Belgium hands over gold tooth of slain Congo leader to family

Belgium yesterday returned a gold tooth from the body of murdered Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba to his family.

The gold-plated tooth, which was removed by Belgian police before Mr Lumumba’s body was dissolved after his assassination in 1961, was returned in a small, private ceremony in Brussels.

“It is not normal that Belgium held on to the remains of one of the founding fathers of the Congolese nation for six decades,” Alexander De Croo, Belgium’s prime minister, told the man’s family and Congolese officials attending the event.

Jean-michel Sama Lukonde, Congo’s prime minister, said the restitution of the relic was essential for his country’s national memory.

Mr Lumumba was murdered following a military coup backed by Belgium, Congo’s former ruler, and the United States.

At least four senior Belgian officers were involved in the assassination and the disposal of the body.

Gerard Soete, the former Belgian police commissioner in Congo, dismembered the corpse before dissolving it in sulphuric acid.

In 1999, he told a German TV documentary that he had taken two teeth, some fingers and some of the bullets that killed Mr Lumumba as “a kind of trophy hunting”.

Following the ceremony at Brussels’ Egmont Palace, Mr Lumumba’s daughter, Juliana, said the return of the tooth was long overdue.

“Father, our hearts bled for 61 years,” she said. “Congo, Africa and the world mourned your death without a eulogy.”