THE daughter of Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba has written to the Belgian king demanding the return of her father’s relics, calling him “a hero without a grave.”

It is believed that Juliana Lumumba was referring to teeth taken from his body by Belgian forces after his assassination in 1961.

In the letter dated June 30, the 60th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s independence from Belgium, she said: “We, Lumumba’s children, call for the just return of the relics of Patrice Emery Lumumba to the land of his ancestors.”

Lumumba became the first prime minister of the DRC when he was aged just 34. But the Belgians stoked a national crisis to destabilise his rule, with a mutiny in the army and the secession of the mineral-rich province of Katanga.

Lumumba was overthrown and jailed. He was tortured before being killed by firing squad, allegedly under Belgium’s orders.

Belgian King Philippe used the 60th anniversary of independence to express his “deepest regrets” for the “suffering and humiliation” inflicted on the Congolese people under colonial rule.

He has been under pressure from the Black Lives Matter movement, which has been tearing down statues of his ancestor, Leopold II.

Under his rule, millions in the Congo were killed and had limbs amputated as punishment while working on rubber plantations.

In 2000, Belgian police commissioner Gerard Soete admitted to chopping up Lumumba’s body and dissolving the remains in acid.

Later that year he showed German broadcaster ARD two teeth which he claimed had belonged to the Congolese leader.

His daughter said: “The remains of Patrice Emery Lumumba are being used, on the one hand, as trophies by some of your fellow citizens, and on the other as funereal possessions sequestered by your kingdom’s judiciary.”