Nearly 60 years after the death of Congo’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, our country will return its only remaining body part, a tooth, to its family. That is what Het Nieuwsblad writes today.
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When Patrice Lumumba was brutally executed in 1961 in the dissident Congolese state of Katanga, the Belgian gendarme Gerard Soete was ordered to have his body completely disappeared. According to Soete, the body was dissolved in sulfuric acid. Only two teeth survived the sulfur bath.
Photo: jelle vermeersch
Adieu
Soete always claimed to have those teeth in his possession. He even showed them to a German TV journalist. Eventually, one tooth was confiscated from his daughter in 2016, shortly after Soete’s death in 2000. The relic would be an important part of Lumumba’s death investigation. But that was not to the liking of the relatives of the Congolese Prime Minister. This summer, sixty years after Congolese independence, Juliana Lumumba, daughter of, addressed a letter to King Philippe in which she wrote how much her father’s tooth means to her and her family. “We just want to say adieu to him,” he said.
–Normally, the tooth would still be part of a DNA test, but that would also almost mean the end of the last remaining body part of the former prime minister. The investigating judge ultimately decided to let the emotional value of the tooth prevail over the investigation. As a result, it can never be said with certainty that the tooth actually belonged to Lumumba. The relatives have not yet responded to the decision.
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