenaries which they had as mission to capture. This would justify their senseless action. Everything then becomes a pretext for arrest: the simple fact (more frequent than one may think), of having a card of reserve officer among one's identity papers, the fact of owning a sporting gun, the fact of owning a more effective weapon destined to protect oneself or to protect one's wife and children or one's installation endangered by the looters and the Baluba murderers, the fact of having cartridges on one's grounds (But how can one prevent the Katangan soldiers from seeking shelter, even against one's will, behind a hedge, a little wall, the garage or the house ?) But as there are cartridges, this evidently means that you have been firing! The truth is that in December, just as in September, at the start of the fighting, only Katangan forces without European officers, were in the line. Later on these troops were never commanded by European officers, but there was a reinforcement of about 30 "mercenaries" wearing the regular uniform of the Katangan army and operating as extremely mobile commandos; they were joined later on by thirty-odd volunteers in uniform and who were recognisable at sight. Must one recall the heinous murder, in the first few hours of the fighting, of four unarmed and harmless Europeans (see above) and of their Katangan workmen? This was sufficient to justify those Europeans who volunteered and who, owing tho these murders, quite justly considered themselves as being in state of self-defence. It was a miracle that the great majority of the European population was able to keep its self-control and did not take up arms and fight to literally defend themselves. We may also add the strict orders which were given by the large companies, in Elisabethville, to their agents to stick to technical and professional activities and not to take up arms even to defend the valuable installations of their companies. Hundreds of houses were searched by the men of the V.N.a., without result, dozens of European civilians arrested and threatened with the foulest brutalities if they did not admit having helped, sheltered or simply known "mercenaries" or volunteers. Houses searched without any result? Alas, not always. Failing to find mercenaries, which was perhaps dangerous, one fell back upon a nice little compensating looting, which is not so dangerous when one is alone to be armed; and if the house which was being visited was empty, an innocent little ransacking was included. 47

An impartial inquiry would make known to an astounded world that the hirelings of the V.N.O. have nothing to learn from those of the Middle Ages with regards to armed robberies, looting and ransacking. Half of the cars in which the V.N.O. mercenaries confortably strut around are the fruits of theft! We will end this sad chapter by pointing out the arrests, typical of the manner of acting of the men of the V.N.O., of three bakers; an elegant way of complicating the food-supplies of the civilian population and of Increasing the panic.

Article 33: No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Are especially prohibited all mesures of terrorism, pillage and reprisals.

Article 34: The taking of hostages is prohibited.

1. Systematic machine-gunning of civilian buildings

September 1961 We had pointed out that, in September already, motorised patrols and convoys of cars belonging to the V.N.O. troops when passing by systematically fired on civilians houses which were situated on either side of the roads used by these convoys. Here is an example:

On September 18th, at 10 p.m. a passing V.N.a. convoy fires on all the houses situated on the boulevard Reine Elisabeth and the avenue Stanley, especially and with greater intensity on a house in the avenue Stanley marked by a large Red Cross flag, and in front of which two Red Cross ambulances are usually parked. 48

December 1961 This kind of terrorism is used on an even greater scale. The convoys leaving the Clair Manoir in the direction of the D.N.a. positions at the SaioBaudouin roundabout, in the direction of the Golf course and in the direction of the Lido, systematically machine-gun the civilian houses on the outward as well as on the return journey, on pretext that they have to protect themselves from possible snipers. But as we have already said, there have never been any snipers; as for the regular commandos of the Katangan army, all one has to do is to think a little and one will realise that four or five snipers would not be so foolish as to shoot, without hope of escape, on considerable D.N.a. forces. Under this misleading pretext, and actually with an aim to terrorise, dozens of houses have thus been seriously damaged and are rendered uninhabitable, and the furniture badly damaged. Here, from among many others, is a very precise testimony which will serve as example. It was made by Doctor SZELES, who lives at No. 1917, avenue Stanley. His house is distinctly marked with a Red Cross sign. Yet, as we have already mentioned elsewhere, the Red Cross sign is considered as an aggravating circumstance for the D.N.a. hireliugs. This house is occupied by the Doctor, his wife, his mother-in-law, Mrs. SZIGHETY (aged 79) and an Hungarian refugee, Mr. Paul LaRANT.

On December 5th, at 1.20 p .m., the whole of the avenue Stanley is full of trueks and jeeps loaded with troops of the D.N.a. who are going into the front line. The Indians are in the garden of plot No. 1917. Doctor Szeles leaves his house and informs them that this plot belongs to a doctor; they seem to be very well-behaved and even avoid trampling on the young rose bushes; they remain there for one hour. On December 6th, at about 11.30 a.m. a passing V.N.a. convoy fires on the house (as well as on all the other houses of the avenue Stanley). At about 4.30 p .m. they fire again as they pass by. The Szeles family seeks shelter in the corridor. On December 7th, at about 12.30 a.m. and at about 4.30 p.m. they fire again. 49

On December 8th , at about 5.30 p.m. and at about 7.20 p.m. they fi re once more. On December 9th, at about 3.30 p .m., Mrs. Szeles and her mother are alone in their house. They hear a convoy approaching and without hesitating they take cover in the cor r id or . This time hand grenades are th rown. Mrs. Szeles is wounded at her right thigh. The two ladies go round t h e back and seek shelter is a neighbouring house. At about 4 p.m. the house is again intensively machine-gunned.

V.PJ. photo. Decem ber 7th, 196 1, the An glo-American 7th Day Adven tists Mission : 13 direct mo rtar, cannon and bazooka hits ... War in all its borror is waged by V .N .a. !

From December 10th onwards, the machine-gunnings cease at last. Doctor SzeIes counted on the .outer and inner walls of his house, 355 holes caused by the firing, 72 of which were in the bedroom and the office, 56 in the provision storage room, 50 in the facade of the dispensary, 21 in the dispensary and the consulting room, etc. All the windows and the b linds are broken, the furniture, the wireless, etc. broken. 50

Note: In 1948, Doctor Szeles had to flee from Hungary leaving behind him his town flat, his country house, 125 acres (50 hectares) of land. At the age of 50, he had to start again from scratch, and was able to set up a new h ome in Katanga. At the age of 60, thanks to the D.N.O. his home is once more destroyed and if he is not given justice (by what tribunal ?) he will once more be forced, at the age of 60, to start all over again. And what applies to him is all the more so for a great number of settlers established in E lisabethville for many years, often three generations having been born in Katanga. They are not always people who have acquired very great fortunes, but enough to buy a house and to set up a small firm of artisans. The D .N.O. has ruined them. The D.N.O. which benefits from an imm u n ity which we continue to consider as immoral and contrary to natural law.

S imilar accoun ts have been given by a great many people, in particular by Messrs. Bouckaert, Dooms and Doctor Defru, all three of whom had their houses machine-gunned by the D .N.O. columns.

2. The taking of hostages

September 1961 On September 16th, at 11.30 a.m., four Europeans (Messrs. de B., De B., M. and de B.) were used as "protective hostages"; they were taken from the p refabricated Swedish camp on the chaussee de Kasenga, up to the headquarters of the D .N .O. at the Clair Manoir, on avenue Fromont, in an D.N.O. truck bearing red crosses and which was full of ammunition and was guarded by six armed Swedish mercenaries. This truck was preceded and followed by an armoured car; these armoured cars being fired upon by the Katangan "gendarmerie", the Swedish guards forbade these 4 hostages to lie down so as to avoid the bullets.

Three times, according to the evidence of Mr. C., his " lordship" Mr. T ombelaine, deputy of his "lordship" Mr. O'Brien, went to the offices of the Sogelec, in an armoured car of the D.N.O. accompanied by 10 armed Indian mercenaries and several European "protective hostages", including one woman. 51

The usual manner of proceeding used by the D.N.G. was to arrest, at random, a handful of Europeans, bring them to the Clair Manoir, headquarters of the D.N.O. and to keep them there for several hours on pretext of some interrogation or other, then to release them with some vague excuses, while yet another batch of cornered Europeans was brought in. There were thus always some "protective hostages" at the Clair Manoir who were destined to be used as protective "lightning conductors" against the bombing of the headquarters by the small improvised bombers of the Katangan Forces. Let us admire the machiavellian hypocrisy of this process of successive hostages.

December 1961 The arbitrary arrests which we have previously mentioned may in a certain way also be considered as a taking of hostages.

3. Breach of trust

Astounded at not being able to solidly support their argument large amount of pro-Katangan snipers and mercenaries which were over all the town, and which would partially have justified the attack D.N.O., the mercenaries of the D.N.O. strained their ingenuity by to create out of nothing, photographic "perjuries".

of the spread of the trying

For example, arresting drivers at random, and while they are taken away for some interrogation or other, filling their luggage-trunk with weapons and ammunition and then photographing it. Then showing this load to these civilians, frightening them and trying to obtain from them, in exchange for the promise that they would not be worried much longer, the names and addresses of mercenaries and volunteers which they knew. Here are examples of two specific cases :

10 The case of Mr. B. : Mr. B. is one of the two mercenaries (or volunteers) which the D.N.G. was able to get hold of. The day he was captured he was wearing the regular uniform of the Katangan Gendarmerie. The D.N.O. mercenaries forced him 52

to take off his uniform and to put on civilian clothing, which by the way did not fit him, and thus clad, and wearing his weapons, photographed him as a sniper!

2° The case of Doctor V.: On December 20th, at about 11.30 a.m., Doctor V. goes to a house not far from the Clair Manoir, accompanied by the D. family. He wants to recover a diathermic apparatus stored in the house of the latter. He goes in his Chevrolet, which moreover flies a Red Cross flag and has a Red Cross number plate. At about 11.45 a.m. he is arrested with his companions, by an Indian major accompanied by an interpreter of Portuguese nationality. His papers are checked, he undergoes a long interrogation till he is released at about 3 p.m. but not before having signed a written statement mentioning the reason for his visit to the house of the D. family. . During his interrogation, the U.N.O. mercenaries placed weapons in the boot of his Chevrolet, among others a Fall machine-gun. Photos were taken of all this under such an angle as to show up at the same time the insignias of the Red Cross. This most probably in order to discredit the doctors of Elisabethville. Doctor V. immediately went to the "Reine Elisabeth" clinic in order to relate his mishap, and on his word of honour declared that he was transporting no weapons in his car. Moreover, would one logically go and throw oneself in the lion's den, in other words in the immediate vicinity of the heavily guarded headquarters of the U.N.O., with weapons in one's car. When everyone knows how dangerous it is to transport weapons in one's car and to be thus cornered by the men of the U.N.O.

53

BOMBARDMENT OF HOSPITALS Article 18 : Civilian hospitals may in no circumstances be the object of attack. shall be marked by means of the Red Cross emblem clearly visible.

They

It is recommended that such hospitals be situated as far as possible from military objectives.

Article 19 : The protection of hospitals shall not cease unless they are used to committ acts harmful to the enemy. Protection may, however, cease only after due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable time limit, and after such warning has remained unheeded.

Shinkolobwe.

54

1. Bombardment of the Prince Leopold Hospital (Elisabethville)

December 8rh, 1961 : Doctors and nurses from Prince Leopold Hospital inspect the results of the violent mortar firing "organized' by D.N.O. A.P . photo .

Preliminary notes: 1. From July 1960 already, the roofs of the "Prince Leopold" hospital were visibly marked with enormous painted emblems of the Red Cross. 2. From the beginning of the September 1961 incidents, the facades were provided with Red Cross flags. 3. The hospital, the old buildings as well as the new four storey building was never occupied by armed Katangan soldiers. Moreover, the roof of the four storey building was never used as look-out post. 4. The "Prince Leopold" hospital is at least 500 metres away from the "President Tshombe" military camp. They are separated by: the very wide avenue Mgr de Hemptinne, a block of several buildings including the 55

tax offices, the offices of the parcel post and those of the Customs, the end of the very wide avenue President Fulhert Youlou, the railway extensions of Elisabethville station, the wide avenue of the military camp, the gardens (100 metres long) in front of the camp.

First bombardment (night of December 7th to 8th 1961) : According to the account of Doctor Delville, who was on night duty that day, and the notes of Mr. OLIVET, delegate of the International Red Cross, the mortar shelling, coming from the positions occupied by the Swedish and Irish mercenaries of the D.N.O. (Ruashi), started on December 7th at 7.30 p.m. The Hospital sheltered about 700 sick Africans. The first shell fell near the secretariat, badly damaging it. Mr. Olivet was immediately notified by telephone and he in turn immediately got in touch, by telephone, with the D.N.O. headquarters. The latter apologised, admitted that it was a mistake in the ranging and promised to rectify it as it was really meant for the military camp. However, the shelling of the hospital started up again at about 11.30 p.m. and continued all through the night until 4.30 a.m., with bursts of fire interrupted by lulls. That night the old buildings were hit. The maternity, the foodwarehouse (the food reserves could no longer be used; the tins of palm-oil having been pierced by shrapnel the oil leaked out into the manioc meal) and another pavilion which had luckily been evacuated a short time before in order to set up the physio-therapy services in it, all these buildings in particular were hit and seriously damaged. Many other pavilions had their windows broken, their inner and outer walls damaged by shrapnel and the electric light cut off from the very beginning, the lines having been hit; the water-mains were burst through shrapnel, thus causing small floods in many places. A total of about forty-odd shells were fired on the hospital and on the school and the convent of the Nuns which are just next to it. Trees were shattered or uprooted in the gardens. An unexploded shell was identified as belonging to the D.N.O. The terrorised patients were evacuated by the doctor, the chaplain and the nurse Sisters, with the help of other Nuns from the convent, to the new hospital whose concrete walls and floors offered a safer shelter. 56

The patients were located in the central corridors, many of them seeking shelter under their beds. At 11 p.m. the evacuation was accomplished. Happily none of the 700 patients have bee~ seriously wounded; there were some superficial wounds by pieces of glass, among them the Sisters Gedeonie and Stephen. An African woman who was just about to give birth escaped from the operation-table together with 46 women out of 47 hospitalised in the maternity. The last one who had just undergone a serious operation was transported to the new hospital.

Commentary : It is difficult to admit that this was only a simple firing-mistake. First the distance : from 500 to 1.000 m etres! There are 500 metres at least between the facade, of the hospital and the camp; the maternity is located at the very bottom of the hospital, 200 metres away from the facade. Moreover, there was no wind during that night. Eventually, one must take into consideration the advertisement of the Red Cross' delegate given at the beginning of the bombing. One must conclude : either the hospital has been deliberatly aimed at by the V.N.O. mercenaries with an intention of terrorism, or there were soldiers unable to fire correctly with mortars. In this case, the V.N.O. has no right to u se suc h weapons : it is, at the e nd , a p ea ce organization, may we not forget it, and not a slaughter agency.

Second bombardment (night of December 13th to 14th, 1961) : According to the account of Doctor Szeles, Chief Doctor of the "Prince Leopold" hospital who has lived on the first floor of the new hospital since December 9th, 1961, 6 mortar shells fall near the entrance hall of this building about 9.15 p.m. The patients, panic-stricken, seek sh elter in the corridors. Around 10 p .m ., 5 others shells explode on Around 11 p.m., four others. One of these goes hits the open shed of a ho spitalisation room midnight an d about 2.30 a.m . six more shells whole, 21 bursts.

the other side of the hospital. through the ro of, and another on the second floor. Around fall on the hospital. On the

57

The damage is a follows : six bombs burst just near the entrance hall of the new hospital, break all the window-panes and riddle all the walls of this big hall with shots. On the second floor, a concrete open shed is demolished and many shell splinters have damaged windowpanes, the walls and the ceiling of a b ig hospitalisation room. At the old hosp ital, the disp ensar y which is used as consulting room for infants, wa s hit an d very seriously damaged, a shell which fell at one metre from the operatin g th eatre b r oke all the windows and caused great damage in this vital building. The m or gu e and th e mental hospital were also hit. During two we ek s, the 500 h ospit al p atie n ts and 500 members of their families who were living with th em, refused to go back to the wards for fear or new bombardments, an d were quartere d, tended and their wounds dressed In the corridors. The firing came from the sectors oc cupied by the troops of the D.N.O. : the Lido, the Golf or t he Clair Manoir. It seem s that this time it was again due to a mistake in ranging (or alleged to be so) on t h e Tshomb e military camp. Here also, by miracle, n o one was h urt .

2. Bombard ment of t he Re ine Elisabeth Clinic Preliminary notes :

1. At the beginning of the December in cide n ts, the clinic was signaled only by large flags of the Red Cross. Very rapidly, Mr. OLIVET had an enormous emblem, made ou t of four sheets sewn together and marked wi th a gigantic red cross, placed on the entrance lawn; he also had two enormous r ed crosses of the same size placed on the roof of the m ain building. 2. The buildings of the clinic or its gardens were never occupied by armed Katangan soldiers; they were never used as observation posts. First Mr. OLIVET, who had set up his office in the clinic, and later on his successor, Mr. SENN saw to this scrupulously. 3. There is no military objective in the vicinity of this clinic wh ich is situated in the very center of the town. One must admit that two or three times Katangan arm ou red vehicles and mortars have fi red from the nearby park and from certain avenues bordering on th e bl ock which 58

includes the clinic, the "Institut Marie -Jose" and the park; but one must add that each time the Katangan Presidency and the General Staff of the Katangan forces were immediately warned by the doctors, considering the grave inconvenience for the clinic caused by these temporary firing emplacements. Finally, it must be noted that never did make the summons imposed by article Moreover, when the mortars of the D.N.O. shooters had already been displaced quite clinic.

the headquarters of the D.N.O. 19 of the Geneva Convention. shelled the clinic, the Katangan a while before and far from the

Bombardment (at dawn on December 16th) : It was at 4. a.m. on the morning of December 16th, that mortar shells were fired on the clinic, on th e "Saint-Michel" day-nursery, on the elementary school and on the p layground of the Institut Marie-Jose, from the D.N.O. positions in the area of the Lido. Twenty-odd shells were fired, one of which seriously damaged the daynursery; others broke numerous windows of the elementary school and riddled its walls with shrapnel; and six fell on the entrance garden of the clinic, in the immediate neighbourhood of the wing known as the "dispensary". Practically all the windows facing the garden were broken, on the ground floor as well as on the other storey of the building. A great many pieces of shrapnel caused quite a lot of damage to certain valuable apparatus and riddled the inside walls. It must be remembered that during the fighting, this dispensary was kept open day and night by the Katangan Red Cross {rest-room, mess, collecting of blood, blood bank, blood-group laboratories}. The orderlies who rested on beds in one of the rooms which gave onto the garden, just had the time to seek shelter in the central corridor at the first explosion : the following explosion riddled the inside walls and the beds with shrapnel. Had it not been for that, there would have been many dead and seriously wounded among the orderlies.

Ranging (afternoon of December 16th). In the afternoon of the same day, two small smoke-bombs, used for locating the targets, are fired by the mortars of the D .N.O. and pass through 59

the roof of the pavilion of "Notre-Dame de Lourdes" which is just opposite the dispensary of the clinic, on the opposite side of the entrance garden. This pavilion usually contains sick clergy or convalescents. The shell passed through the roof and the ceiling, and fell on the floor emitting a thick white smoke. Luckily, there was no one there at the time.

3. Bombardment of the Shinkolobwe Hospital Preliminary notes: I, The Shinkolobwe hospital is visibly marked with an enormous red cross on the roof of the administrative pavilion.

51..! iNKOLOBW£

o

('u,.~

~

2. This hospital is situated at 1500 metres from any other important building. the beginning of the military camp is at least 800 metres from the hospital. Not far from the hospital, however, there is a regular square pattern made up of African houses in which the workmen of the Shinkolobwe mine formely used to live.

Aerial bombing

0/

December 12th, 1961 :

At about 8 a.m., according to the testimony of several Katangans who were present at Shinkolobwe at the time it happened, two aeroplanes flew 60

over the hospital, twice, at very low altitude; at ahout 9.30 a.m, the aeroplanes started machine-gunning, also at very low altitude and at their ease, as they knew that there was no one to fire back, the market square, and then the school and the hospital in which there were about 300 patients and their families. It is possible that there were only two aeroplanes which flew over several times; others said they saw four, two Canberras and two Sabres.

Direct hit on a ward of the Shinkolowbe hospital by a rocket fired from V.N.a. aircraft.

The administrative building, the left wing of the four pavilions and the household buildings (laundry-house, kitchen, refectory) were bombed and show hundreds of points of impact made by the machine-gun bullets. In the maternity, roof, ceilings, walls, beds, tables and chairs are riddled with bullets; a bomb exploded in another pavilion which was luckily unoccupied; the roof, the ceiling, half of the walls and the furniture have been blasted and shattered; the administrative quarters, the household building and two other pavilions contain thousands of holes 61

Some views of the aerial bombardment of Shinkolobwe hospital by the D.N.O. Bottom right, the maternity ward where eight African mothers were wounded and a visiting two years old infant was killed (poor of blood in foreground where the little victim was found) . 62

of all sizes made by the bullets and the bombs. The water and the electric current have been cut. The blood from the wounded makes the buildings look like a battle-field. The doctor of the Kambove hospital, who was called in to help, gave the following account: In the maternity, 4 Katangan women who had just been delivered and one new-born child are wounded, a visiting child of 4 years old is killed; two men and one child are killed, four who are seriously wounded are evacuated to Kambove, dozens of other wounded are tended on the spot. Out of the 300 patients, 240 fled into the bush, refusing to be evacuated to any other hospital for they say, and this is perhaps the gravest condemnation of the stupidly criminal acts of the V.N.O. forces in Katanga: "the V.N.O. prefers to aim at the hospitals and we would henceforth no longer feel safe there".

Commentaries:

The aerial attack of Shinkolobwe is the very prototype of the free bombardments which were not justified except by the idiotic rage of the sort of savage and inefficient soldiers whom the V.N.O. seems to have the exclusive talent of enrolling. An impartial enquiry would show to the astounded world that more than nine tenths of the objectives which were bombed by the aeroplanes of the V.N.O. were strictly civilian objectives. One is far from the aerial support which was hypocritically requested from certain nations, by the higher authorities of the V.N.O., in order to wipe out the Katangan air force and aerodromes! The same enquiry would permit one to know the exact extent of the "redoubtable" Katangan air Force! If absurdity could kill, then the U.N.O. would already be dead! For want of military objectives one could, of course not leave such lovely fighters and bombers inactive. With nothing to fear, one then bombs anything, and preferably a post office, offices, industrial installations, hospitals, civilian cars who made the mistake of thinking they could drive on any road, goods trains... 63

All the better if a hospital is clearly marked with an enormous red cross! It is the ideal target! In this way the sick, the operated patients and the wounded will henceforth be scared to go to a hospital and will die, without treatment, in their villages in the bush. There are however some countries where airmen who are guilty of such assassinations, which is the correct name for such heinous crimes, would be degraded, disgracefully thrown out of the army and receive a sentence in proportion to their crimes. It is true that the U.N.O. benefits from an immunity. Henceforth, long live murder which no one can penalise !

4. Bombardment of the U.M.H.K. Lubumbashi Hospital Preliminary notes :

1. The U.M.H.K. hospital is perfectly well indicated by the vast red crosses painted on the roofs of the pavilions.

Lubumbashi Hospital. 64

2. It stands on the top of a little hill facing the Lido, on the other side of the valley of the Luhumhashi. Between the hospital and the road which follows the river, is the important group of buildings of the "Soeurs de la Charite de Gand" : convent, noviciate, teacher's training college, hospitalnurses'school and central school for V.M. girls.

Bombardments of December 16th to 19th 1961 : On Saturday, December 16th, at about 7 a.m., twenty odd Katangan soldiers take up positions at the noviciate and at the teacher's training school which is just next to the road of the Karavia, opposite the Lido (300 metres away), where the V.N.O. troops have arrived during the night. At 7.30 a.m., the latter launch a violent attack towards the noviciate, the new buildings of which are damaged by a dozen mortar shells. The shelling lasts all morning; 160 civilians (Sisters, novices, pupils, families, and Sisters from Kongolo and from Malemba-Nkulu, refugees since 1961) have sought shelter in the cellars. The dormitories, the classes and the dining-hall are hit by firing. At 7 p.m. a shell explodes on the chapel where 50 nuns have sought shelter under the roof-loft.

On Sunday, December 17th, the machine-gunning and shelling continues. On Monday, December 18th, the firing becomes more intense. The onusian aeroplanes intervene. A rocket falls in front of a window of the cellar where the pupils have sought refuge. Shrapnel is scattered inside and the mattrasses catch fire. Luckily no one is hurt. The convent, the chapel and the central school receive about fifteen shells. At midday, everything quietens down. The group of Nuns from Kongolo and the novices (45 persons) decide to evacuate and to rejoin, on foot, the Katuha. An aeroplane sees this group, which is easily recognisable, however, by their white clothes, and machine-guns it. Some Katangan soldiers make them hide under the flagstones of the gutters, and then evacuate them in two trucks to Kipushi, At the same time, a first truck with the colours of the Red Cross clearly indicated, leaves with a first load of pupils to he evacuated to the "Institut Marie-Jose", and with the chivalry which characterises the V.N.O., they are machine-gunned by the same aeroplane which operates in all comfort, smce it has nothing to fear. At the same time, it machine-guns the convent. 65

In the afternoon, the trucks of the Red Cross manage to evacuate the last patients from the hospital, the orphans, the pupils, the families, and the last nuns. Thank God, no one is hurt. In brief, there were 10 shells on the convent and the chapel, 12 on the noviciate and 15 on the teacher's training school. Not counting the innumerable bullet and shrapnel holes. Not one single building is left intact: the damage is estimated at 4 million francs.

Spes Nosrra Church .

A hospital bedroom.

As for the hospital, which was evacuated on the 18th, it received from December 16th to 19th: one direct hit on the hospital ward, two hits within three metres of this building, a hit just in front of the administrative and X-ray building, a direct hit on the isolation pavilion and a hit in front of the pavilion No.3. A great deal of damage is caused to the walls, the ceilings, the doors, the windows and the furniture.

Commentaries: One must admit that in this case the D.N.O. firing was most probably not aimed at the hospital, but at the nests of resistance of the Katangan soldiers stationed in particular in front of the teachers' training school and the noviciate. The hospital itself was never occupied by the Katangan forces. It was, however, hit by bullets, mortars shell, and rockets which overshot their mark. 66

Spes N oma Chu rch.

A bedroom

In

Lubumbashi Ho spital. 67

The V.N.O. has however infriged the law for not having made the usual summons and for not having observed a reasonable delay for the evacuation, not only of the hospital, but also of the missionary and school buildings. The Reverend Mother Superior is categorical about this. One must also reproach the V.N.O. for having machine-gunned, from the air, the nuns and the novices, easely recognisable by their white clothes, who were evacuating the buildings and also the aerial machine-gunning of the first Red Cross truck which was evacuating the pupils.

5. Bombardment of other hospitals It seems that the shelling of Le Marinel, in the territory of Kolwezi, was dramatized. If some industrial installations were hit, the hospital however was not hit, except for a few bullets which fell near the leper-hospital. There was, however, a great deal of panic. As for the hospital at Manono, we have received no details. that it did not suffer any damage.

It seems

The first 4 paragraphs of this chapter are sufficiently loaded for the V.N.O. ; they allow one to make an idea of the manner in which the air force of the V.N.O. would have used the 1000 Ibs. bombs which Great Britain was to supply : to make a "Coventry" out of the Upper Katanga !

SVPPLEMENT THE RED CROSS HOSPITAL OF THE V.N.O.

INFRIGEMENT OF ARTICLE 18 September 1961 1. The hospital of the Italian Red Cross, which is situated behind the Post Office and opposite the Banque du Congo, was militarised by the V.N.O. The personnel of this hopsital wore the uniforms of the V.N.O. Already before September 13th, 1961, this hospital was in a state of armed defence: sand bags, shelters for riflemen and machine-gunners. The reason which was 68

set forth was: the protection of this hospital which had had ' a few broken windows when some young Katangans had demonstrated against the V.N.O. Must one point out the real provocation which was created by the presence, in the centre of the town, of an armed military hospital. Whatever may be said, on the morning of September 13th, the alleged defences were really used as com b at stations from which at the beginning of the attack on the Post Office by the mercenaries of the V.N.O., a wellsustained fire helped the massacre of the defenders of this public building. .The Italian medical personnel maintained a perfectly correct attitude and the head of the personnel himself protested to the V.N.O. military authorities against the misuse of this defensive post. Despite his protests, the "defences" never ceased to be used as redoubt, as base of operations or strategic point until the end of the fighting in September. In November, in anticipation of the new attacks which it intended to make, the V.N.O. evacuated the hospital to other buildings not far from the airport. The ambiguity of an hospital which was at the same time used for Red Cross and for V.N.O. military purposes wa s thus abolish ed.

September 1961.

Irish soldiers of the U.N.O. in posicion on the roof of the B.CK. Hospital. 69

For it seems inconceivable and illogical that a national Red Cross group should give its medical services to an army in the field. The role of such a group should have been that of a hospital which is set up in a place where it was no longer possible to keep government hospitals working, in this case in Northern Katanga. But once its military character has been established, there room for discussion.

IS

no more

2. The hospital of the "Societe B.C.K.", which was unfortunately next to the famous tunnel of the chaussee de Kasenga, was used as combat post by the U.N.O. troops and dispite the presence of 57 patients including 4 women who had just become mothers. In the garden, behind a hedge, and alongside the road, a machine-gun nest had been put by the U.N.O. "Strategic point of primary importance", such was the excuse of General Raja.

Article 57:

Civilian hospitals cannot be requisitioned so long as they are necessary for the needs of the civilian population. 1. The occupation of the B.C.K. hospital: almost since the end of the fighting in December, after the capture of the tunnel of the chaussee de Kasanga, and during the whole month of January, and for how long still, the B.C.K. hospital has been occupied by the Irish battalion and serves as Irish headquarters as well as a heavily fortified redoubt.

2. Occupation of the University Clinic: the new hospital which is in the Kasapa district, has served up till now as hotel for the European agents of the Katangan government. In October, a presidential decree, granted this building to the University, in order to set up the clinical teaching centre of the Medical Faculty of the State University. Since November 10th, after its capture by the Ethiopian mercenaries, the University Clinic is occupied by the U.N.O. which has used it to set up its general headquarters. This causes a grave prejudice to the clinical medical education. 70

FIRINC

ON

AMBULANCES

Article 20 : The civilian medical and the civilian ambulance personnel shall be respected and protected. This personnel shall be recognizable by means of a Red Cross identity card and a Red Cross armlet. Article 21 : Vehicles conveying wounded and sick civilians, the infirm and maternity cases, shall be respected and protected. They shall be marked by the display of the distinctive Red Cross emblem. Preliminary notes. 1. The civilian doctors of ElisabethvilIe and the active members of the Katangan Red Cross, state on oath that, during the fighting in September and December, the 15 civilian ambulances and the orderlies were exclusively used to transport civilian or military wounded, civilian or military dead, sick people and expectant mothers, civilians who were to be evacuated, food and drink required to supply families who were cornered in districts where the evacuation was either forbidden or too dangerous, medicines and sanitary supplies.

The delegates of the International Red Cross, first Mr. Olivet and later on Mr. Senn scrupulously saw to this themselves. On no occasion therefore did the civilian ambulances transport Katangan soldiers or able-bodied armed pro-Katangan Europeans, nor weapons, nor ammunition. The only exception was a loss of control over one single civilian ambulance, in September, during 24 hours. The Katangan Red Cross has, moreover, taken sanctions against the nurse who was guilty of this lack of discipline. 2. These ambulances are of different makes: Studebaker, Willys, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Taunus, Ford and Jeep. They belong to the Elisabethville hospitals (Prince Leopold, Reine Elisabeth, Lubumbashi), the Cepsi and 71

the Red Cross. Despite the handicap caused by these different makes, all these ambulances were easily recognisable: painted in white or in very light colours provided with large red crosses in the front, at the rear and on the sides; they were often equipped with a siren or an intermittent light signal.

September 1961 On September 13th, 1961, at 8.30 a.m., at the Post Office crossroad, a burst of fire from an automatic rifle was shot, by the Indian mercenaries, on a Red Cross car, marked with the distinctive signs of the Red Cross, and which was driven by Doctor Defru who was accompanied by 4 European nurses and one Katangan medical official, thus preventing them from urgently going to the Prince Leopold hospital. At about the same time, Doctor Szeles, technical head of the Prince Leopold hospital, is prevented from urgently going to his hospital, by an Indian mercenary holding a machine-gun against his chest, at the Place de la Poste. That same day, at 9 a.m., at Radio Katanga , the ambulances are machinegunned during their first attempt to go and pick up the 25 dead and wounded.

On September 14th, at 8 a.m. again at the Place de la Poste, that is to say in the very center of the town, two ambulances are machine-gunned in succession. A tyre of one of them is burst. At 9 a.m., the male-nurse Sonda Moise, dressed in white and with a armband of the Red Cross, is machine-gunned on the Place de la Poste by an Indian hireling as he gets out of the ambulance to pick up some wounded. He is seriously wounded at his right leg, which has to be amputated. Again at 9 a.m., in front of the central police station, the men of the D.N.O. fire, from the post office, on two ambulance nurses and one orderly who are picking up a wounded man.

On September 20th, an ambulance of the Prince Leopold hospital is machine-gunned. The left headlamp is broken, and the seat next to the driver is pierced. 72

That sam e day, the ambulance of Mr. Kishiala, president of the Red Cro ss of Katanga, is in turn machine-gunned by V .N.O. mercenaries while he is picking up a wou n ded man in front of the management offices of the B.C.K.

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