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Agitation for independence forced Belgium to grant this on June 30 1960, although
reluctant to give up the vast mineral wealth of the country, especially in the
Katanga province.
Less
than 2 weeks after independance (July 11) Katanga seceded, closely followed by
part of Kasai, another mining province. Under the leadership of Tshombe and with
Belgian aid, Katanga fought off repeated attempts by the central government to
seize control. Throughout the country disorder was widespread and fragmentation
split the country into 5 areas. The central government invoked the help of the
UN. In
1960, Tshombe reluctantly allowed a small UN force to enter Katanga -the proverbial
'Trojan horse'. Later a considerable number of UN troops, committed to a policy
of nonintervention, were stationed in Katanga to oversee the withdrawal of foreign
troops. Belgian troops were slowly withdrawn, but white mercenary officers continued
to command the Katanga
army. There
was reoccurring trouble between the UN force and the Katangese, and attempts at
reconciliation with the central government proved fruitless. The situation grew
steadily worse until early 1961, when strongman Kasavubu staged a successful army
coup, and handed over the former premier Lumumba to the Katangese where Lumumba
was murdered. In
1961, under a new
stronger UN mandate, the international force took control of Elisabethville (now
Lubumbashi) and other volatile areas. An agreement of December 1961 for getting
Katanga back in the fold went nowhere. Rural
insurgencies broke out in the provinces in 1963, that raised the serious prospect
of the total collapse of the central government, but the rebellion failed to capitalise
on it's early military successes to become an effective power apparatus,
due mainly to its fragmented support base and poor leadership. The
kiss of death for the rebellion was made by the European mercenaries who helped
the central government gain control over rebel held areas. It
was not until January
1963, and only after a violent showdown between UN troops and Tshombe's forces
was the Katanga secession ended. It would take another year for the last bastion
of secession, the pro-Lumumba Stanleyville government, to be crushed. Ironically,
a year and a half after Tshombe's defeat by the UN forces -and the most vocal
advocate of Katanga secession, Tshombe suddenly popped up as the providential
leader of the besieged central government. In
1966 the central 'government' nationalised Union Minière du Haut Katanga, the
huge Belgian firm that had controlled most of Katanga's mining interests. Throughout
the 1970s, further insurrections were put down by the government with help from
foreign nations, but in the 1990s there was renewed talk of the secession of Katanga.
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