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MOÏSE TSHOMBE. Rare TLS: "T. Moïse" as President of
Katanga, in English, 1p, 8½x11. Elizabethville, 1961 February 15. On
"Etat du Katanga" stationery to Kenneth E. Crouch, "The Bedford Democrat",
Bedford, Va. In full: "I duly received your letter dated 8th Inst,
which retained all my attention. I do thank you for your good wishes. Enclosed
you will find an autographed picture [not present]". On June 24,
1960, Patrice Lumumba became the first Prime Minister of the Congo. On July
11, 1960, Moïse Tshombe, supported by white mercenaries and the Belgian mining
company Union Minière, declared the Katanga province of the Congo independent.
Lumumba appealed to the United Nations for help and U.N. Secretary General
Dag Hammarskjold agreed to send in a peacekeeping force to restore order. The
following month, Colonel Sese Seko Mobuto led a military coup and ousted Lumumba
from power. Lumumba was arrested by Mobutu's soldiers and transferred to
Elizabethville, Katanga, where he was murdered on January 17, 1961. On
February 13, 1961, just two days before Tshombe wrote this letter from
Elizabethville, Godefroid Munongo, Katanga's Minister of the Interior, called a
press conference in Elizabethville and announced that Lumumba was dead. He
stated that Lumumba and two accomplices had been massacred by villagers after
escaping from custody. In September 1961, fighting erupted between Katanga
troops and the noncombatant forces of the U.N. In an effort to secure a
ceasefire, Hammarskjold arranged to meet President Tshombe. On September 17,
1961, Dag Hammarskjold was killed when his plane mysteriously crashed. The
U.N. passed a resolution demanding an inquiry into the circumstances of his
death. This was rejected by Tshombe. The fighting continued and independent
regimes were established at different times in Katanga, Stanleyville and Kasai.
In January 1963, Katanga province once again became part of the Congo. For a
while, Tshombe lived in Europe but returned to become Prime Minister of the
Congo Republic (July 10, 1964 to October 13, 1965). After elections were
held, he was forced to flee and went to live in Spain. General Mobutu staged
another military coup in November 1965. He placed an absent Tshombe on trial for
treason, and Tshombe was condemned to death. In July 1967, Tshombe was
kidnapped and taken to Algeria, where he died in prison of a heart attack in
1969 at the age of 49. Rust paper clip stain at upper left corner. Fine
condition.
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