ONUC was the UN’s first peacekeeping mission with muscle. Dispatched to the Belgian Congo, ONUC has been described as a “pyrrhic victory at best.” Congo became independent in 30 June 1960, but the Belgian commander, Lieutenant General Émile Janssens, refused to "Africanize" the officers' corps of the Force Publique (the army) resulting in disorder and mutinies. While the President and the Prime Minister were trying to negotiate with the mutineers, the Belgian government decided to intervene to protect Belgians that remained in the country at the request of Moïse Tshombé, who advocated independence for Katanga, one of the richest provinces in the country due to an abundance of minerals.