{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Nation marks 50th anniversary of independence' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54be2ed8eafeecae139b1e' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54be2ed8eafeecae139b1e' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nNation marks 50th anniversary of independence\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003e1. Kinshasa's People's Palace2. Officials seated at ceremony3. Wide of parliament members seated at ceremony4. Various of President Joseph Kabila riding on top of car during ceremony5. Various of Kabila greeting officials6. Mid of screen...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003e1. Kinshasa's People's Palace\u003cbr/\u003e2. Officials seated at ceremony\u003cbr/\u003e3. Wide of parliament members seated at ceremony\u003cbr/\u003e4. Various of President Joseph Kabila riding on top of car during ceremony\u003cbr/\u003e5. Various of Kabila greeting officials\u003cbr/\u003e6. Mid of screen showing Kabila speaking\u003cbr/\u003e7. Various of military parade\u003cbr/\u003e8. Police beating people at ceremony during a dispute over plastic chairs that members of the public claimed they were told they could take home\u003cbr/\u003eCongo's government on Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of its independence from Belgium with pomp and circumstance, with invited guests including Belgian King Albert II and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.\u003cbr/\u003eBut people in the vast Central African nation who are struggling to survive were asking \"Why?\" \u003cbr/\u003eSome were even boycotting the celebrations in the country's east, where brutal armed rebellions have forced a quarter-million (m) people from their homes and at least 8,300 rapes were committed last year.\u003cbr/\u003eThe man in charge of the big 50th anniversary bash, General Denis Kalume Numbi, says it was a time to draw lessons from the past and set new goals to improve life for the Congolese people.\u003cbr/\u003eA sign of underdevelopment is that the massive country the size of Western Europe has only 300 miles (500 kilometres) of paved roads. \u003cbr/\u003eIn a major push toward development, Congo's president has signed a 9 billion (b) US dollar deal with China offering mineral rights in exchange for roads, a railway, hospitals and schools.\u003cbr/\u003eAt independence in 1960, landline telephones and postal service worked. That's no longer the case in Congo, which has the potential to be Africa's wealthiest country but instead offers citizens little but sorrow.\u003cbr/\u003eCongo's history is one brutal and tragic tale.\u003cbr/\u003eThe country was created in 1885 by Belgium's King Leopold II, who recruited the British-born American explorer Henry Morton Stanley to make a secret expedition to carve out a state in the heart of Africa - one that was nearly 80 times the size of Belgium.\u003cbr/\u003eThe Congo Free State was unique among colonies in that it was the private property of the Belgian king.\u003cbr/\u003e His memory is forever stained by the depredations committed by companies that made him a millionaire. \u003cbr/\u003eCongo first provided ivory, then latex from wild rubber trees that was much in demand after the creation of the pneumatic tire.\u003cbr/\u003eThe companies' method to boost rubber production was savage: Villagers were given higher and higher quotas and, when they were not met, villages were set ablaze, families butchered and the hands of survivors severed.\u003cbr/\u003eIt's not known how many millions (m) were slaughtered and maimed. \u003cbr/\u003eEven now, 50 years on, many Congolese blame Belgium for the state of their country.\u003cbr/\u003eThe colonisers continued to meddle after independence, blamed along with the CIA for the 1961 assassination of Congo's first democratically elected prime minister. \u003cbr/\u003eThe socialist-minded Patrice Lumumba was slain because he planned to kick out the Europeans and their exploitative mining companies.\u003cbr/\u003eBelgium finally apologised for its part in Lumumba's death 41 years after the fact.\u003cbr/\u003eLumumba's killing ended democracy in Congo for nearly a half century. Both Belgium and the United States supported a 32-year dictatorship set up by Mobutu Sese Seko, a pro-Western leader seen as a bulwark against communism.\u003cbr/\u003eMobutu managed to control the country he renamed Zaire, but amassed a personal fortune estimated at 5 billion (b) US dollars while entrenching corruption that continues to plague the country.\u003cbr/\u003eIn 1997, an alliance of rebels invaded and overthrew Mobutu.\u003cbr/\u003eLaurent Kabila, the father of Congo's current president, took power.\u003cbr/\u003eKabila was later assassinated and replaced by his son Joseph, who is still in power after winning a landmark election held in 2006.\u003cbr/\u003eThe world's largest UN peacekeeping force has been in Congo for more than a decade in an effort to stabilise the country. \u003cbr/\u003eBut Congo's president wants them all out before September 2011. \u003cbr/\u003eEarlier this month, the UN started a nominal withdrawal of 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