Broadcast on the Congo Situation
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, then President of the Republic of Ghana, 15 December, 1960

Review of Raoul Peck's film "Lumumba"

Part Two

To read Part One.

To read Part Three

To read Part Four

I have many times declared that the only hope for world peace lies in the United Nations. Throughout this whole Congo crisis, Ghana and all other independent African countries, in spite of their first-hand knowledge of the evils of colonialist and imperialist intrigues and the way to deal most effectively with them, have stood loyally by the United Nations command. They have had to stand as silent witness to imperialist intervention in the internal affairs of the Congo, forced to turn a blind eye because their orders forbade them to do otherwise, watching the ground being carefully removed from under their feet of the Head of Government who had invited them to the Congo and whom they are supposed to be protecting.

It pains me to say that the United Nations has been a bitter disappointment and has far from justified our hopes. For one reason or another, it has talked vacillated, hesitated and delayed until its whole presence and action in the Congo have been reduced to a farce - very expensive farce at that. At the moment several states which have contributed to the military personnel of the United Nations Operation in the Congo are so deeply disillusioned by the United Nations' inability to take any constructive action in the Congo, that they have decided to withdraw their forces. Whilst Ghana sympathizes with these nations as far as their disappointment in the United Nations is concerned, I nevertheless appeal to them to consider their decision to withdraw their forces from the Congo. Ghana believes sincerely that the withdrawal of the troops will spell immediate doom to the Congo and will precipitate the anarchy which all well-meaning countries are anxious to prevent.

If the United Nations troops are withdrawn from, or forced out of the Congo, there will be an imminent risk of civil war, of the Spanish type, which could last for many years and would put the Congo back a century of more. if civil war broke out, those countries that have vested interest in the country will vie for power by supplying arms and ammunition to the various factions taking part, and this can eventually transform the Cold War into a terrifying Hot War.

It is obvious that none of the States whose troops are now serving in the Congo is desirous of pursuing any independent action calculated to worsen the present situation in the Congo. That is why some of them have intimated that they are prepared to reconsider their proposal to withdraw their troops, but only on condition that the United Nations Command will cease to be a mere passive onlooker to the acts of rampant lawlessness perpetrated by Mobutu and his gang.

The impotence of the United Nations Command in the Congo is deliberate. It has been imposed on it by the exigencies of those with vested interests in the country and the colonialists and imperialists intrigues and sabotage. From the very beginning of the Congo crisis, I have warned against the infiltration of the Cold War into Africa via the Congo or elsewhere. With our declared foreign policy of positive neutralism and non-alignment, I have regarded with increasing suspicion the sincerity of foreign intervention in the Congo. I warned the Secretary General of the United Nations of my fears in this connection in early September, saying that I believed the situation had been caused by the fact that the United Nations was not in a position to enforce law and order which had always understood to the existing law and constitution. I urged him to ensure that the Security Council should reconsider the position so that the territorial integrity of the Congo could be preserved without the intervention of any countries other than those contributing to the United Nations Force.

Many people would like to make excuses for the United Nations. Others would prefer to mine their words to please the ears of the economic patronizers. Neither of these platitudes are of any help to this great world organization which was created by men of goodwill and foresight to prevent tribulation to mankind. I believe that only genuine and constructive criticism of its action, whether it be in the Congo, or elsewhere, can make valuable contribution to the strength and purpose of the United Nations. Only by this means can it realize its mistakes and profit by them. I do not doubt the fact that the United Nations has had many difficulties to face in the Congo; but I believe most emphatically that these difficulties only became insurmountable because the United Nations has refused to surmount them or has delayed for so long that other things have stepped in to prevent it doing so.

The United Nations have failed to maintain law and order in the Congo because while it has been standing by rigidly adhering to its principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of the country, the Belgians have, under the very nose of the United Nations Command, acquired stooges and quislings to carry out a flagrant and brazen sabotage of Congolese independence, aided and abetted by those whose chief and only interest in mankind is exploitation and profit, and who hope to share the Congo booty.

But has the United Nations strictly observed this non-intervention attitude throughout? It is clear that it has not. It was the United Nations, in fact, which prevented Patrice Lumumba, the legal Prime Minister of Congo Republic, from entering and using his own radio station. It was the United Nations which stood by while a rebel, put up as a leader by the Belgians, took it upon himself to put that head of government under house arrest.

To read Part Three

Related article: Review of Raoul Peck's film "Lumumba"