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http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/d065657fae1351f6 https://verfassungsblog.de/belgium-colonialism-lumumba/ Mistaking the Tree for the Forest - On the Lumumba Trial and the Limits of Criminal Justice in Addressing Colonial Violence Vervoort, Jérémiah Nirina eng 2026-04-28 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 colonialism Congo Criminal Law War Crimes Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 More than six decades after the assassination of the first prime minister of the newly independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba, and his collaborators Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, Étienne Davignon is the only defendant to stand trial before a criminal court for colonial-era war crimes. The Lumumba litigation marks a historic step forward. But it risks producing the illusion of a legally contained resolution of the colonial past – by individualizing responsibility for a structural crime and offering the Belgian state an opportunity for self-absolution.