Historical Security Council - World Model United Nations

in the government structure) when Congo gained
independence. The ethnic political motivations of
the party did not provide it with enough support to
dominate the central government but it did provide
enough support to become an active role in the
newly formed government. His tribal, conservative
tendencies clashed with the President Lumumba’s
pragmatic predispositions to governance of the new
country.
CONAKAt (Confédération des Associations tribales
du Katanga): Under leader Moïse Tshombe, this
organization formed in 1959 when independence
was perceived as inevitable and advocated an
independent Katangan state. 194 Tshombe was the son
of a businessman in the Congo and was educated in
an American missionary school. Later he worked as
an accountant and in the 1950s, he owned a group
of stores in the Katanga Province. Working with
Godefroid Munongo, he founded the CONAKAT
party, which advocated an independent, federal
Congo. In the May 1960 elections, the CONAKAT
gained a majority of seats in the Katanga provincial
legislature. Maintaining political and economic ties
with the Belgium government who was invested in
the resources within this naturally wealthy province,
Tshombe and CONAKAT declared independence from
the Congo central government in July 1960.
Moise Tshombe answers questions from press in 1960.
MNC (Mouvement National Congolais): this party
attempted to build national support through the
processes that parties take in typical Western multiparty
states, but it split in two branches: the PNP
(Parti National du Progres) which was a coalition of
traditional chiefs which was damaged by the general
population in the country by its ties with white
Belgian administrators, 195 which helped it in the 1959
December elections for local government councils, 196
and the PSA (Parti Solidaire Africain) which was a
group of locally based organizations that dominated
the Kwilu district in Eastern Léopoldville. 197 the PNP
section of the party, which would become the more
powerful segment of the party nation-wide, was led by
Patrice Lumumba, who was a postal clerk in Kisangani
for most of his adult life and learned about organizing
from civic associations. 198 Helping to found the MNC
in 1958, Lumumba represented the MNC at the
international All-African Peoples’ Conference in Accra,
Ghana, later that year where his Pan-Africanist beliefs
were further cemented and reflected his approach to
political organizing in the Congo that was above tribal
allegiances. in 1959, he was sentenced in 6 months in
prison for allegedly inciting an anti-colonial protest,
and even with this set-back, the MNC was able to win
local 1959 December election and national elections in
May 1960. Lumumba was released in January of 1960
to attend the Brussels conference that eventually set
the date of independence for 30 June 1960. Because
of his party’s success in the national elections in May
1960, he was elected Prime Minister and designated
Kasavubu as the President of the new nation. More
than any other national politician, Lumumba viewed
Congolese identity as bound not through ethnicity or
tribal identity but by inhabiting the spatial area known
as the Congo. Thus, he subscribed in many ways to the
dominant Western view of political communities. 199
Bloc Positions
US policy
The overarching view of the US foreign policy is
to prevent the spread of communism in the “Third
World.” The US was not all that worried about
communism taking root in Western Europe where
defensive military measures were considered to
be enough, but the “Third World” was not viewed
in the same way. The US felt the instability by the
mish-mash of parties and personalities around the
country would lead to instability and increase the
influence of communism in the region, even though
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