"Charges sought in Congo leader’s death" by Associated Press | June 22, 2010
BRUSSELS — A group of legal activists formally requested war crimes charges yesterday against a dozen Belgian government officials and military officers widely suspected in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister.
Lumumba headed Congo’s largest political party and became leader when Belgium granted independence to the country on June 30, 1960, after a century of colonial rule. Many in the West viewed the charismatic prime minister as a dangerous radical, because he wanted to nationalize the new nation’s lucrative, Belgian-owned gold, copper, and uranium mining industry.
Yeah, that kind of stuff gets you overthrown and killed.
Just ask Mosaddegh of Iran.
Historians generally agree that top Belgian officials and officers conspired to overthrow him and that they organized and carried out his execution on Jan. 17, 1961. The death ushered in the long, corrupt dictatorship of Congo’s Western-backed leader, Mobutu Sese Seko, who was overthrown in 1997.
A US Senate committee found in 1975 that the CIA had hatched a separate, failed plan to kill the Congolese leader.
Related: The Congo: How and why the West organised Lumumba's assassination
Christophe Marchand, a Brussels attorney who heads the legal team, said a dozen individuals will be named in the complaint, and he expects an investigating judge to open an inquiry by October.
So I guess the Gazans will have to wait 50 years?
The group of legal activists bringing the charges includes several prominent attorneys, the dean of Brussels University’s law school, and Luddo de Witte, a historian whose works sparked a parliamentary investigation into the killing of Lumumba.
Maybe that degree meant something after all.
Belgian law provides for universal jurisdiction in war crimes cases, and several indictments involving killings in various African countries have already been issued, Marchand said.
So when are the CHARGES against BUSH and BLIAR?
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And the catastrophes are not the 1,400 dead a day or 10 million dead since it began, Globe?
BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo — Four train cars full of passengers fell into a ravine in the Republic of Congo after a derailment caused by excessive speed, leaving at least 48 people dead and more than 400 others hurt, top government officials said yesterday.
The government also called for three days of national mourning....
The CFCO rail line that runs for about 300 miles through the country has had difficulties in recent years with its old trains and lines. In a statement, government officials noted that Monday’s crash was the third the train company had experienced in 19 years.
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SANGE, Congo — A tanker truck hauling fuel on a rural eastern Congo highway overturned, gushing oil and exploding in a massive fireball that killed at least 220 people, including many who had been watching the World Cup in flimsy roadside shacks, officials and witnesses said yesterday.
Among the dead were 61 children and 36 women, the Red Cross said.
Related: Red Cross and Rapes in the Congo
Also killed were villagers who had descended on the truck to siphon fuel illegally from the wreckage, apparently unaware of the danger, the United Nations said.
UN peacekeepers rushed to evacuate more than 200 wounded from the scene by helicopter and ambulance, while Red Cross teams carried bodies from the scene in body bags and buried them in two mass graves a few miles away.
Don't they have enough of those?
The truck overturned as it was trying to pass a minibus late Friday near the village of Sange, about 20 miles north of Uvira, a town on the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika near the Burundi border, said Mana Lungwe, manager of the Congolese oil company that owns the truck.
The vehicle began gushing oil, then burst into flames an hour later, he said.
Lungwe said the injured driver was taken to a local clinic before the blast occurred. Sange is located between Uvira and the Congolese provincial capital, Bukavu, farther to the north.
In Sange, the remains of the tanker’s blackened wreck lay tipped on its side, its tires burnt off. Along the side of the road a few yards away, the remains of three wood and brick shacks smoldered where hundreds of people had gathered to watch the World Cup. The explosion took place between matches, as people were watching television and milling outside.
“It was so terrible, we lost so many family and friends,’’ said Umoja Ruzibira, 25, who was about 100 yards away when he heard a huge explosion and saw a fireball engulf thatch huts in a 20-yard radius. A teeming market nearby was also reduced to ashes. “There were so many men, women, and children around when it happened,’’ Ruzibira said....
James Reynolds, deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Congo, said, “Many of the bodies were burnt far beyond recognition. It’s a terrible scene for people who didn’t have very much to begin with.’’
********
In a separate accident Friday involving another fuel truck, an out-of-control gasoline tanker overturned and exploded outside the gates of a local hospital in northern Nigeria, killing 14 people in an inferno in Gombe state.
Reynolds said the International Committee of the Red Cross has dispatched medical supplies and body bags to collect the dead and help wounded alongside local volunteers for Congo’s Red Cross....
--more --""Congo grieves, tends to survivors" by Max Delany, Associated Press | July 5, 2010
Residents of Sange, Congo, gathered near the wreckage of a truck that exploded Friday. At least 231 people were killed. (Marc Hofer/ Associated Press)
SANGE, Congo — Dozens of moaning and badly burned survivors from a massive tanker blast that killed at least 231 people recovered in hospitals and clinics across eastern Congo yesterday, two days after the wrecked fuel truck exploded on a rural highway.
President Joseph Kabila declared a two-day national mourning period, and Red Cross workers sprayed chlorine and poured disinfectant powder over the blackened scene of the explosions in the village of Sange, where priests prayed during a brief memorial service on a barren football field.
In a conflict-strewn corner of one of the world’s most unstable countries, the shocking tragedy late Friday was a devastating blow for residents in a still lawless region who survived back-to-back wars that lasted from 1996 to 2002.
“It’s a miserable, poor life we have here in Congo,’’ said Muke Ndengwa, whose 15-year-old son was nearly killed in the blast. “When we had the war here, we had everything stolen from us. Now we have lost so much again.’’
Related: Around Africa: Calling the Congo
That's why, American.
The tanker was hauling fuel from the provincial capital, Bukavu, when it overturned as it tried to pass a minibus in Sange, a small village near the Burundi border. Tipped on its side, the wrecked vehicle began gushing gasoline beside three flimsy television halls made of brick and wood, where hundreds of people had gathered to watch the World Cup.
Crowds gathered around the wreck, and dozens of people began trying to collect the leaking gasoline with jerry-cans and plastic buckets, ignoring pleas from UN peacekeepers to move away because of the danger.
Within an hour, a fire started and a massive explosion suddenly engulfed the three TV halls and a market.
I'm wondering HOW that FIRE STARTED!
Jackson Ndengwa, 15, was inside one of the makeshift halls when the accident occurred.
“The hall was full of people,’’ he said from his hospital bed in the lakeside town of Uvira, about 20 miles to the south. “We never expected that there could be a fire like this.’’
Ndengwa managed to escape through a window, but sustained serious burns to his legs and stomach.
In the hospital’s intensive care ward yesterday, one badly burnt man screamed continually in agony as relatives tended to other victims nearby.
Madnodje Mounoubai, UN spokesman, said at least 231 died and 195 were injured in the explosion.--more--"
"Congo president visits site of tanker blast" by ASSOCIATED PRESS | July 6, 2010
KINSHASA, Congo — The president yesterday visited the site of the massive tanker blast in eastern Congo as the death toll from the accident increased to at least 242 people....
President Joseph Kabila also saw the mass gravesite in Sange, where more than 200 victims have been buried. The president has declared a two-day national mourning period....
The tanker truck was hauling fuel on a rural eastern Congo highway when it overturned Friday and exploded. Scores of bystanders were killed, including many who had been watching the World Cup in flimsy roadside shacks.
The truck, which was traveling from the provincial capital, Bukavu, overturned as it tried to pass a minibus in Sange, a small village near the Burundi border. Tipped on its side, the wrecked vehicle began gushing gasoline.
Within an hour, a fire started and a massive explosion suddenly engulfed the three TV halls and a nearby market.--more--"
And then the Globe's fire went out.
