76. Editorial Note
Katangan President Moise Tshombe was released on June 22 after almost 2 months of house arrest, initially in Coquilhatville and subsequently in Léopoldville. At a press conference on June 22, he announced that he and General Mobutu had made a military pact and he would send the Katangan Conakat parliamentarians to Lovanium. (Telegram 2531 from Léopoldville, June 22; Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/6–2261)
[Page 152]On June 24, he and Katangan “Foreign Minister” Evariste Kimba (also released from house arrest) and Congolese Deputy Prime Minister Jean Bolikango, Foreign Minister Justin Bomboko, and other representatives of the Congolese central government, signed a protocol of agreement. It provided that Parliament should convene at Léopoldville as soon as possible and that a new government should be formed and remain in power until the adoption of a new Constitution within 3 months. It also provided that Katanga and the central government have a single currency, that the central government have sole responsibility for foreign relations, and that the military pact made by Tshombe and Mobutu be implemented. For text of the agreement, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1961, pages 825–826.
Tshombe returned to Elisabethville on June 24. Telegram 989 from Elisabethville reported that in a radio message after his return, he made no reference to an independent Katanga but did not refer to the June 24 agreement or to the forthcoming session of Parliament. (Department of State, Central Files, 770G.00/6–2661) See also Verhaegen, Congo 1961, pages 273–281.