"There were severed hands in the Congo, at the time of the Independent State... by the Officers of the Force Publique, to prevent the waste of ammunition to which their soldiers willingly let go, demanded that they provide proof that they had used their cartridges correctly. The proof was the severed hand of the killed enemy ... Severed hands, it will be noted, never constituted a form of punishment. ... By emphasizing, as they did, on the theme of severed hands - a theme which, we realize, easily provoked emotion -, Morel and his friends gave birth to the ambiguity which finally spread and lasted until our days: the idea that Leopold II had his hands cut off in the Congo, that it was a question of torture inflicted on the population, and even of torture most characteristic of the regime."
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Mr. Jean Stengers (history teacher) in 'Congo - Mythes et Réalités' ISBN:9782873865177 2007, Quoted from "Glance at the Past, Page 41, MÉMOIRES DU CONGO Asbl, Chaleroi
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium
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Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold Lodewijk Philip Maria Victor (Brussels, April 9, 1835 – Laeken, December 17, 1909), Prince of Belgium, Duke of Saxony, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Brabant and Senator of Belgium, was the second King of the Belgians. He was the second but eldest surviving son of Belgium's first king Leopold I of Belgium and Queen Louise Marie of Orléans. He succeeded his father to the throne on December 17, 1865 and remained king until his death in 1909. Leopold II was also the founder and Ki
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