Casement Report (part 3)

The Casement Report consisted of individual statements gathered by Casement himself, which included many detailed accounts of killings, mutilations, kidnappings and cruel beatings of the native population by soldiers of the Congo Administration of King Leopold. Copies of the Report were sent by the British government to the Belgian government as well as to nations who were signatories to the Berlin Agreement in 1885, under which much of Africa had been partitioned.

The British Parliament then demanded a meeting of the fourteen signatory powers to review the 1885 Berlin Agreement. The Belgian Parliament, pushed by socialist leader Emile Valverde and other critics of the King's Congolese policy, forced a reluctant Leopold to set up an independent commission of enquiry. Its findings confirmed Casement's report in every detail. This led to the arrest and punishment of certain Belgian officials, but Leopold managed to retain personal control of the Congo until 1908, when the Parliament of Belgium annexed the Congo Free State and took over its administration as the Belgian Congo.