PATRICE LUMUMBA

Finally the shroud has been lifted. Alexander De Croo, Belgium's Prime Minister, may not have found the ghosts in the tragic end of Congo's first prime minister but he certainly found the words for Belgium's shame.

Many circumstantial facts still need to be revealed but truth can be a silent partner until it chooses to make its move. It will at the end.

Now Belgium might have atoned for Leopold II's colonial genocide. More remains to be done to try to alleviate the pain that outlived yesterday's thrones, uniforms and staged repentance.

Some who had met the young Lumumba in their university days easily remember his regal demeanor and his words which burned holes in the official codex.

Both he and Sir Roger Casement, the great demystifyer of Leopold II, deserve a dignified place of remembrance in Brussels.  Why not near the Cambre abbey, where embarrassing statues abound and reflection could come spontaneously?