The Sixth Phase - August - December 1961
The Katanga Issue
The formation of the Adoula government brought all political elements in the Congo together except Tshombe. The Central Government was, and still is, a coalition of highly diverse elements; ex-Lumumbists, nationalists, moderates, and tribal representatives. They were all agreed, however, upon the necessity of maintaining a unified Congo, including Katanga. The UN recognized the Adoula government's jurisdiction over all the Congo. Tshombe's regime had joined the national parliament.
Tshombe, however, soon withdrew his parliamentary representatives and returned to a secessionist policy. The presence of UN forces in Katanga, and especially Elisabethville, posed a threat to Tshombe's continued secessionist activities. Tension between Katanga and the UN increased as the latter exerted increasing pressure to remove mercenaries. The Central Government tried ineffectively to force the Katanga's reintegration with Mobutu's troops.
Gizenga withdrew from Leopoldville and mounted a series of separate attacks on the north Katanga from Stanleyville. The failure of European military personnel to leave the Katanga and the increasing barrage of anti-UN propaganda by the Katanga government led to fighting in Elisabethville between UN an Katanga forces from September 13 to 21.
A series of provocative acts by the Katangans, including the shooting of UN personnel and attempts to cut off UN supply routes, obliged the UN to take defensive measures which led to additional fighting between December 5-19. The December fighting, which reduced Tshombe's control of Elisabethvill, culminated in a cessation of hostilities coinciding with negotiations between Tshombe and Adoula at Kitona.
August 6 Tshombe announces that Katanga representatives will participate in parliament; a majority of them arrive in Leopoldville on August 8.
August 7 Gizenga declares the Stanleyville government is dissolved; he recognizes Adoula as premier, but remains in Stanleyville. During the following week Gizenga hedges his support and attacks Adoula's election.
August 15 Adoula states his government is agreeable to the establishment of embassies in Leopoldville by the Soviet Bloc or Casablanca states.
August 16-18 Adoula visits Gizenga at Stanleyville; he is cheered by the population but returns with no firm accord from Gizenga.
August 28 The UN seizes the Elisabethville airport and other strategic points without opposition in an effort to oblige Tshombe to dismiss 200 European military officers: 81 are rounded up by the UN for deportation.. (Tshombe had about 510 European officers and political advisers.)
August 30 Gizenga, still at Stanleyville, continues his opposition to Adoula, and promotes the formation of the "National Patrice Lumumba Party;" he claims that elements of MNC/Lumumba, CEREA, and Balubakat have joined his new party.
September 3 Gizenga flies to Leopoldville. He joins Adoula in representing the Congo at the Belgrade Conference.
September 9 Adoula announces, on return from Belgrade, that Gizenga will join his government as Vice Premier and remain in Leoploldville.
September 10 The UN orders white officers of the Katanga security forces to leave the Congo within 48 hours.
September 13 Major fighting erupts in Elisabethville as the UN seizes strategic points.
September 14-17 Conflicting reports are received as to casualties, prisoners and the relative strength of Katangan and UN forces in Elisabethville and north Katanga. Katanga's single Fouga jet aircraft assumes major importance.
September 18 The US agrees to the UN's request to position four transport aircraft at Leopoldville for use in support of the UN intra-Congo airlift. (The UN had specifically requested USAF planes for movement of the Ethiopian battalion from Stanleyville to Elisabethville.)
UN Secretary General Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash at Ndola, Northern Rhodesia.
September 19-20 UN and Katanganese authorities reach agreement on a provisional cease-fire in Elisabethville. (Because of the cease-fire, the USAF aircraft positioned in Leopoldville were not utilized for the movement of the Ethiopian battalion but were retained in Leopoldville on a standby basis. These aircraft were used over the next two months primarily to airlift emergency supplies of food and medicine to Elisabethville and Stanleyville. Approximately 35 sorties airlifted about 400 tons of cargo within the Congo during this two months period.)
September 22 The UN begins an augmentation of UN forces with fighter-type aircraft outside the Katanga.
September 24 The Leopoldville government suggests the possibility of Mobutu moving against Katanga; a low level military delegation from Stanleyville arrives at Leopoldville. General Mobutu puts the Congolese National Army on alert. The 3rd Commando Battalion is ready for airlift to Luluabourg on 22 Sept. and the 13th Infantry Battalion is alerted to move to Luluabourg on 25 Sept.
September 28 The UN gives Tshombe "a matter of days" to remove 100 white mercenaries from Katanga; Tshombe implies all have been disbanded and are no longer a concern of the UN.
October 13 Tshombe signs a formal cease-fire protocol with the UN. The protocol provides for UN withdrawal from strategic points in the center of Elisabethville, creates joint commissions to carry out inspections at any time or place either party requests, and agrees to an exchange of prisoners, to mutual efforts to stop hostile propaganda, and to joint control of the Elisabethville airport. It is further agreed that troops outside Elisabethville are to remain in the positions they occupied as of September 12 and that the UN will not consider the cease-fire to be violated if Katangan troops reply to fire from "some external attack" (the meaning of this phrase was never specified).
October 14 Tshombe describes the cease-fire agreement as a victory, states that the Katanga is a free nation where whites and blacks can live together, and declares that the war is not yet over.
October 15 Adoula declares his dissatisfaction with the cease-fire believing that it strengthens Tshombe's position.
October 17 Congo Foreign Minister Bomboko hints at the UN that Soviet aid might be sought to crush Katanga unless the UN acts decisively against Tshombe. Bomboko also accuses the UN of surrendering to Tshombe's blackmail in order to obtain the release of UN prisoners.
October 18 Two Tshombe representatives arrive in Leoopoldville to prepare for a Tshombe-Adoula meeting. (There is no follow-up, however, by either leader.) Five UN personnel are arrested in Elisabethville.
Intermittent firing begins in the Baluba refugee camp in Elisabethville, evidently sparked by Baluba firing on Katanga police forces. Tshombe warns the UN that unless it can control the Baluba refugees, he will take action to break the UN-Katanga cease fire.
October 19 A clash occurs between Mobutu and Tshombe forces along the Kasai-Katanga frontier. Both Leopoldville and Elisabethville report the incident but differ as to the cause and the results.
October 24 The UN Secretariat confirms the Katanga cease-fire protocol.
October 28-29 Katanga light planes flown by mercenaries drop small bombs on the South Kasai border area (Luputa) where Mobutu troops are stationed.
October 30 Adoula announces a "police operation" to end Katanga secession, after having been informed that Katanga aircraft have bombed a rail line on the Kasai Provincial border. The UN attempts to bring about some form of truce along the border in order to protect the fragile UN-Katanga cease-fire.
October 31 UN planes patrol the Katanga-Kasai border with orders to ground Katangan aircraft.
November 2 Unrest is reported in Stanleyville after Gizenga ousts provincial president Manzikala. (Gizenga had arrived in Stanleyville October 5 to begin efforts to re-establish himself. Minister of Interior Gbenye visited Stanleyville in late October, failed to get Gizenga to return to Leopoldville, and rejected membership Gizenga's PANALU party.)
November 4-5 Mobutu's troops are driven out of Katanga. (The CNA invasion consisted of approximately 500 men who advanced without resistance for about 50 miles. They seem to have been driven back after only limited firing during their first confrontation with mercenary-led Katangan troops.)
November 6 Congolese troops, aroused by rumors of Belgian radio contacts with Katangan forces, attack Europeans in Luluabourg and reportedly rape 15 white women. UN troops enforce security, and the CNA troops involved in the incidents are sent to Leopoldville.
November 10-12 Gizenga's forces appear in northern Katanga. Local Baluba leader Prosper Mwamba assumes leadership in Albertville. Other north Katanga areas are reported to be under Baluba authority.
November 12-24 The Security Council discusses the Congo upon the call of the USSR delegate Zorin. The Congolese Central Government on November 14 asks the Council for effective assistance to help it restore law and order in the Katanga.
November 13 Troops under Col. Pakassa (Gizenga's nephew and adherent) in Kindu (southwestern Kivu) are reported to have seized 13 Italian UN personnel. (It is later learned that they were immediately butchered.)
November 14 The UN Commission appointed to investigate Lumumba's death issues its report. The Commission was unable to conduct an on-the-spot investigation. The report implicates Tshombe in Lumumba's death.
November 15 Acting Secretary U Thant authorizes UN forces to "take every measure possible" to restore order in the Kindu area. General Lundula, formerly a supporter of Gizenga, flies to Kindu with Minister of Interior Gbenye to investigate the murder of the Italians.
November 17 Belgian Foreign Minister Spaak declares in the Security Council that his country is categorically opposed to the Katanga's secession.
November 20 The US proposes in the Security Council that the UN be authorized to neutralize aircraft and war material "wherever necessary" to prevent their use against the UN, the Congo, or the civil population. US Ambassador Stevenson criticizes an Afro-Asian resolution which he declares is aimed only at the Katanga while omitting reference to Gizenga's rebellion He declares Gizenga's secession is "of no less gravity, perhaps in the long run of even greater gravity, " than the Katanga secession.
November 21 The USSR announces it will veto any proposal dealing with the Congo except resolution to terminate Katanga's secession.
November 22 Adoula condemns the atrocities at Kindu and receives parliamentary support.
November 24 The Security council passes a resolution deploring Katanga's secessionist activities and armed action against the UN. The resolution authorizes the UN to use the "requisite measure of force, if necessary," to deport mercenaries and political advisers as described in the February 21 resolution, and declares full support for the Congo Central Government. Acting Secretary General U Thant, in a statement supplementing the new resolution, states that the UN must oppose all armed activities and secessionist forces directed against the Central Government. He also affirms that the UN will redouble its attempts to achieve reconciliation by peaceful means.
November 25 The UN announces it has abandoned as impractical its plan to disarm the 2,000-man Kindu garrison (UN forces at Kindu consist of about 250 men).
November 27 The Congolese Chamber of Deputies votes resumption of diplomatic relations with Belgium.
November 28 As of this date, US has airlifted, 29,834 UN troops, plus 6,871 tons of cargo and equipment into the Congo; and 15,587 troops with 668 tons of cargo and equipment out of the Congo. This involves a total of 1,263 sorties. Additionally, the US has sealifted 7,267 UN troops into the Congo and 5,992 troops out of the Congo.
November 29 Two top UN civil representatives are beaten up by Tshombe troops in Elisabethville in the presence of Senator Dodd; one UN soldier is killed and two are wounded; an Indian major is reported missing. One UN official is saved by the US Consul, and the second is released upon direct intervention by Katangan provincial ministers.
December 2 Adoula restores diplomatic ties with the USSR, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.
Ex-head of UN operations in Katanga, Conor O'Brien, accuses Britain and France of having exerted pressure against him.
December 3 Acting Secretary General Thant threatens to use force in Katanga to restore order. Eleven UN men are abducted in Elisabethville.
December 4 One UN soldier is killed by Katanga forces; and two are wounded. Katanga troops block the road between UN headquarters and the airport.
December5 Heavy fighting breaks out between UN and Katangan troops in Elisabethville after Katanga ignores UN demands to remove the roadblocks and end attacks on UN personnel.
December 6 The UN attacks Katanga forces from the the air and destroys several planes on the ground. Katanga aerial counter-attacks cause little damage. Ambassador Stevenson says the US fully supports UN action in Katanga. British Minister of State Health (transcript reads Heath) says the UK does not support UN action.
The US agrees, pursuant to the UN's request, to institute an intra-Congo lift using airlifts available at Leopoldville as well as aircraft soon to arrive there. (The first four lifts requested were for one Swedish battalion, one Irish battalion, one Nigarian (that is what was in the transcript; however, i was tempted to type Nigerian) battalion, and five Swedish armored cars from Leopoldville to Elisabethville.)
Elisabethville fighting continues.
The intra-Congo airlift is halted for about 16 hours after a USAF C-124 is hit by small caliber fire while making an approach to Elisabethville airport. (It was subsequently repaired and returned to its home base.)
December 13 Britain requests the UN Secretary General to secure an immediate cease-fire in Katanga but Thant reacts cooly. Acting Secretary of State Ball declares that the US is opposed to a cease-fire before the UN achieves its minimum objectives.
December 14 President Kennedy receives an appeal from Tshombe requesting that the US intervene to halt the fighting.
December 15 Following a major offensive, the UN wins control of most strategic objectives in Elisabethville and is clearly predominant over Katangan forces.
Tshombe indicates willingness to meet Adoula on neutral ground. President Kennedy appoints Ambassador Gullion as his special representative in the Congo.
December 18 A provisional truce is effected between UN and the Katangan troops as Tshombe leaves Elisabethville for Ndola, Northern Rhodesia.
December 19 Ambassador Gullion accompanies Tshombe in a special US plane from Ndola to the UN base at Kitona, Lower Congo, for talks with Adoula.
December 20-21 Adoula and Tshombe meet in a 2-day conference at Kitona.
December 21 As of this date, approximately 100 intra-Congo USAF sorties have been flown, delivering 1,607 UN personnel, 901 tons of equipment and 12 armored cars to the UN forces at Elisabethville and Kamina.