Familia ya kiongozi wa uhuru wa Congo, Patrice Lumumba, imesema kuwa bado ina matumaini ya kupata haki, wakati mahakama ya Ubelgiji ikizingatia uwezekano wa kumfikisha mahakamani mshukiwa pekee aliyesalia hai kuhusiana na mauaji ya mwaka 1961. Kwa takribani miaka 15, familia ya Lumumba imekuwa ikishinikiza kufanyika kwa mchakato wa kisheria kuhusu kile wanachosema ni ushiriki wa maafisa wa Ubelgiji katika mauaji hayo.
Takribani miaka 65 baada ya Lumumba, aliyekuwa waziri mkuu wa kwanza wa Congo baada ya uhuru mwaka 1960, kuuawa na mwili wake kuyeyushwa kwa tindikali na wanaharakati wa kujitenga wakisaidiwa na mamluki kutoka Ubelgiji, afisa mmoja tu wa zamani bado yuko hai kukabiliwa na haki. Huyo ni Etienne Davignon (93), aliyewahi kuwa kamishna wa Ulaya, ambaye wakati wa mauaji alikuwa mwanadiplomasia mchanga wa Ubelgiji.
Waendesha mashtaka wa shirikisho wanamtuhumu kuhusika katika “kizuizi na uhamisho haramu” wa Lumumba pamoja na “unyanyasaji na udhalilishaji,” tuhuma anazozikana, huku wakili wake akikataa kutoa maoni kabla ya kikao. “Hili si suala la kulipiza kisasi, bali kiu ya kujua ukweli; mamilioni ya watu wanataka kujua kilichotokea,” alisema Roland Lumumba, mmoja wa wana wa Patrice.
Mahakama ya Brussels ilisikiliza hoja za pande zote kabla ya kuamua kama kesi ifunguliwe, huku mawakili wa familia wakisema kikao hicho pia kilitoa nafasi ya kufungua mashauri mapya ya madai kwa niaba ya wajukuu takribani 10 wa Lumumba. Familia inadai kulikuwa na “njama kubwa” ya maafisa wa Ubelgiji kumuondoa kiongozi huyo, na wakili wao Christophe Marchand akaonya kuwa kukataa kesi “kutathibitisha adhabu kutokuwepo kwa uhalifu mkubwa wa kikoloni.”
Uchunguzi wa Ubelgiji tayari uligundua jino moja la Lumumba—mabaki pekee yanayojulikana—ambalo lilirejeshwa DRC mwaka 2022, huku aliyekuwa waziri mkuu wa Ubelgiji Alexander De Croo akiomba radhi kwa “uwajibikaji wa kimaadili.” Uamuzi wa mahakama unatarajiwa ndani ya wiki chache, na iwapo utaruhusiwa, kesi inaweza kuanza mapema mwaka.
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The family of murdered Congolese independence icon Patrice Lumumba said Tuesday they hope to get justice, as a Belgian court weighs prosecuting the sole surviving suspect over the 1961 killing.
Lumumba's relatives have pushed for the past 15 years for what they say is a long-overdue legal reckoning over the complicity of Belgian officials in his murder.
"We cannot turn back time... but we are counting on the Belgian justice system to do its job and shed light on history," Yema Lumumba, 33, a granddaughter of the late Congolese prime minister, told AFP outside a Brussels court, ahead of a closed-door hearing.
Some 65 years after Lumumba was executed and his body dissolved in acid by separatists with the help of mercenaries from former colonial power Belgium, only one ex-official is still alive to face justice.
That is 93-year-old Etienne Davignon, a one-time European commissioner, who was a novice Belgian diplomat at the time of Lumumba's killing.
He is accused by Belgian federal prosecutors of involvement in the "unlawful detention and transfer" of Lumumba, as well as "humiliating and degrading treatment".
Davignon has always denied Belgian authorities' involvement in the murder, and his lawyer declined to comment to AFP before Tuesday's closed-door hearing.
"This is not about revenge, but about a thirst for knowledge," Roland Lumumba, one of Patrice's sons, told AFP by phone from Kinshasa last week.
"Millions of people would like to know the truth."
Source: African news
