[listen to the entire program at 14.4]
[click to hear any story] <A HREF="http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow/'http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20010703.ra&end=">NEWS HEADLINES</A> Story: <A HREF="http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow/'http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20010703.ra&start=">ON THE FORTY FIRST
ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE CONGO, A CONVERSATION WITH RAOUL PECK
ABOUT HIS AWARD WINNING NEW FILM "LUMUMBA" </A>Congo eagerly ended a more than
one decade break in relations with its old colonial ruler Saturday, welcoming
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt on the first visit by a Belgian leader since
end of the the Cold War. At the same time, Congolese Prime Minister Joseph
Kabila and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni will meet in Tanzania on
Wednesday for the first time to talk about the peace process in the Congo,
which has been wracked by a regional war involving six countries - including
Uganda - since 1998. It's a fitting moment for reflection, coming nearly
forty-one years to the day after the Congo's independence from Belgium. It's
also 76 years after the birth of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of
the Congo. "Lumumba," the new movie by Haitian-born film maker Raoul Peck,
tells the story of Patrice Lumumba, who rose to power in 1960 as a leader the
Congo's independence movement and was assassinated just over six months later
in January 1961. Lumumba's pan-Africanism and his vision of a united Congo
gained him many enemies. Both Belgium and the United States actively sought
to have Lumumba overthrown or killed. Belgium was determined to maintain
control over its former colony, while the United States sought to protect its
access to the Congo's vast resources. The two countries turned to an
ambitious young Colonel named Mobutu Sese Seko, who helped betray Lumumba and
was implicated in his assassination. Mobutu went on to rule the Congo with
U.S. support for more than thirty years before he was ousted in 1997, after
stealing billions from his country people. The legacy of Lumumba's
assassination in the Congo, potentially one of the richest countries in
Africa, is especially bitter. Six foreign armies are now fighting in the
Congo and an estimated 2 million people have died from fighting, disease and
starvation since Rwanda and Burundi invaded the Congo in 1998. Patrice
Lumumba's dream for the future of the Congo is today a walking nightmare.
These words are from the last letters Patrice Lumumba wrote, a note to his
wife: "All during the length of my fight for the independence of my country,
I have never doubted for a single instant the final triumph of the sacred
cause to which my companions and myself have consecrated our lives." "We are
not alone. Africa, Asia, and free and liberated people from every corner of
the world will always be found at the side of the Congolese" "History will
one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris,
Washington or the United Nations will teach, but that which they will teach
in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will
write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the
Sahara, a history of glory and dignity." When "Lumumba" premiered last week
in New York at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival I had a
chance to speak to Raoul Peck. We sat upstairs as the film played in the
theater below us. Guest:
Raoul Peck, director of "Lumumba" Related link:
<A HREF="http://www.zeitgeistfilm.com/">Zeitgeist Film</A> Story: <A HREF="http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow/'http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20010703.ra&start=">THE ROLE OF THE U.S. AND U.S. CORPORATIONS IN THE
ASSASSINATION OF PATRICE LUMUMBA</A> In the New York Times' review of Raoul
Peck's film "Lumumba" last week, the role of the United States and the CIA in
the assassination of the first Prime Minister of the Congo is relegated to a
single sentence. The role of U.S., Belgian and other mining corporations in
supporting the dismembering of the Congo and aiding the rise of Joseph Mobutu
escapes the New York Times' version of history entirely. Most history books
treat the crisis in the Congo as a Cold War struggle between the U.S. and the
USSR. But there was another struggle, one among Western business interests
for access to the Congo's vast mineral wealth. It was these struggles that
help to explain U.S. support for Belgium intervention in the Congo during the
Eisenhower Administration - and U.S. support for UN intervention under
President Kennedy. Guests:
David Gibbs, Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona and
author of The Political Economy of Third World Intervention: Mines, Money and
U.S. Policy in the Congo Crisis
Elombe Brath, head of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition. He is also a producer at
WBAI (99.5 fm in New York), where he hosts a show, "Africaleidescope," which
airs on Thursday nights from 9-10pm.



Catch the evening news every day, <A HREF="http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/pnn.html">Pacifica Network News</A>.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------