Jean Schramme

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Jean Schramme (March 25, 1929, Bruges, Belgium - December 14, 1988, Rondonopolis, Brazil) was a Belgian colonial and farmer, owner of an estate of about 15 square kilometres, and boss of about 1000 indigenous workers.

When Belgian Congo gained its independence in 1960, the country quickly descended into civil war. Several hundreds of white people were held hostage, and Belgium sent troops to Congo to free them and to protect its interests. Patrice Emery Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of independent Congo was murdered with the complicity of the Belgian and US intelligence services. The rich province of Katanga, soon followed by the eastern part of Kasai were trying to gain independence, being as rich as they were in copper, cobalt and diamonds, they believed that they would be better off without the rest of Congo. A violent clash between pro-secession and pro-unity movements soon broke out.

In 1965 Colonel Mobutu became president and from then on Belgium started protecting his regime against rebellions. Mobutu immediately began to arrest the former government ministers of Congo. In 1971 he changed the name of the country to "Zaire"

On June 30, 1967 president Moise Tshombe of Katanga's plane was hijacked, before he could return to Congo after his exile in Spain. He was imprisoned in Algeria and 2 years later he died in suspicious circumstances, probably killed. For Schramme, this was a sign that he was fighting the wrong enemy and on July 3, 1967 he began to lead an uprising in Katanga against Mobutu.

Two days later Schramme tried to take control of Stanleyville, Congo. By August 10 his troops conquered the border town of Bukavu and had grown considerably in number. Schramme was able to hold Bukavu for seven weeks and managed to defeat all ANC troops who were sent to retake the town. The ANC suffered from a lack of artillery and was frustrated and demotivated over their continuous losses. By accident some ANC T-28 flying missions even attacked their own troops instead of Schramme's. Extra forces helped the ANC to finally defeat Schramme on October 29, 1967. The surviving rebel troops fled towards Rwanda.

On April 24, 1968 Schramme and all the other European mercenaries returned to Belgium. Almost 20 years later, on April 17, 1986 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a murder. Schramme though wasn't living in Belgium at the time of that sentence: he died in 1988 in Brasil.