On January 17th, 1961, after being beaten and tortured, the Congolese prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, was shot and killed. The assassination was the job of US and Belgian imperialism with the participation of the United Nations. Lumumba had led a mass revolutionary movement for the liberation of the Congo and had a vision of national unity and African unity which clashed head on with the designs of the big powers. We republish here this article we published in 2000 about the role of Belgian imperialism in his assassination and we also recommend this Democracy Now programme on the involvement of the CIA.