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--:-- Noelle King: The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a large and beautiful country in Central Africa. On its east, it borders Rwanda. And right now, a rebel group called M23 is on a rampage in Congo after capturing the Congolese city of Goma.
--:-- Noelle King: The morgues in Goma are overflowing. We can't go on like this. Mothers are raped, killed. When will this end? Until when?
--:-- Noelle King: Aid agencies are struggling too. Their warehouses in Goma were looted. The men of M23 have been at this on and off for years now. Congo is always on edge. Civilians have to flee these M23 incursions, leaving their homes again and again and again to escape this campaign of killing and rape.
--:-- Noelle King: So who is funding and arming M23? It is Rwanda. Coming up on Today Explained, why everyone, including the United States, won't stop messing around in Congo.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for Today Explained comes from BetterHelp. Let me tell you a true story. Last weekend, I got an email from a listener who wanted to discuss their problems with me. And I said, look, I don't think that this is about me personally. At least I hope it's not. Why don't you try betterhelp.com slash explained? Absolute truth.
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--:-- Noelle King: This product may cause intoxication. This product has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA. This product may contain up to 0.3% THC. This is Today Explained. I'm Noelle King with Michaela Rong.
--:-- Michaela Rong: Michaela's been writing about Rwanda and Congo for three decades and is author of the books Do Not Disturb and In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz.
--:-- Noelle King: Michaela, what is M23 exactly?
--:-- Michaela Rong: Well, the M23 describe themselves as Congolese Tutsis, members of this ethnic group who are the Tutsis. A small group of army mutineers has turned into a powerful rebel force.
--:-- Michaela Rong: Our objective is Congo. We are fighting for Congo. These were fighters who used to be part of the Congolese army. They staged a mutiny. They were not happy with the way the Congolese army was being run, with the way their rights were being sort of observed and respected.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And they launched a mutiny and have been a problem in that area for quite some time. The issue is that although they describe themselves as Congolese Tutsis, they get weapons, they get funding, they get uniforms, and they take orders from neighbouring Rwanda, this tiny little country on the east of Congo.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And what they've been doing is seizing land that is very fertile land. It's also very rich in minerals and increasingly creating a very strong impression that really this is a land grab being staged, managed by Rwanda, by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who has ambitions and designs on that part of eastern Congo.
--:-- Michaela Rong: Many people in the West will know Rwanda as the country that 31 years ago experienced a terrible genocide. Underlying inter-tribal tensions have again exploded into violence as rebel forces from the minority Tutsi tribe appear to be fighting the army dominated by the majority Hutus.
--:-- Michaela Rong: A hundred-day killing spree that took one million lives. And then came back and became a very stable country, a place where tourists like to go and, you know, visit the gorillas, a place where I lived and worked there myself.
--:-- Michaela Rong: You can find nice coffee shops, nice hotels. Why is Rwanda involved in its much bigger neighbor and trying to grab its land?
--:-- Michaela Rong: Well, all those things you said about Rwanda are definitely true. And you can go up into the mountains and visit the gorillas, who are absolutely, you know, enchanting. But Rwanda has this long history of intervening in eastern Congo.
--:-- Michaela Rong: Back in 1997, a huge number of Hutu, they were from the Hutu ethnic group, the majority in Rwanda. They fled into Congo after the genocide, when Paul Kagame's rebel group took over the country. Pul Kagame is a member of the Tutsi group.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And the Hutus fled into Congo. And then this ousted army and these ousted extremist militias who had staged the genocide of 1994, they were staging systematic raids into Rwanda, attacking buses, attacking schools, committing massacres, attacking refugee camps.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And, you know, they were trying to win back power. But that was 30 years ago. And that's no longer the situation. That group of extremists who had this genocidal agenda is now estimated to be between 600 and 1,000 men.
--:-- Michaela Rong: But what you will hear President Kagame saying constantly is, I am justified to intervene in Congo because they represent an existential threat. And what's more, this nasty bunch of fighters would really like to wipe out Tutsis who live in Congo.
--:-- Michaela Rong: All right, so Rwanda is the aggressor here. Very clearly, that's been documented and it's been documented for a long time. And yet Rwanda remains very popular with Western nations, including the United States.
--:-- Michaela Rong: What is the relationship between the West and Rwanda right now?
--:-- Michaela Rong: Well, I think it's changing. And I think it's partly changing because of what people are seeing happening in Goma right now. I think there's been a long period in which the West decided that Pulkegami was a really impressive, admittedly authoritarian leader, but somebody that they regarded as a key ally in the Great Lakes.
--:-- Michaela Rong: An area which has sort of been plagued by civil war, genocide, killings, Ebola. I mean, you name it, it's happening in the Great Lakes. And so, Paul Kagame has always been very clever, transmitting this image of himself as a man you can do business with and someone who gets things done.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And one of his key calling cards is that he as the head of this extremely efficient very disciplined well because he gets a lot of military aid from America and other Western allies very effective army.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And he has sort of said to the West, you know, I will be your policeman. I will be Africa's policeman. I will send these peacekeepers around Africa to deal with the threat posed by Islamic jihadism, which has been cropping up here, there and everywhere across Africa.
--:-- Michaela Rong: So that has been one of the reasons why the West has been willing to turn a blind eye effectively to what he gets up to in Congo and this sort of obvious land grab that he is now making.
--:-- Michaela Rong: I mean, it's a curious moment. And I don't think it's coincidental that Kagame chose, you know, the moment where Washington is utterly obsessed with what Trump is doing and the incoming Trump administration, that he picked this particular moment for the M23 to launch its all-out attack on Goma.
--:-- Michaela Rong: Because the US had already sort of frozen all its aid projects around the globe. So Rwanda sort of in a way doesn't stand to lose anything from the U.S. at the moment, because it may never have an aid relationship with the U.S. again, irrespective of what's happening in Congo.
--:-- Michaela Rong: I wonder about any groups outside of government. So one thing that Rwanda seems to be quite proud of is that it isn't just the darling of governments, but that cultural figures and sports figures all view it as kind of, you know, a very fine African country.
--:-- Michaela Rong: What are you hearing about non-governmental actors reconsidering their relationship with Rwanda?
--:-- Michaela Rong: I'm not sure that they're reconsidering, but I think they need to.
--:-- Michaela Rong: What was quite interesting recently was to see the Congolese foreign minister writing, personally writing to Arsenal football club, soccer club, also writing to Paris Saint-Germain, the soccer club in France, Bayern Munich in Germany and saying, you really need to reconsider these sponsorship deals you have signed with Rwanda.
--:-- Michaela Rong: Our call to action to all the stakeholders, but in particular those countries that have been funding the Rwandan regime, is that this madness needs to stop.
--:-- Noelle King: It's also are going to be the place where the World Cycling Championships are staged in September. Sports is one of the ways that Kagame has got his soft message out to the world that, you know, Rwanda is this miraculous country that has recovered from the genocide.
--:-- Noelle King: And he uses those messages to sort of allay the reality, which is that it's a very repressive country, not just in Congo, but at home, you know, where human rights activists and journalists end up either dead or in jail and the opposition can't campaign in the elections.
--:-- Noelle King: So he's used sports for a very long time. And I really don't think that these sports organizations are sort of getting the message yet.
--:-- Michaela Rong: One thing that is quite grim to consider is that, as you said, this is a conflict, the kind of parameters or outlines of which have been very much the same for 30 years.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And I wonder, 30 years later, 30 years into this, do you think that this could be a moment where enough of the eyes of the world take a really critical look at Rwanda and what it's been doing that there is renewed hope for Congo?
--:-- Michaela Rong: I think the attention is really welcome because what we do know about Paul Kagame is he's very attuned to his branding, his reputation, his image in the West. It matters to him and he picks up the slightest nuance of when it's getting dented.
--:-- Michaela Rong: So I really welcome the new focus on Congo. I just hope that it is maintained because one of the problems with Congo, and it's always been the problem with Congo is this is a complex history.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And it is a history that is spattered with incidents and different episodes. And most disastrously, it's the acronym factor. The different acronyms of the rebel groups, who is allied to who, who is behind who.
--:-- Michaela Rong: And people's eyes just glaze over. And I really understand why that is. But it is a part of the world where a little bit of Western pressure can really pay off.
--:-- Noelle King: Michaela Wrong. She's the author of In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz and Do Not Disturb. The latter was the book I most recommended in 2022 to my friends and family, and I am very happy to recommend it to you.
--:-- Noelle King: Coming up on today explained a CIA assassination plot that derailed Congo for decades. You cannot make this stuff up. Support for Today Explained comes from Built Rewards.
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--:-- Noelle King: This is Today Explained. In the late 1950s, African countries were throwing off their colonial shackles and declaring independence. And the Africans who led these movements were very brave and very charismatic people.
--:-- Noelle King: Patrice Lumumba was one of them. Belgian colonizers in Congo didn't allow Africans to be educated. So Lumumba taught himself via public library, then nabbed a respectable civil service job, then got caught embezzling and went to prison, and then got woke, really.
--:-- Noelle King: And from behind bars, he wrote a manifesto asking for freedom. And then in 1960, Lumumba and Congo got it. Stuart Reid is the author of The Lumumba Plot.
--:-- Stuart Reid: On June 30th, the Congo at last becomes independent. It's a moment of great celebration. There are visitors from across the world. Elected as prime minister of the new Congo Republic, Mr. Patrice Lumumba receives congratulations from members of both houses of parliament.
--:-- Stuart Reid: But almost immediately, everything falls apart. On July 5th, the army mutinies. There was an all-white officer corps and the black rank and file rose up against that all-white officer corps.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Soldiers are marauding the streets, terrorizing white civilians. Violence and chaos in the Congo. Barely 11 days after official independence from Belgium, Congolese troops mutinied and began a wave of attacks and looting throughout the far-flung sectors of the former colony.
--:-- Stuart Reid: The white civilians, there are many Belgians who had remained on after independence, flee the Congo en masse, depriving the country instantly of much of its technical expertise, the air traffic controllers, the doctors, the judges, etc.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Refugees are pouring in with harrowing tales of violence and of hasty flight. And then the Belgian military intervened, sending paratroopers across the country, ostensibly to protect its civilians.
--:-- Stuart Reid: At the request of Congolese officials, Belgian paratroops were recalled to quell the native army's mutiny and reign of terror. But to many Congolese, it looked like a recolonization.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And then Katanga, the mineral-rich province in the country's southeast, announces that it's breaking free. A harsh awakening to reality from golden dreams of independence.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So within less than two weeks of independence, Lumumba's country is falling apart before his very eyes, and it's then that he calls on the United Nations for help.
--:-- Stuart Reid: The council authorizes Secretary General Hammershield to organize a peace force for the Congo, historic intervention to ease birth pangs of a new African nation.
--:-- Stuart Reid: It's an impressive effort, but it fails to work, and the country is still split in two, and Lumumba is unable to exert full control.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Now open civil war seems imminent as Lumumba masses troops to invade secessionist Katanga province. So that's when Lumumba decides to knock on the door of the Americans for help.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So Lumumba flies to the United States, goes to Washington, D.C., and has a frustrating meeting where he doesn't get any of the things he wants.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So Lumumba leaves Washington, D.C. empty-handed. And so then, and only then, he turns to the Soviets for help.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And in the eyes of the Americans, particularly at the CIA, that was an unforgivable Cold War sin. An unforgivable Cold War sin because the United States thinks of the Soviet Union as its main enemy.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So this guy has come hat in hand to them. They've turned him away. He's gone to the Soviet Union. And now the United States does what?
--:-- Stuart Reid: The key event is a meeting at the White House on August 18th, 1960. President Eisenhower is meeting with the National Security Council, and the topic that day is Lumumba and the Congo.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Eisenhower says something to the effect of, we need to get rid of Lumumba, physically if necessary. We don't know his exact words, but we know that he said something to this effect, and we know it for a few reasons.
--:-- Stuart Reid: One, a note-taker at the meeting would later testify to a Senate investigative committee that he remembers clearly Eisenhower ordering Lumumba's assassination, and that the room fell into a stunned silence.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Also, during my research for the book, I found handwritten notes from the meeting that included the word Lumumba with a big black X written next to it, which is not proof, but suggestive.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And most important, we know that Eisenhower said this based on what happened next, which is that the CIA, at the direction of the president's national security advisor, puts into motion an assassination plot against Lumumba.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So for the first time in history, an American president has ordered the assassination of a foreign leader.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And then Alan Dulles, as head of the CIA, puts into motion an operation to poison Lumumba's food or toothpaste.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So a CIA chemist flies to the Congo with a vial of poisons, a syringe, rubber gloves, a surgical mask, and explains to the CIA station chief there, here's this poison and you are to find a way to get it into Lumumba's body.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So that's in September 1960. Meanwhile, a lot has happened on the ground and Congo. Lumumba has been ousted from power by a coup backed by the CIA and led by an army officer named Joseph Mobutu, who was receiving CIA cash at the time.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And Lumumba is now under house arrest. Now, the timing here is important. It's now December 1960.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Eisenhower's second term is coming to a close. John F. Kennedy has been elected, having defeated Richard Nixon.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And so there's going to be a change of party in the White House, and there's legitimate reason to suspect that the Kennedy administration will pursue a different policy toward Lumumba and the Congo than the Eisenhower administration did.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So that creates this real fear on the ground in Congo among Lumumba enemies that Lumumba might come back to power.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And so Mobutu is worried about this because he would be out of a job. And Larry Devlin, the CIA station chief, is also worried that Lumumba might come back to power.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Larry Devlin considers Lumumba a radical communist a sympathizer, a Soviet stooge. And in his view, this would be a disaster for the United States if Lumumba returned to power.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And so plans develop to transfer Lumumba to a province where it is certain he will be killed.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Larry Devlin does not tell his bosses back at CIA headquarters in Washington what's happening in the Congo.
--:-- Stuart Reid: This is the most significant development in weeks that Lumumba is about to be sent to his death, and Devlin sits on this information because he fears, correctly, probably, that if he tells his bosses what's about to happen with Lumumba, he will be ordered to put the brakes on the operation.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So on January 17th, 1961, Lumumba is dragged out of his prison cell, put on a series of planes, tortured during the flights, and lands in Elizabethville, the capital of Katanga.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Katanga is that breakaway province that's announced its secession. And within hours of being dragged off the plane in Elizabethville, he's tortured and then shot to death in a clearing in the woods.
--:-- Stuart Reid: The slaying of Patrice Lumumba, deposed Congo premier, touches off worldwide demonstrations. Small groups of students and others, as here in Chicago and in London.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And it has been the signal for violent reactions in many parts of the world, first in the United Nations itself, where a Security Council meeting was violently interrupted.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So Patrice Lumumba is shot dead. The CIA's man in Congo, Larry Devlin, could have stopped it, likely could have stopped it.
--:-- Stuart Reid: Have the CIA and the United States ever really acknowledged what they did to Lumumba? No.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So the first effort at clarity was the church committee in the 1970s, which uncovered a lot about the poisoning plot against Lumumba.
--:-- Stuart Reid: But it let the CIA off the hook because the poisoning plot ended up fizzling out and not being the cause of Lumumba's death.
--:-- Stuart Reid: What it did not fully understand was that the CIA essentially gave a green light to Mobutu to send Lumumba to his death.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So I think you can draw a very straight line between the CIA's actions and Lumumba's death.
--:-- Stuart Reid: There are still documents that are classified to this day, more than 60 years after the fact.
--:-- Stuart Reid: To me, the first step in atonement would be transparency and revealing what exactly was known, who did what.
--:-- Stuart Reid: There's no reason to hide any of this anymore.
--:-- Stuart Reid: I wonder if you've thought through a kind of counterfactual. If Patrice Lumumba, who was elected, had never been killed, and Mubutu Seziseko, Joseph Mubutu, had never taken over, not democratically elected and proceeded to basically pillage the Congo, do you think this country that has suffered so much for 65 plus years, do you think it could be in a different place now if none of this had happened?
--:-- Stuart Reid: Counterfactuals are impossible to prove. But here's what I'd say. The actual history that Congo experienced under Mobutu and afterwards was so bad that almost anything would have been better.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So after Lumumba's death, Mobutu's fully in control. He leads the Congo, which he renames Zaire, for more than 30 years. completely kleptocratic, repressive, mismanages almost everything.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And as a result, it's so weak and dysfunctional and unpopular that there's a foreign-backed invasion and rebellion that ends up toppling Mobutu.
--:-- Stuart Reid: He flees to Morocco, dies of cancer a few months later, in fact. And so begins one of the deadliest wars in recent history. The Great African War, as it's called. The Congolese Civil War is another name for it.
--:-- Stuart Reid: And the conflict that's going on today is, in fact, part of that very same conflict, arguably, the one that began in 96, 97.
--:-- Stuart Reid: So in my view, you can draw a pretty straight line between the actions that the U.S. took in 1960 and 1961 up through the present.
--:-- Noelle King: Stuart Reid, he's the author of the estimable book The Lumumba Plot, The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination.
--:-- Noelle King: Avishai Artsy produced today's show. Jolie Myers edited. Laura Bullard and Miles Bryan checked the facts. Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir engineered.
--:-- Noelle King: And I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for the show comes from Mercury.
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