Patrice Lumumba Arrives in New York For Talks With UN Chief Dag Hammarskjöld | 1960

Sunday, July 24th 1960.

Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba flew into New York's Idlewild Airport July 24 for talks with Mr Dag Hammarskjoeld, United Nations Secretary-General, Waiting to greet him were some 50 African officials and representatives from the United Nations.

In an interview at the Airport he said: "We came here to make direct contact with the Secretary-General to arrange a speedy solution to the problem of the Congo." Speaking in French he added that the peace of the Congo Republic "is conditioned on the immediate departure of Belgian troops and we thank the United Nations for the resolution it adopted in that sense."

Mr Lumumba met Mr Hammarskjoeld that afternoon, and described the 2 1/2-hour talk as "very fruitful". The next day he was invited to attend a luncheon conference given by Mr Hammarskjoeld with the chief delegates of the II Security Council members and the nine African Assembly member states. So far there were no plans for the Congolese Prime Minister to address a meeting of the Security Council.

The United Nations announced July 23 that it would have more than 12,000 troops in the Congo Republic by the following weekend. They would comprise 14 battalions and five companies.

Source: Reuters News Archive.

Note:

Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations died in a mysterious plane crash in September 1961 while flying from Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) to the Republic of Congo (now the DRC) to mediate in the Congo Crisis.

He is one of only four persons to be awarded a Nobel Prize posthumously. President John F. Kennedy described him as "the greatest statesman of our century."