The horrifying sight which traumatized shoppers and office workers in the centre of Luxembourg City last week has now been labelled as a protest against racism. The Belgian woman of Congolese origin who set herself alight in the middle of Place d’Armes told witnesses that she was doing it to protest against racism, moments before she carried out the desperate act which has left her in hospital fighting for her life.

Maggy Delvaux-Mufu, a mother of three in her forties, alerted several national newspapers late on Tuesday morning last week that she would be burning herself alive on place des Martyrs at 12.45 am, before setting out accompanied by her husband to walk through the centre of town to her macabre rendezvous. The police were alerted and officers were deployed to the Rousegärtchen.

But the woman changed her plan when she came across a group of journalists gathered to cover an event organised by the ‘Mouvement écologique’ on Place d’Armes, opposite the Cercle municipal. She soaked herself in petrol before confronting the members of the press, announcing that she was about to sacrifice her life to protest against racism. Moments later, she struck a match, turning herself into a human torch in front of hundreds of people.

Delvaux-Mufu’s husband and passers-by jumped on the burning body, attempting to stifle the flames with coats and jackets. The scene made several people feel unwell and many witnesses who filled the square at lunchtime were traumatised by the woman’s shrieking screams of unimaginable pain. The flames were already extinguished when police, rescue services and the fire brigade arrived at the scene. One person is reported to have vomited after seeing the woman being transported into an ambulance. The events in Place d’Armes have also started a controversy regarding the authorities’ lack of psychological support for witnesses.

Delvaux-Mufu was taken to the Bon Secours hospital in Metz, where she is being treated in a specialised ward for burns and is fighting for her life. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa visited the woman and her family at the hospital last week.

RTL television was the first to run a news flash about the incident on its website on Tuesday afternoon last week. 352 reported the bulletin in its news in brief section, shortly before going to print. Events preceding the incident only came to light later on in the week.

The 42-year-old Belgian citizen and her husband had been facing financial difficulties. They had recently indebted themselves by buying a Citroën garage in Oberwampach, before realising they were missing the documents that would allow them to set up a business. Delvaux-Mufu wrote a letter to Le Jeudi recounting her story of bureaucratic difficulties and economic despair. “I’m against all forms of violence, but day after day, my family and I have to endure moral violence, discrimination, insults and much more from Mr Juncker’s administration”, she said in the letter published last week.

Money problems had driven the woman to desperately plead her case at the Prime minister’s office early on the same day of the incident. Her threat to burn herself alive on Place des Martyrs after being turned away by the authorities caused government officials to contact the police. A city-wide search was organised, but nobody could foresee the woman would change her plans."

*****i did not put the pics up- click if you wish to see*********

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Admittedly this is the cynical view, but isn't this desperate act more an issue of blundering an investment (the garage) then a protest against racism?  

Based purely on what's listed in the report above (admittedly there could be more to the story than what's listed above), I don't see racism as much as just having to deal with the standard BS of any government office...hell, I had to wait 5 YEARS before I could get a new copy of my citizenship certificate from the US immigration office.  

This seems more of a matter of not doing their due diligence on their investment and then having to deal with the standard bureaucratic delays...  

i tried searching for the news story- but everything i could find was not in english.  

garage_bohemian:
i tried searching for the news story- but everything i could find was not in english.

I'm sure Google has a better version (seems like everything that's done by Google is better   ) but you can always use babelfish to translate a web page or snippet of text - http://babelfish.altavista.com/.  Limitation is that the languages it translates are generally the more 'known' ones.  

In the one pic it looks like the guy is trying to but the flames out with a napkin - hey buddy I dont think a napkin is going to help!  

What do you expect from a country that lies next to France.  Osmosis of 'French'-ness.  

This is why I'm still wary of those Canucks up above us.  Those French-Canadians (or should I be calling them Freedom-Canadians? ) will slowly become the ruin of the stars and stripes.    

yeah- im too lazy to translate other stories into english-
but she TOTALLY is an attention hor - lol  

What boggles my mind is that the husband walked along with her with, I assume, full knowledge of what she intended.  Granted, a husband or a wife is supposed to be supportive of each other, but not to the point of self immolation!  

yeah, support and protect would seem logical for a husband/loved one right?  

suicide isnt something that is openly talked about  

Heh.  Maybe the husband wanted a divorce but figured this was the best way to get some insurance money out of it...XD

Yes, I'm going to ***  

Sorry, looks like I got edited...the line was...

'Yes, I'm going to h-e-ll..'  

haha.  THats a win win situation for him.  

soooo weird....why are black people geting weirder and weirder everyday??  

^loving the racism.