The administration was heavily involved in the life of the Congolese; Belgian functionaries closely monitored and enforced agricultural production, provided medical services to many residents, and frequently toured even the most rural territories to oversee their subjects.

The party advocated for a strong unitary state, nationalism, and the termination of Belgian rule and began forming alliances with regional groups, such as the Kivu-based Centre du Regroupement Africain (CEREA).

Fearing the degeneration of the unrest into a colonial war and facing intense pressure for reform, in late 1959 the Belgian government announced that it would host a round table conference in Brussels in 1960 with the Congolese leadership to discuss the political future of the country.

[38] It was decided at the Round Table Conference that the resolutions the participants adopted would serve as the basis for the Loi Fondamentale (Fundamental Law), a temporary draft constitution left for the Congo until a permanent one could be promulgated by a Congolese parliament.

[43] One of the resolutions adopted at the Political Round Table called for the establishment of a Collège Exécutive Général (General Executive College), a body composed of six Congolese—one from each province—designed to share power with the Governor-general until independence.

[45] They were as follows: Rémy Mwamba for Katanga, Joseph Kasa-Vubu for Léopoldville, Patrice Lumumba for Orientale, Paul Bolya for Équateur, Pierre Nyanguyle for Kasaï, and Anicet Kashamura for Kivu.

Afterward he secretly instructed the nationalist parliamentarians to vote for Kasa-Vubu, figuring that this would please the most pressure groups and appease the ABAKO constituency, which many feared would effect a secession of the Lower Congo.

"At the onset of his premiership Lumumba had two main goals: ensure that independence would bring a legitimate improvement in the quality of life for the Congolese and unify the country in a centralised state by eliminating tribalism and regionalism.

[135] Three hundred Congolese personnel were sent to Belgium for training in various ministries[j] but very little changed in the lower levels of the administration; most clerks received the same salary as they had previously and were left under the control of the same Belgian civil servants.

In return, the Central Bank transferred all of its gold and dollar reserves to Brussels and agreed that the Congo's monetary and fiscal policy would be decided upon by both institutions, greatly limiting the economic freedom of the new government.

"[161] UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld cabled the Foreign Ministry, pointing out the difficulty in admitting the country into the UN under its name in the face of another application for membership from the neighboring Congo, preparing for independence from French control.

[170] There was dissatisfaction that Lumumba had appointed an unpopular colonel to a high post in the Ministry of Defence, and the troops from Équateur and southern Kasai were additionally upset that Bolikango and Kalonji were not included in the government.

The Force Publique mutiny and the refusal of Lumumba to accede to a military intervention caused the Belgians to alter their opinions; secession could provide them a way to reestablish order in the region and protect their large commercial interests in local industry.

[222] In New York City the UN Security Council adopted UNSC Resolution 143, calling upon Belgium to withdraw its troops and authorising the Secretary-General to send military and technical assistance to the Congo in consultation with the government to restore law and order.

Lumumba appealed for calm among the garrison, but after hearing of more interventions, he and Kasa-Vubu demanded that all Belgian metropolitan forces withdraw from the Congo in 24 hours or they would request military aid from the Soviet Union.

[240] The following day Kanza, Bomboko, and Delvaux appeared before Parliament to reject accusations of personal "complicity" in regards to the Belgian intervention and to affirm their concurrence with the actions taken by Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu to restore order.

It read in part as follows:[244] Governmental Declaration Plan of Economic Co-ordination Other matters: Salary policy without discrimination of race...or sex "From July 1 to September 29, 1960, the country was no longer really governed.

[s] Critical infrastructure support components such as steamboats, locomotives, agricultural machinery, communications hardware, and dredging equipment, despite sustaining only minimal damage during the army mutinies, were not maintained during the summer and ultimately deteriorated beyond repair.

Such pressure, combined with the threat of Soviet intervention, convinced Hammarskjöld to take action; he announced that Bunche would lead an advance guard into Élisabethville followed shortly thereafter by UN peacekeeping contingents.

The attitude of the United States government was also more negative, due to reports of the rapes and violence committed by ANC soldiers and scrutiny from Belgium, which was chagrined by the reception Lumumba had received in Washington.

[289] On 3 August Bolikango officially denounced Lumumba's policies, followed the next day by the central committee of the MNC-K.[290] The Prime Minister's impatient and improvising approach caused consternation among the civil service, which wished to operate in a calmer, more methodical style.

[308] By September the government's financial situation was ruinous;[308] a combination of disrupted tax collection, the inaccessibility of Katanga's mining industry, the closure of European enterprises, falling production, and declining volume of foreign trade had brought about a severe reduction in revenue.

[311] Lumumba believed that Albert Ndele, Nkayi's chef de cabinet and the acting Secretary-General of the Ministry of Finance, had directed the Geneva negotiations and would implement Belgium's financial goals at the expense of the Congo's.

[312] The dire administrative and economic situation caused consternation among the trade unions;[313] the government was threatened with a possible civil servants' strike at the hands of APIC, which was protesting politically partisan appointments.

Those who are paid today by the enemies of freedom for the purpose of maintaining sedition movements across the country and thereby disturbing the social peace will be punished with the utmost energy..." During a meeting on 1 August the Council of Ministers established a new department, the Ministry of Public Function.

Within 15 days of its inception the ministry had produced a plan for staggered Africanisation of the administration (taking living wages, staff competence, and fiscal austerity into consideration) and drafted a standard contract of employment for much-needed foreign technicians.

[335] Lumumba remained frustrated and five days later he sent a letter to Hammarskjöld, declaring that the Secretary-General had ignored his obligations under the 14 July resolution to consult the Congolese government before taking action and had failed to assist it in restoring law and order throughout the entire country.

[388][ah] On 14 September, Mobutu announced over the radio that he was launching a "peaceful revolution" to break the political impasse and therefore neutralising the President, Lumumba's and Iléo's respective governments, and Parliament until 31 December.

[443] On 21 February the UN Security Council passed a resolution that permitted ONUC to use military force as a last resort to prevent civil war, established a commission to investigate the deaths of Lumumba, Mpolo, and Okito, and called for the reconvening of Parliament to restore democratic processes to the government.

[475] A 2010 editorial published by The Guardian asserted, "[T]he challenge of running a vast country whose population had been denied basic education by Belgian rulers interested only in exploiting its wealth would have sunk any government.