Gerard Soete

After studying German languages, Soete moved to the Belgian Congo in 1946 and became a member of the police force in Élisabethville, capital of Katanga.

On 28 August 1987, Soete was interviewed by Jacques Brassinne de La Buissière, former civil servant in Katanga who was writing a PhD dissertation on the murder of first prime minister of Congo Patrice Lumumba and his political allies Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito.

Soete and his brother exhumed the mortal remains, cut them into pieces with a hacksaw, and dissolved them in sulphuric acid.

The publication of De Witte's book engendered a diplomatic crisis between Belgium and Congo, which in turn sparked the parliamentary inquiry.

[4] In December 2020, Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi declared that the tooth will return to Congo in 2021 and that Lumumba will receive a proper burial place.

Besides his novels and non-fiction books, he wrote a great deal of articles which were published in the cultural magazine Kruispunt.