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1 I

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

I PREFACE BY
Mr. PAUL STRUYE I
PRESIDENT OF THE BELGIAN SENATE

1 1
REPRINT SERIES
It is our purpose , in
issuing these reprints,
to recapture for those 46 ANGRY MEN
who care some of the
by
true history of the past
twenty years. T HE CIVILIAN D OCTORS
OF E LIZABETH VILLE
T alleyrand said that
speech was used by Aug ust I , 196 2
man to conceal his
Dear R ead er :
thoughts. Today that
wily realist would add 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
that "history" has be- mo nths ago.
come the means of fal-
But it is an im por t ant book. Not becau se of it s au t hors or
sifying the record of it s literar y q uality or it s earlier impac t on t hose w ho deter mi ne
past events. t he co urse of history, but simpl y because of the fac ts w hic h it
presents.
We h ope th at the
There are st ill millions of honorabl e peop le, even othe rw ise
rescue in this series of well in for med people , t hr oughout t he wo rld w ho believe - as
a few of the honest t hese fort y- six doctors believed a year ago - tha t there is some
books of the period, good in the United Nations. We ourselves believe tha t it is
sim ply an instrumentali ty in t he Intern ational Communist
w h i ch h ave been Conspiracy's p lan of global con qu est.
smothered by the Lib-
\'(Te believe that today the United Nations organization is
eral Est abli shment, alm ost completely controlled by th e Communists; and that those
will cause some thi n w ho in fest the upe nded ant box on the East Ri ver are ju st as
rays of truth to pierce c r uel , murderous, ruthless, and rotten as are their counterparts
in other in strumentalities of Soviet power and propaganda,
through the fog of dis- wherever fo un d.
tortion and falsehood
These forty-s ix doctors do not go so far. Ob viously many
that now e n velo ps of them still ha ve hopes for the United Nations. We h ave re -
A m e r ica . For when pr oduced their "book" exactly as th ey p repared it, withou t
man 's past crimes are 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
presented as virtuous language, their protest was ori gina lly wr it ten. We think yo u
accomplishments, he should read t his book fo r - among other reaso ns - its help
has little ch a nce to toward s for m ing yo ur own opi nion of t he United Nations.
avoid the repetition of And you will certainly fi nd it of gr eat and in form at ive
either the crimes or in terest in connec t ion wit h t he past , presen t , an d f u t ure activ-
iti es of the ' U nited Na tions in t he Co ngo.
their cruel results.
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, Brazi-
lian 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 Na-
tions Organization would only send to Katanga honest WorId citizens respect-
ful 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 Interna-
tional 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, has


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

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 Elisabeth-
ville 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 .

8
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 (Katan-
gan), Charles Kreins (Belgian) and Georges Henrioul (Belgian), all
killed on December 5th, 1961.

Mrs. Henriette Baratella-Servais (French), Mr. Georges Olivet (Swiss:


delegate of the International Red Cross), Mrs. Nicole Vroonen (Bel-
gian : hospital orderly of the Red Cross), Mr . Sijtse Smeding
(Dutch: hospital orderly of the Red Cross), all killed on Decem-
ber 13th, 1961.

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 Decem-
ber 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 Drug-


mant (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.

no 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 funda-
mental 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. Doctor Bone (Irsac) ;
6. Doctor Bounameaux (Dean of the Medical Faculty);
7. Doctor Bogaert (private);
8. Doctor 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 popu-
lations 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 DISCI-
PLINE 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 .

14
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 Elisa-
bethville 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 Jadot-
ville, 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 the seven other workmen crawl as far as the conduits
situated opposite the electric post No. 50. The concrete conduits are wide
and allow several of them to crouch inside. Other Katangans, who were
passing by, also take 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 machine-
gunned 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 Ferdi-


nando GAGNA (known as Father Michel)
goes to the Saint-Paul's convent to collect
the Holy Sacrement. His vehicle is disco-
vered 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 to-
wards 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 Ethio-
pian 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 mer-
cenaries 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 horri-
ble 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 move-
ment 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. Beu-
gnies'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 drawing-
room, 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 machine-
gun 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 mother-


in-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 Bel-
gian), 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 assas-
sinated, 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 KATSHE-
KEKE, 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 carbo-
nized (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 popula-
tion 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 machine-
gunned. 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 them-
selves 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. Vroo-
nen 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 (haker),
Jacoby, Lefebvre, Pieters, Soul, Van Heeke, Verloy.

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 Euro-
peans 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 Saio-
Baudouin 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 them-
selves 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 head-
quarters 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 om-
belaine, 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 of the


large amount of pro-Katangan snipers and mercenaries which were spread
over all the town, and which would partially have justified the attack of the
D.N.O., the mercenaries of the D.N.O. strained their ingenuity by trying
to create out of nothing, photographic "perjuries".
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. They


shall be marked by means of the Red Cross emblem clearly visible.
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 exten-
sions 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 the other side of the hospital.
Around 11 p.m., four others. One of these goes through the ro of, and another
hits the open shed of a ho spitalisation room on the second floor. Around
midnight an d about 2.30 a.m . six more shells fall on the hospital. On the
whole, 21 bursts.

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, consi-
dering the grave inconvenience for the clinic caused by these temporary
firing emplacements.
Finally, it must be noted that never did the headquarters of the D.N.O.
make the summons imposed by article 19 of the Geneva Convention.
Moreover, when the mortars of the D.N.O. shelled the clinic, the Katangan
shooters had already been displaced quite a while before and far from the
clinic.

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 day-
nursery; 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 condemna-
tion 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 autho-
rities of the V.N.O., in order to wipe out the Katangan air force and aerodro-
mes! 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, hospital-
nurses'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. It seems
that it did not suffer any damage.
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 well-
sustained 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 IS no more
room for discussion.

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 exclu-
sively 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 machine-
gunned 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 arm-
band 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.

i
j
I
.. ' '. .." ,. • t : "": , ' , .: . ',' .• , . .' • -. 0 United Pr u,s 1""r~"i01Ul j
'\ '<W,!lu~d~d;J{atang?,:,~.ro~in('{':p~!i,c.:~n~ttn,i~ ..t ransferred ;,to .~ ci \"iJjll:ll;:~~~t~on , w~g0!l a.fte~~
'l~ii?~n~t.nJ!.u.lance, In.1which . llt~F\\:as , ridIng was f1atte~eth by'! g!1llflrO, In, Elj~oothville~ :
===~==-"""'":-" ;" _:;:;':l:..:·t\,..· f'\.1: \- ' -\\:· l'l' ·. ""' . ~ ~, __ ; .o _" , '. '')../. .. .. • •. • _ . ·_ _·_ " .• :.'i.-v. i.'.,·.":j.J..._, 4.,,,""' . iI;.·,. ft'•• .'''-,'f;I:-;/J!,·dOJ,.•••_,

Justification by the V.N.O. of the firing on the ambulances

In order to somewhat justify the fr equent firing by the V .N.O. mercena-


ries on the ambulances, the V .N.O. accuses the am b ul an ces of having frequently
transported ammunition or able-bodied a rmed sol die rs. W e have disproved
this accusation at the b eginning of this ch apt er .
One of the main accusations of his "lordship" Mr. Tombelaine, over Radio
Katanga V.N.O., of which he con tr oll ed the sp oke n part of the broadcasting,
was that on September 14th, at about 9 p.m. an ambulan ce of the Red Cross
transported a pro-Katangan mercenary armed with a bazooka, as far as Radio-

73
college. This is supposed to have enabled the putting out of action of an
D.N.O. armoured vehicle, a bus which was transporting Irish mercenaries and
also their capture.

The truth is quite different. The bazooka was brought there by other
means which were more regular. Broadcasting over Radio-College was
suddenly interrupted with an announcement that the Irish were attacking the
building, announcement which was dramatically followed by a heavy explo-
sion which was distinctly heard by the listeners.

Doctor Defru who was listening, immediately jumped in an ambulance


which was parked in front of the Reine Elisabeth Clinic and rushed to Radio-
College, which is very near the clinic, so as to be able to pick up any possible
wounded, considering the fairly tragic tone of the announcement.

December 1961

On the morning of December 5th, the team led by Mrs . De Middeleer leaves
in an ambulance to go and pick up two wounded at the Simonet police camp
and at the Guest House of the Sabena. The ambulance has battery trouble
in front of the Simonet camp. Mrs. De Middeleer gets out in order to push
the vehicle. She is immediately fired at by an automatic rifle from some-
where in the bush between the camp and the old airport, bush which has been
occupied by the men of the D.N.O. since the morning. She seeks shelter
behind her vehicle. The firing ceases and she can at last drive away.

On the morning of December 7th, the same team leaves to fetch a


wounded at the workmen's camp of the B.C.K., on the other side of the tunnel
of the Chaussee de Kasenga. Everything is quiet. The team is exposed every
time it moves from one house to another. Despite their white clothing, Swe-
dish or Irish soldiers of the D.N.O. immediately fire on them with automatic
rifles. The team seeks shelter in the camp and is unable to pick up a body
which is lying on the road.

In the afternoon, that same team goes III a Studebaker ambulance to


the Sogelec, in the Uvira district, to pick up four wounded. A Swedish
armoured vehicle opens fire on the ambulance. The bullets pass over the
vehicle. A little later, the same team leaves for the Avenue Leplae in order
to evacuate a woman and three children. On leaving the house, Mrs. De
Middeleer with a baby in her arms, and her companions are fired upon by

74
D.N.O. m ercenaries fr om the direction of the Avenue St anley wh ich is
occupied by the D .N.O. The team and the person s who are being evacuated
have just got time to dash into the ambulance which drives off at high speed.

On December 9th, at 9.30 a .m , a team comprising Mr. Smeding, Mr.


Hazan an d Mrs Vro one n, leaves with the P eugeot ambulance for the Guest
House of the Sabena with as mission the evacu at ion of civilians. These
orderlies are arrested b y the D.N.O. and are only rel ea sed the n ext day at
2 p.m., through the intervention of Mr. Olivet.

On December 12th, at 1.30 p.m. the team led by Mrs. De Middeleer leaves
for the B.C.K. camp with a Volkswagen ambulance to pick up a wounded. On
reaching this sector, all is quiet, the siren of the ambulance is sounded, hut
as soon as the white-clothed orderlies are seen between the houses they are
fired upon by the men of the D .N.O. !

December 13th, is a day of mourning for the Red Cross. At about 3 p.m.
the delegate of the International Red Cross, the orderly-nurse Mrs. Vroonen
and the orderly-ambulance driver Mr. Smeding, who have left with the
Peugeot ambulance for the Uvira district in order to organise food supplies
and the evacuation of the families from this district, are assassinated by
Ethiopian mercenaries. The alibi set forth by a spokesman of the Ethiopian

The Peugeot ambulance used by Mr. OLIVET, delegate of the International


Red Cross, at the scene of the crime . Note the windscreen showing
a bullet hole which was sub sequently removed by V.N.O. perso nnel.

75
government is valueless: an Ethiopian battalion has captured the Guest House
of the Sabena on December 9th 1961. It is the Ethiopian reinforcement
battalions who arrived later! Lies, always those atrocious D.N.O. lies!

On December 15th, at 9.10 a.m. the Van Hover-Calonne team leaves


with the Volkswagen ambulance to pick up a wounded person at no. 527 Ave-
nue de Lubilash, They notice a D.N.O. armoured vehicle in action at the
very end of the avenue, they turn back and no sooner have they passed the
Avenue Droogmans, that they are fired upon by this armoured vehicle. The
team seeks shelter in a nearby house.

They remain there for about 90 minutes, while the ambulance continues
to be fired upon by the men of the D.N.O. : 3 impacts from bullets, one of
which, almost symbolically, in the centre of the red cross of the rear door of
the ambulance. A bull's eye, as at target-practice! They return at 11.30 a.m.
That same day, the same team leaves again at 1l.40 in order to pick up a
wounded soldier at the Avenue Droogmans, between the Avenue Lufira and
the Avenue Lubilash. Again the ambulance is machine-gunned by the
D.N.O. mercenaries; the orderlies abandon the ambulance at the cross-roads
of Avenue Droogmans and Avenue Lufira and seek shelter in a garage; it
is about midday before a colleague who has come from the Prince Leopold
hospital joins them and also seeks shelter with them. Two minutes later,
3 mortar shells fall on the premises. The orderlies seek shelter further on,
from garden to garden, into an inhabited house. They remain there during
an hour, and then taking advantage of a relative lull, they leave via the
gardens, pick up the wounded soldier on Avenue Droogmans. He is taken
into a house, the owner of which loans his car in order to drive the wounded
man to the Reine Elisabeth Clinic. The team brings the car back to its owner
and recovers the ambulance with tbe help of Katangan soldiers. They are
back at 2.20 p.m.

On December 16th, at 11.10 a.m, the 'I'ietard-Sacre team tries to go


and fetch the body of the Inspector of Education, Mr. Debourse who was
killed by shrapnel from a mortar shell in his house on the Avenue des Pa-
payers where he lives with his wife and three children. The team is held
up at the Avenue de Gand and arrested by the Swedish mercenaries who are
just launching an attack on the Tshombe camp. The Swedish soldiers make
them walk in front of them through the marshes. Soon after, they are taken
to the Luano airport, where they are only released the next day, thanks to
the intervention of the delegate of the International Red Cross, Mr. Senn.

76
On December 18th, at 1.30 p.m. the Ford truck of the Union Miniere,
which was on loan to the Red Cross, and which was distinctly marked with
enormous red crosses, is machine-gunned on its first trip to go and evacuate
the pupils of the «Rdes Soeurs de la Charite de Gand », at the Lubumbashi
building.

THE BALUBA CAMP


Article 85 :

The Detaining Power is bound to take all necessary and possible measures
to ensure that protected, persons shall, from the outset of their internment,
be accomodated in buildings or quarters which afford every possible safeguard
as regard hygiene and health, and provide efficient protection against the
rigours of the climate.
The premises shall be fully protected from dampness, adequately heated
and lighted.
Internees shall have for their use, day and night, sanitary conveniences
which conform to the rules of hygiene.
They shall be provided with sufficient water.

Preliminary notes:

The camp of the so-called Baluba refugees has, owing to the force of
circumstances, become a sort of concentration camp. Here is what happened:

From the end of August onwards, the U.N.a. authorities, fearing that
the non-Baluba population of the communes of Elisabethville indulge in
exactions, in assault and battery, and murder against the Baluba living in these
communes, decided to preventively create a vast camp where the Balnba
could be safety quartered.

However, the U.N.a. had in fact neither foreseen nor prepared anything;
no tents, no hangars, no sanitary installations, no sufficient supplies of drinking
water. Yet in a thoughtless manner, the U.N.a. makes a senseless propaganda
in the communes and calls on the Baluba to take refuge in the camp.

77
In the minds of their "lordships" O'Brien, Tombelaine and Raja, it is
only a question of sheltering them, and that in a dry season, during a few
days, the time required to launch a lightning offensive against the Katangan

"UNOVILLE".

78
forces, without their European officers, to anihilate them in a few hours and
to be able to announce triumphantly that the "Katangan secession is over".
But the events do not unfold themselves in the way anticipated by these
sinister and naive persons. Thousands of Baluba flock to the camp, until
there are about 40.000 of them gathered together! This is the only part of
this insufficiently matured plan which was carried out. The Katangan forces
resisted for two weeks until the D.N.O. was compelled to seek a truce.
(Talking of this, one must mention that had the Katangan government
refused to grant this first cease-fire, in only two or three days, all the forces
of the U.N.O. in Elisabethville would have been massacred. It was only for
humanitarian reasons that the Katangan government agreed to this request
which was to have tragic consequences for Katanga, in December !)
The Baluba are crowded together in this concentration camp, each
family having at the beginning only 2 or 3 square metres at their disposal,
sufficient to lay down a mattress and a few household and personal belonging,
without a roof to protect them from the burning sun or the cold nights, and
soon the rainy period will start! No sanitary installations, insufficient
water, and food supplies lacking in proteins and vitamins!
On January 20th, 1962, these Baluba are still "interned". They have
extended the limits of their camp, vaguely improved their living quarters
through innumerable lootings of corrugated iron, planks, doors and windows
which have been torn out; they have invaded the houses nearby the camp,
living in them and ransacking them. They have looted food supply ware-
houses. Terrorist committees have been formed, gangs of unruly "hajeunesse"
(Baluba youths) have gradually been organised, and are armed with various
weapons starting with machetes, and sharpened bicycle chains, cudgels armed
with nails, up to the most perfected fire-arms which they have received from
certain D.N.O. men or which they have stolen. These committees and these
gangs lay down the law in the camp, terrorising the great peaceful majority
of the other refugees, drugging themselves with hemp, making themselves
drunk with alcohol and beer and continually indulging in stealing, looting
and slaughtering expeditions.
This camp does not even deserve to be called a "bidonville" (town made
up of empty drums and corrugated iron etc.) The only fitting name would be
Unoville, that is to say the most infernal filthy slum which has ever been
created. Symbol of the disorder and clutter which characterises everything
the D.N.O. has undertaken in Katanga which lived in order, peace and
prosperity before they intervened!

79
On many occasions the U .N.O. mercenaries were compelled to step in
and fire on their crowd of "proteges" in order to momentarily restore order.
The conditions of hygiene are appalling, there are many dead every
day, and there is a great danger of epidemics, not only for these unfortunate
"concentration camp prisoners" but also for the whole of Elisabethville.

Sitting of September 9th, 1961 of the Supreme Health Council of Katanga

The council which is presided by the Secretary of State for Public


Health, is made up of a dozen members of whom two-thirds are doctors
representing all the various tendencies (Government, University, Companies,
Private).

The sitting of September 9th, during the latter part of which the medical
Colonel Oyen, head of the medical department of the ONUKAT was present,
expressed the following opinion:

" The supreme Health Council is unanimous in expressing the formal


" opinion that the only rational and possible sanitary solution is the
" immediate evacuation of the camp, failing which one will risk exposing
" oneself to disasters not only among the 30.000 refugees of the camp
" but also among the 150.000 inhabitants of Elisabethville ; they request
" the urgent intervention of Doctor OYEN so that the necessary steps
" be taken as soon as possible; in case it were not possible to rapidly
" evacuate the camp, it should be transfered to at least 10 km from the
" boundaries of the town."

Sitting of November 29th, 1961 of the Supreme Health Council of Katanga

The Council has noticed that its opinion has not been taken into consi-
deration. Alarming information has come from various sources; on the
one hand, that more than 1.000 dead have been buried in this camp during
the months of September, October and November; on the other hand, that
an average of 20 Baluba die each day in this camp, some being murdered by
the "bajeunesse", others by the repressive firing of the U.N.O., and the
great majority through congenital illness or weakness, mainly new-born
children, infants, small children and miscarriaged foetuses.

80
The council admits that this information, which corresponds, is
highly probable, in view of the indescribable living conditions of the
30000 to 40000 Baluba who are forced to live under the tropical sun, the
rain, in the coolness of the nights with only a limited quantity of drinking
water, without sanitary installations, without any drainage system, with no
means of collecting the refuse. It is estimated that at present about
I 500 tons of faecal matter have accumulated about 3 000 tons of urine
which has soaked into the ground, causing a stench which one can well
imagine.

The council has calculated that at the rate of II deaths per day out of
a population of 40 000 refugees, the annual death rate amounts to 100 to 1I0 per
thousand (minimum estimate) or that at rate of 20 deaths per day out of
a population of 30000 refugees, the annual death rate amounts to 240 to 250
per thousand (maximum estimate), the actual death rate being most probably
half-way between these estimates, that is an annual death rate of 170 to 180 per
thousand (average estimate). However, the normal annual death rate in
Elisabethville, as it appears from the annual reports of the previous years,
reaches only 8 or 9 per thousand !

The Council protests energetically and with deep emotion against the
unqualifiable negligence of the D.N.O. which sacrifices so light-heartedly its
so-called "proteges" and decides to make these distressing facts known to
the higher medical authorities of the entire world, and demand an inter-
national and impartial sanitary enquiry.

This protest was drawn up and ready to be sent when the "second war
of Elisabethville" started, on December 5th.

The situation on January 20th, 1962:

On many occasions, the hospitals of Elisabethville have ' been able to


see some infants and small children from the camp. They are thin, emaciated,
skeleton-like or oedematied, suffering from "kwashiorkor" or complex
lack of vitamins (avitaminosis).

If one takes into consideration what is mentioned above in the preceding


chapter, one must assume that there were probably from 3000 to 5000 deaths
in this camp from the beginning of September to the end of January.

81
The miscarried foetuses, the still-born and the new-born ch ildren who
died precociously are included in these deaths. As a matter of fa ct, one has
calc ulate d that the 8000 "interned" women normally r epresent from 300 to
400 births per month.

COMMENTARIES

T h is D antesque internment ve ry much resembles GE NOCIDE. If the


V .N .O. h ad wanted to exter m inate the Muluba population of Elisabethville,
otherwise than through machine-gunning, it could not h ave us ed a h etter wa y.
It is in fa ct a fairly radical way: starving, sub m ittin g to the actions of the
cold and the r ain, exposing to the d anger of e pide m ics, of d yse ntry, of typhoid
and sm allp ox.
It is a miracle that up till n ow su ch ep idem ics have been avoided. The
reason for this is certainly due to the former medical services : frequent
va ccinations, use of D .D.T., the purifying of the water, etc. And, one must
admit, al so the almost desperate work, against th e clo ck , of the doctors and
h ygi en e speciali sts of the V.N.O. in Elisabethville, who are literally worn
ou t an d are doing their utmost to prev ent even greater catastrophes. The
civilian do ct ors of Elisah ethville willin gly render homage to them. But
. alas, n o one li st en s to the do ctors of the V.N.O.
The only sol u tion to this irritating prohlem still r emains the gradual
r eturn, as soon as p ossible, of the person s interned , either to thei r com mu nes
or to their native tribal di strict s.
One must admit that, if at the b eginning of Se p te m b er, the B aluba had
r em ai ned in their com m u nes, during a few da ys there would have h een vexa-
tions, br utalities, broken sk ulls and l yn chings. But this would h ave b een
limited to three of four dozen s dead, (m ay b e even a hundred odd, but
ce r ta inly not more), h ecause the K at an gan gov ernment would have taken
drastic ste ps and would h ave restored order within a few days.
The ill-fated part pla yed h y the V.N.O. will h ave heen to arouse the
eth n ical tribes against ea ch other.
Inst ead of 30, 40 or possihly even 100 dead, the inorganisation of the
Vnited Nations will have ca used the death of from 3 000 to 5000 Baluba
which is about 50 or 100 times more! This is wh ere the l ack of com p reh ension
of African aff airs, the total ab sen ce of com mo n sense and ab ove all th e
non-exi st ence of a sense of responsibility lead to. Resp on sible for what?
Since the V.N.O. benefits from the mo st immoral of all immunities!

82
After the U.N.O. have passed...
Peace on earth and good-will towards men .

83
ANNEXES:

THE S.O.S. OF THE 46 DOCTORS

1. PRELIMINARY NOTE.

As from the afternoon of December 5, the wounded and dead were brought
to the Reine Elisabeth Hospital. But on the morning of the 6th. the Red
Cross ambulances coming to the Hospital morgue literally discharged a whole
lot of bodies! Three Europeans plus the wounded of the previous day who
had died during the night plus several Katangese civilians, police and soldiers.
It was at that moment that the certainty sprang up like a flash before
the civilian doctors of Elisabethville, that the Wodd must be alerted, that
one must shout, denounce, and shake opinion without respite, and thus prevent
U.N.O. from continuing its inexcusable massacres.
It was not a case of polite and academic telegrams with diplomatic peri-
phrases, but for crying desperately "Murderer", for shouting : "Look out!
Help ! Here in Elisabethville the people intended to protect peace have trans-
formed themselves into hired killers, into highway bandits, into armed robbers,
into looters, into corpse riflers !".
What could we do against an Organization having the most powerful
means of broadcasting false news, lies, denials ? We had the weak voice of
Radio-Katanga, the official telegraph service, one or two teleprinters, the
small amateur radio stations; we also had luckily, the presence of press
correspondents from impartial newspapers... so that our appeals finally had
the effect of moving World opinion. But it required nearly 15 long days for
that, too late, alas, to prevent the Ethiopian rabble from multiplying its
assassinations and its rifling of corpses !
Let it be clearly understood : like all pacific people we believe in U.N.O.
but in a U.N.O. which is loyal, honest, whose only aim is to prevent disorder,
to preserve peace and not to bring disorder where order reigns, misery where
prosperity reigns, death where life continues...
No, U Thant, the answer is not to surround oneself with highly-paid
opportunists, so-called competent officials, but with people having a
conscience, people determined to make fraternel charity reign; people like Dr.
Schweitzer, Abbe Pierre, Father Pire, Follereau, Buchman, Gandhi, Dunant...
The work of U.N.O. is a work of love and not of technique. If you had
understood that, blood would not have been shed in Katanga; your prede-
cessor had at last understood, he paid with his life in trying to repair his error.

84
IT COMMUNIQUE TO THE GENTLEMEN OF PRESS

(edited on December 19, 1961)

The forty-six doctors in Elisabethville who have drawn up and signed


several protests on the subject of the crimes committed by U.N.O. against
humanity and more particularly against the international couventions of the
Red Cross of Geneva, would like to make their position clear.

The political questions do not concern them : whether Katanga be an


independent sovereign State, a confederated State, a federal State or simply
a decentralized province, they have no position to take, being doctors. It is
solely the concern of the Katangese government authorities.

But what is their concern, is the well-being and the health of the popula-
tion in their care: it is the prevention of crimes, committed in the name of
the great principles manifestly jeered at. This prevention forms a part of
public health; alongside the prevention of sickness there is the prevention
of wounds. Here the doctors remain in their role.

The forty-six Elisabethville doctors are witnesses of the horrors perpe-


trated by the mercenaries, in the worst possible sense of word, by the reiters,
the henchmen, the hired killers, of an organization supposedly created for
the maintenance of peace. They are the conscience of the civilized world and
do not cease to protest up to the limit of their force, against the serious blows
to strict natural morale and the fifth commandment :

"THOU SHALL NOT KILL".

Firing against ambulances, withdrawal of these ambulances from circula-


tion, machine-gunning and bombardment of hospitals and maternity homes,
machine-gunning and bombardment of houses and civilian buildings such as
the Post Office, terrorism designed to create panic among the civilian popula-
tion who flee from the hospitals because they are, according to them, targets
manifestly aimed at by U.N.O., and so many other inhuman deeds of which
the lying denials of the U.N.O. authorities fool nobody; "U.N.O. communique"
has become synonymous with deliberate lies.

This then is what the doctors protest against, this is why they insist that
an impartial and supreme international tribune be created, competent to

85
judge the crimes and misdemeanours committed by the members of the V.N.O.,
from the Secretary General to the last mercenary together with the removal
of the immoral immunity enjoyed by these members.
Justice must be done and the persons responsible must be legally punished.
Without this, we will come to terrorist tribunes and to kidnappings like that
of Eichmann.
The Forty-Six Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

III TRANSLATION OF TELEGRAMS SENT

TELEGRAM 1.
Addressee : His Majesty the King of the Belgians - Brussels.
Text: Hostilities re-opened Elisabethville Tuesday 5 December - stop - D.N.O.
Indian troops out of control - stop - fire at ambulance, massacre unarmed
civilians • stop - medical corps protests.
Signed : Katanga Medical Corps.

TELEGRAM 2.
Addressee: World Health Organization - Geneva - Switzerland.
Text: Hostilities re-opened Elisabethville Tuesday 5 December - stop - V.N.O.
Indian troops uncontrolled savage beasts - stop - fire at ambulances,
massacre unarmed civilians - stop - medical corps protests, asks your
intervention.
Signed : Katanga Medical Corps.

TELEGRAM 3.
Addressee: Mr. Van Waeyenbergh, rector Louvain University - Belgium.
Text: Implore our rector to alert Belgian and World christian conscience to
stop massacre of Katangese population by V.N.O. which constitutes real
religious persecution - stop - Katanga's only crime to be anticommunist
Christian country - stop - Indian troops uncontrolled savage beasts -
stop . fire at ambulances - stop - massacre unarmed civilians.
Signed : Lovania Katanga.

86
TELEGRAM 4.
Addressee : His Holiness Pope John XXIII· The Vatican.
Text : Implore Your Holiness to alert world Christian conscience to stop
massacre of Katangese population by U.N.O. - stop - this constitutes real
religious persecution. stop - Katanga's only crime to be anticommunist
Christian country.
Signed Association of ex-Louvain Students.

TELEGRAM 5.
Addressee : Cardinal Spellman • New York - U.S.A.
Text: Implore your Eminence to intervene President Kennedy and American
Christian conscience to stop massacre of Katangese population by U.N.O. -
stop • this constitutes real religious persecution - stop • Katanga's only
crime to be anticommunist Christian country.
Signed : Association of ex-Louvain Students.

TELEGRAM 6.
Addressees : Deans of Faculty of Medicine - Louvain - Brussels - Ghent -
Liege - Belgium.
Text: Denounce bombardment of hospitals, missions, churches, civilian habita-
tions as principal targets mortar fire by savage U.N.O. Indian troops night
of 7-8 December - stop - Ten shells on Prince Leopold hospital - stop -
Firing at ambulances - stop - Assassination of civilians - stop . Request
your energetic intervention - stop - Alert medical corps whole world
stop - Urgent.
Signed The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 7.
Addressee : American Medical Association - Washington - U.S.A.
Text : Denounce bombardment hospitals schools missions churches private
houses as principal targets mortar fire by savage U.N.O. Indian troops
night of 7-8 December - stop - Ten shells landed on Prince Leopold
hospital - stop . Protest against indirect American aid to massacre of
innocent civilian population - stop - Request your intervention.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

87
TELEGRAM 8.
Addressee: V Thant • Secretary general V.N.O. - New York.
Text : In name of medical corps of entire world we hold you personally
responsible for massacre of civilians provoked by your imbecile order
unworthy of humanity . stop - If you believe in God give immediate
order to butcher Raja to stop killings - stop - Demand arrest and jugde-
ment of Raja locally responsible for killings.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.
TELEGRAM 9.
Addressee : Prime Minister - Brussels - Belgium.
Text: Do you agree with bombardment of hospitals, schools, missions churches
private homes as principal targets for mortar fire by Indian U.N.O. troops
night of December 7·8 • stop - Ten shells on Prince Leopold Hospital -
stop - firing at ambulances stop assassination of civilians by Indian mer-
cenaries preventing evacuation of civilians - stop - request your energetic
intervention to stop this massacre of innocent civilian population Ever-
lasting shame on V.N.O.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.
TELEGRAM 10.
Addressee: President Kennedy. Washington - U.S.A.
Text: Do you agree with bombardment of hospitals, schools missions churches
private homes as principal targets mortar fire by Indian V.N.O. troops
night of December 7-8 • stop - Ten shells landed on Prince Leopold
hospital - stop - Protest against indirect American support given to
massacre innocent civilian population.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.
TELEGRAM 11.
Addressee : U Thant - Secretary General V.N.O. - New York.
Text: Regret your odious lie coustituted by statement that V.N.O. mercenaries
do not fire at Red Cross ambulances and others - stop - You would be
authorised to speak after spending night with us in hospital bombarded
by your shameless and lawless ruffians.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

88
TELEGRAM 12.
Addressee : His Majesty Haile Selassie Emperor of Ethiopia - Addis-Ababa.
Text: Beseech you in name or' Christ to withdraw your U.N.G. aviators who
machine-gun peaceful columns of E'ville civilians evacuating without arms
dangerous quarters - stop - such action risks to place a country among
uncivilized savage Nations - stop - Hope for your high intervention for
the honour of your country.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.
TELEGRAM 13.
Addressees: World council of Churches Geneva - National Council of Churches
America. Archbishop of Canterbury, England. Mr. Adlai Stevenson
U.S. Ambassador to U.N. Mr. Harold MacMillan, Prime Minister of
Great-Britain.
Text: In interest of Christian and humanitarian evidence, Protestant Christian
Community in Katanga request you exercise all possible influence to
oppose use of military means by U.N.G. against Katanga - stop· Implore
you to use strong influence on D.N.G., on presidents Tshombe and Adoula
for negociation of their differences.
Signed : Protestant Churches and Missions in Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 14.
Addressee: Sir Philip Noel Baker M.P. London - Gt-Britain.
Text: D.N. killing and bombing Katangese civilians - stop - please let well-
known British sense of honour intervene.
Signed: Herman Smeets Jnr. R.N.V.R.
TELEGRAM 15.
Addressee : Prime Minister of Great-Britain - London.
Text: In spite of intervention of International Red Cross delegate with U.N.G.
authorities Wednesday evening after beginning of bombardment of hospital
and formal assurance from U.N.G. authorities, Prince Leopold hospital
was bombarded all night - stop - conclude that local D.N.G. leaders no
longer control Indian hordes - stop - Beg you not to agree to demand
for bombs for D.N.G. who, in spite of formal engagement, will use them
against civilian population.
Signed : Elisabethville Medical Corps.

89
T ELEGRAM 16.

Addressee : President Supreme Court of Appeal - Brussels - Belgium.


Text: Briug complaints for war crimes against U Thaut O'Brien Tombelaine
General Raja - stop - Request you contact all high judicial instances of
civilized Nations to constitute impartial internatioual tribune - st op -
Beg you to demand immediate arrest and holding in custody of above
criminals Justice must be done - stop - respectfully.
Signed : Tbe 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville
(a s nominal list) .

TELEGRAM 17.

Addressee : Leader of the Bar of Advocats - Brussel s - Belgium.


Text : Request Brussels bar to take in hand our complaint introduced with
President Supreme Court of Appeal Brussels of which text follows - stop -
Complaint brought for war crim es against U Thant, O'Brien, Tombelaine,
General Raja - sto p - Request you contact all high judicial instances of
civilized Nations to cons titu te impartial international tribune - stop -
Request you demand immediate arrest and holding in custody of above
mentionned criminals - stop - respectfully.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville
(following nominal list ).

TELEGRAM 18.

Addressee: President of The National Order of Physicians - Brussels - Belgium.


Text : Request you support our complaint with President Brussels Court of
Appeal of which text follows - stop - Introducing com p l ain t for war
crimes against U Thant, O'Brien, Tombelaine, General Raja - stop -
R equest you con tac t all higher judicial instances of civil i zed N ation s to
constitute impartial international tribune - stop - Request you demand
immediate arrest and holding In custody above m en tionned cr im in als -
stop - respectfully.
Signed The 46 Civilian Do ctors of E li sa bethville
(foll owing nominal li st ).

90
TELEGRAM 19.
Addressee : Delvaux - Advocate leader - Brussels • Belgium.
Text: Received your comforting telegram 15 December· stop - Thanks stop. «

Insist you alert all barristers in the world with a view to constituting
permanent international tribunal over heads of D.N.O. - stop - Are
assembling documents.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Do ctors of Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 20.
Addressees: First President Supreme Court of Appeal Paul Giroul Brussels·
Leader of Order of Advocats - Delvaux - Brussels - Belgium.
Text : Many thanks your telegram -- stop - Dossier D.N.O. violations Geneva
conventions being constituted - stop - As resume 14 or 16 European
murders out of 24 deaths already checked - stop - Wounding, rape, robbery,
looting - stop - Bombardments by mortar machine-guns and aircraft
three Elisabethville hospitals, one hospital Shinkolobwe - stop - Bombard-
ment strictly civil buildings, convents, schools, boarding-schools, churches
• stop . aerial machine-gunning civi'lian automobiles - stop - Firing into
private houses - stop - deliberate firing at civilian R ed Cross ambulances
- stop - Arbitrary arrest of civilians and deportation of some to Leopold-
ville - stop - Handicapping provisionning and evacuation civilians - stop -
Faking of photographs.
Signed The 46 Civilian Do ctors of ElisabethviIIe.

TELEGRAM 21.
Addressees : His Holiness Pope John XXIII - His Majesty King of the
Belgians - H er Majesty Queen Elizabeth of Gr eat-Britain - President de
Gaulle - The President of the Italian Republic - Her Majesty the Queen
of the Netherlands - The President of the Swiss Confederation - President
Kennedy - His Majesty the King of Sweden - The President of the Republic
of Ireland - Mr. Pandit Nehru - His Majesty the Emperor of Ethiopia -
World Health Organization - The Hague International Court - League of
Human Rights, Paris - D Thant, D.N.O.
Text : S.O.S. to the moral conscien ce of the world - stop - Implore you to
intervene with all your authority to stop the terrorist bombardment of
hospitals and civilian populations by D.N.O. - stop - After bombardments

91
of 7th to 8th and from 12th to 13th Prince Leopold hospital, after
machine-gunning of Shinkolobwe hospital regret to denounce new crimes
by U.N.O.• stop - bombardment night 15-16, Reine Elisabeth clinic hit
by nine mortar bombs - stop - 18 December aerial attack Lubumbashi
hospital. stop· On our honour as physicians we declare as lies the denials
of U.N.O. Secretariat General - stop - insist upon inquiry here by high
magistrates and presidents of medical orders of all civilized Nations •
stop - Only means of convincing the world of inconceivable actions of
U.N.O. alas dishonoured - stop· insist upon creation international tribune
competent judge crimes and misdeeds U.N.O. personnel who benefit
from immunity contrary to natural law - stop - Respectfully.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 22.
Addressee: Doctor Paul Harper - John Hopkins School of Public Health -
615 N. Wolfe Street - Baltimore 5 . U.S.A.
Text: Please contact your congressmen to stop murder of civilians by U.N.O.
troops in Elisabethville - stop - This vicious aggression is supported by
American dollars - stop - In name of the 46 Civilian physicians of Elisa-
bethville.
Signed: Doctor Verstuyft M.P.H.

TELEGRAM 23.
Addressee: President of the Faculty of Medicine Harvard - New York - U.S.A.
Text : We urgently request your intervention in order to put a stop to the
killing of civilian coloured and European men women and children by
U.N. forces - stop - Women have been shot at and wounded in their homes,
workers in the streets • stop - So have Red Cross servants - stop - During
last two days jet planes have been shooting at civilian cars downtown
and in the country - stop - mortars are systematically shelling residential
areas - stop - For the second time Prince Leopold general African hospital
has been shelled - stop - Please inform academic and medical world and
public opinion and insist on U.N. giving up such repulsive methods •
stop - In name of the 46 civilian practioners at Elisabethville.
Signed : Doctor de Scoville, professor surgery
University Elisabethville, former Harvard Fellow.

92
TELEGRAM 24.

Addressee : Prime Minister - Brussels - Belgium.

Text : Advise you that U.N.O . mortar fire this December 12 systematically
aimed at residential quarter center Elisabethville - stop - Notably around
Cathedral, shops Interfina and Bon Marche, Hotel Leopold II, cafes,
Etoile, Maniema - stop - Please check on map of Elisabethville - stop -
U.N.O. aviation machine-gun hospital and maternity at Shinkolobwe
killing baby 2 years wounding 8 women in hospital - stop - Energetically
protest against unjustified terrorism towards civilian populations - stop ·
Request your personal intervention with civilized Nations for withdrawal
their U.N.O. contingents stained by this shame - stop - Highest considera-
tion.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 25.

Addressee : His Ma jesty the King of Sweden - Stockholm - Sweden.

Text : Making complaint against aviators detached U.N.O. - stop - Machine-


gun civilian targets Elisabethville - stop - Have machine-gunned Shin-
kolobwe hospital hitting maternity and two hospital wards - killing one
child 2 years, wounding 8 women - stop - In public market three civilians
killed and several wounded - stop - Reques t your high intervention for
withdrawal Swedish aviation and tr oops from U.N .O.• stop - Pacifist
Sweden risks to share shame U.N.O. war - mongerers - Highest consi-
deration.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 26.

Addressee : U Thant - U.N.O. - New York - U.S .A.

Text: Agree with declaration of spokesman, Secretary General U.N .O. wh o


says inconceivable U.N.O. troops could fire at civilians - stop - Unfor-
tunately U.N.O . troops led by a General outside control U .N .O. - stop -
Affair U.N. O.-Katanga has become personal affair Raja-Katanga - stop -
Raja ignores sacred principles of U.N.O. - stop - Can only observe the
facts • stop - Invite you gather with us V .N.O. mortar bombs fallen on

93
Katangese hospitals . stop - Loyalty will oblige you to recognise having
been odiously fooled by Raja reports your pacific orders being openly
disobeyed or uncivilized troops out of his control - stop - In the meantime
we count killed civilians and treat civilians wounded by your overridden
orders.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.
Conscience of the Civilized World.

TELEGRAM 27.
Addressee: U Thant • U.N.O.• New York - U.S.A.
Text: Are forced to repeat U.N.O. is most flagrant liar - stop - Ten more
shells fall on Prince Leopold Hospital situated 500 meters from military
camp - stop - Ranging error inacceptable as U.N.O. was warned about
8 p.m. by International Red Cross Delegate after fall of first shell stop·
»

Bombardment meanwhile continued during whole night - stop - Complaint


made against you and your henchmen before all justices of civilized
countries for war crim~s which you cover shamelessly.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 28.
Addressee : U Thant - U.N.O. - New York - U.S.A.
Text : Insist upon return of Ethiopian contingents after search of baggage
to recover money, jewellery, other objects looted and stolen with armed
menace or after assassination stop - Conduct of this contingent unworthy
>

of United Nations - stop - Fear reprisals by Katangese population exas-


perated by Ethiopians and their assassinations.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 29.
Addressee : Radio Brazzaville - Republic of Congo.
Text: Heard your news-bulletin 26 December where Ethiopian Government
denies defamatory accusations brought against Ethiopian mercenaries
Elisabethville - stop • Regret to solemnly confirm these accusations -
stop - Judicial enquiry in process overwhelming for Ethiopian contingents
whose conduct is in best traditions of middle-age reiters - stop • At least

94
8 assassinations of peaceful civilians, numerous cases rape, looting, robbery
with violence - stop - It would be sufficient to search Ethiopian baggage
to recover wedding-rings, money, precious objects stolen by mercenaries
- stop - We continue to insist upon International judicial enquiry.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisabethville.

TELEGRAM 30.
Addressees: President of the International Red Cross - Geneva - (Switzerland) -
President of the Swiss Red Cross - Geneva - His Royal Highness Prince
Albert, President of the Belgian Red Cross - Brussels - President of the
Netherlands Red Cross - The Hague - President of the Hed Cross of
U.S.A. - New York.
Text: Regret to present condoleances following deaths international Red Cross
delegate Olivet, Swiss, ambulance worker Vroonen, Belgian, ambulance
worker Smeding, Dutch - all three assassinated in ambulance hy Ethiopian
mercenaries - stop - Repeat demand for indisputable international Red
Cross personality to be sent urgently Elisabethville - stop - Suggest he be
accompanied hy legal doctor big authority. stop - How many assassina-
tions by D.N.O. mercenaries still necessary before international Red Cross
World conscience finally acts with energy against D.N.O. misdeeds - stop -
Truth is truth - stop - D.N.O. abscess must he emptied.
Signed : The 46 Civilian Doctors of Elisahethville.

95
IV. - BY WAY OF CONCLUSION

In rereading the text of our 30 telegrams, we must admit the impatient,


sometimes even impolite terms of certain among them. The addressees of
these are perhaps angry. But we are sure of the approval of honest people,
lovers of justice, who are after all in the majority throughout the Wodd.
The first worry of someone about to have his throat cut is not to find a
beautiful academic or diplomatic formula to express his anguish but to shout
murder! help! And after all if one must call a spade, a spade it is our most
strict right to call a murderer, a murderer, whatever his rank, and whatever his
function, however high it may be. Nuremberg is the precedent to which we
refer in insisting on what is our Delenda Carthago : "THE CREATION OF
AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNE" competent to judge penally the officials
and other agents of U.N.O. guilty of crimes, robbery, looting, rape, extorsion
and other misdeeds, including the order to commit them.
U.N.O. possesses its legislative and its executive, it is urgently necessary
to complete it with an independent judiciary. Without this, perishes Carthage,
if it insists upon remaining above the law !

96
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