Joseph Iléo

Iléo Joseph ( born September 15, 1921 in Kinshasa, † September 19, 1994 in Brussels) was a politician of the Democratic Republic of Congo and two-time prime minister.

Political career to the independence

Joseph Iléo was already under the rule of the Belgians in the former " Belgian Congo ", an active young politician who campaigned for independence. Since the colonial masters did not think of giving up their possessions, he wrote with other supporters of independence in 1956, the manifestos de la Conscience Arficaine in which the self-determination was required for the Africans. He was in 1958 one of the founders of the Mouvement National Congolais. Due to a dispute between members of the radical and the moderate wing of the party, he left a year later. Iléo the elimination joined headed by Albert Kalonji.

Career after independence

Iléo was first elected to the Senate and then the President. But he was appointed head of government of President Joseph Kasavubu after a dispute with the former prime minister Patrice Lumumba on September 5, 1960. He remained so only until 20 September 1960 when the Army Chief of Staff Mobutu Sese Seko coup. Having had assumed his office again with the help of UN troops Kasavubu, Iléo was appointed again to the Prime Minister on 9 February 1961. He remained in that post until August 2, 1961. During the reign of his successor, Albert Ndele he was then Minister of Information. In 1963, he was after the suppression of the rebellion in Katanga representatives of the central government in this area. In 1965 he was again elected to the Senate and headed starting this year, the Office National pour la recherche et le développement. Since he had already changed before the second coup Mobutu on his side, he was elected a member of the Mouvement Populaire not only de la Révolution, but also the Politburo of the Mobutu party.

As the reign of Mobutu began to crumble, he founded in April 1990, his own party, the PDSC, whose chairman he remained until his death in 1994.