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| Idi Amin |
The
life story of Africa’s most bloody dictator began in the northern Ugandan town
of Koboko. Idi Amin’s birthday had to been absolutely known as details varies.
But many accepted that Idi Amin Dada was born in 1925 to a family belonging to
the Kakwa tribe. His father served as a local policeman and abandoned his family
during the early years of Idi Amin. His mother worked to provide for her
children. Later on, her mother had contact within the army that allowed Idi
Amin to enter into service. Although poor, he received education from the local
missionary and in 1946, upon reaching proper age, he finally joined the King’s
African Rifle Regiment.
Idi
Amin served in the British colonial army. Initially he served as a cook but
later became a combat soldier. He saw action in Somalia and Kenya, fighting on
the British side during the bloody Mau Mau Rebellion. He quickly rose in the
ranks. His officers characterize him as a shrewd and calculative. He became
further notice when in 1951, Amin showed his great physical skills and
athleticism by winning the light heavyweight championship in boxing. He held
the title for a decade. Signs of his cruelty, however, appeared in a mission in
1962. The British ordered Amin to capture cattle thieves rampaging in Northern
Uganda, in an area near Turkana. Amin succeeded in capturing them, but the
following event appalled his superiors. Amin had the thieves tortured and
beaten to death. Some unluckily passed away by burning alive. The incident
became known as Turkana Massacre. Amin’s British superior’s wanted to
investigate the incident. However, the British just granted Uganda its
independence and they don’t have the time to undergo the process of
investigation and trial. In the end, the British officials reported that Amin
act was “overzealous.”
Amin
had close relations with Milton Obote at the earlier stage. In 1962, Uganda
became independent from the British Empire and had Milton Obote as its first
Prime Minister. In the army, Amin ranked as a Captain and was one of the two
only African officers in the ranks. Amin advocated an increase of numbers of
Africans in the army. In 1964, Obote promoted Amin as the deputy commander of
Ugandan Army and sent him abroad to study the military of Israel. Amin went to
Israel and took paratrooper courses. During his studies, he became in touch
with the Israeli Mossad. Mossad asked Amin to help them to smuggle supplies to
their allies in Sudan upon his return to Uganda. Indeed Amin supported the
Israeli-backed rebels in Sudan when he returned to his country. Meanwhile,
following his ties with rebels in Uganda, Obote and Amin supported another
rebel in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They helped to smuggle gold and
ivory to Uganda to finance the cause of Patrice Lumumba. Parliament and the
cabinet discovered the activity and had Amin suspended and pending an
investigation of Obote. But in 1966, Obote, with the help of Amin, fought back
by launching a coup that led to Obote becoming the all-powerful President of
Uganda and suspended the 1962 Constitution, concentrating all powers to him. As
a reward for his support, Amin became a Major General and commander of the
Ugandan armed Forces. But years later, Obote and Amin had a falling out.
Amin
and Obote went at odds in 1970. Amin became a prominent figure in the army
while Obote became known as a repressive ruler. In that year, an assassination
attempt made to Milton Obote’s life. Following the assassination attempt, a
rival of Amin, Brigadier General Pierino Okoya, passed away through suspicious
circumstances. Obote suspected Amin of orchestrating the attempted assassination
and the death of Okoya. Obote then ordered the house arrest of Amin.
Amin
launched a coup before Obote could move to eliminate him. In January 1871,
Obote left Uganda to attend the British Commonwealth Conference in Singapore.
Amin took Obote’s absence as an opportunity to initiate a coup to take over
power. Amin won support from the people who felt tired and mad over Obote’s
repressive and corrupt regime. Israelis and also British welcomed the coup when
Amin promised his leadership as temporary and election to be held shortly
afterwards. They also saw Amin’s coup to bring stability to the turbulent
internal politics of Uganda. However, to the dismay of the international
community, Amin had no plans of letting go of power. Upon his rise to the
position of the most powerful man in Uganda, he had his opponents, both real
and hallucinations, and officers loyal to Obote either arrested or executed.
Bloody incidents of deaths of officers occurred. One such story involved
officers loyal to Obote blown up with dynamite in their cells. 6,000 soldiers
out of 9,000 soldiers in the army said to be loyal to the former President also
faced their sudden demised. In 1972, Obote made an attempt to remove Idi Amin
from power by launching an invasion of Uganda from Tanzania. Eventually, it
failed. Amin went in berserk to punish Tanzania and those loyal to Obote.
Tanzanian towns suffered bombings from Amin’s forces. Acholi and Lango tribes,
who supported Obote, terribly endured persecution in the hands of Amin. Many in
the army coming from the Acholi and Lango ethnicity fell in the hands of Amin.
Amin then placed officers from his own Kakwa Tribe in order to ensure loyalty
towards him.
The
brutality of Idi Amin’s rule became the most horrific and the most infamous in
world history. Built upon his unmeasurable paranoia, he reorganize and shuffle
his army, police and cabinet, and killed who he saw as a threat to his rule
both real and imagine. Ministers and generals saw a brutal and sudden demise
because of Amin’s rampage. Generals, like Charles Arube, died just right after
Amin confronted them of allegation of plotting coups to overthrow his
government. His killings extended to other branches of the government as well.
For instance, he had a chief justice killed. He also ordered the execution of
the Governor of the Bank of Uganda. Other sector felt his merciless killings as
well. He had intellectuals and even clergy men, most being prominent the
Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, disposed of. Within the populace, fear of sudden
death also lingered. Amin established the State Research Bureau and Public
Safety Unit, whose 18,000 worked as the secret police, responsible in
terrorizing and killing civilians. Amin’s military and even his own
presidential guards worked as his own death squad, killing opponents and dissidents
alike. Rumors of Amin eating bits of his opponents’ bodies or following the
Kakaw blood ritual spread in Uganda and around the world. Stories of Amin
keeping body pieces of those killed in a refrigerator also gained notoriety.
Estimates suggested that over 100 to 300,000 perished during Amin’s rule and
most of the corpses littered and floated foully in the great River Nile.
Idi
Amin’s family also suffered the same harsh and vicious treatment that the
people of Uganda suffered. In 1974, stories of promiscuous activities of his
four wives reached Idi Amin. Miriam, one of his wives, got arrested and fined.
Nora, got divorced, Madina received an extreme beating from Amin and had her
jaw broken. But the worst fate fell to Kay. Amin divorced her and had her
arrested under the allegation of stealing a pistol from him. He got released
and later on she turned dead in a trunk of one of Amin’s physicians and her
cadaver extremely mutilated with different limbs sewn back into the wrong parts
of the torso. Amin showed no mercy and even ordered the body of Kay to be
displayed outside a hospital and had her children look upon to the desecrated
body of their mother.
Amin
tried to shadow his brutality with nationalistic appeal. To cover up his insane
brutality, he promoted to the people his image of a nationalistic leader. In
1972, he launched a so-called “economic war” against Asian who controlled most
of Uganda’s economy and aimed to make Uganda a Blackman’s country. Asians,
mostly made up of Indians and Pakistanis, became the focus of Amin’s diversion.
He gave an ultimatum to leave the country within 90 days or suffer the most
gruesome death. In the end, over 60,000 to 80,000 Asians left the country,
leaving behind their fortune and business and also a collapsing Ugandan
economy. Without the Asian, many business became owner-less and many jobs loss in
the process. The impoverish situation of Uganda just went worst.
Amin’s
deplorable violations of human rights, however, continued to reach the
international community, worst, his own paranoia led eventually to numerous diplomatic
row and eventually caused his downfall. Initially, Amin had good relations with
the British and the Israelis. However, as his paranoia intensified, he began to
shift his views towards them as he felt that they plotted against his rule. In
1975, relations between Uganda and Britain soured. Amin ordered the execution
of a British citizen named Denis Hills under the charges of espionage.
Thankfully, the British foreign secretary successfully negotiated the release
of Hills. Hills, upon his return home described Amin as a man that the west
should not consider as a buffoon. As relations worsen between the two
countries, Amin made several ridiculous antics against the British. At the same
year, he awarded himself the Victoria Cross. He also made four white men carry
him in a throne and had them kneel before him and pledge their loyalty to him.
He also called himself the King of Scotland and in 1976, following his act of
declaring himself President for Life and promoting himself to the position of
Field Marshall, he announced himself as the Conqueror of the British Empire.
Because of this, his official title became: His Excellency President for Life
Field Marshall Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin, VC (Victoria Cross), DSO (Distinguished
Service Order), MC (Military Cross), Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and
Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and
Uganda in Particular.
Idi
Amin’s relations with Israel went worst as well. The good relation between
Israel and Amin dissipated as years went on. In 1972, Idi Amin sent Israeli
Prime Minister Golda Meir a chilling message stating his dismay to Hitler’s
failure in exterminating the Jews. Idi Amin then also supported groups that
fought against Israel, for example the Palestinians. The lowest point in
Ugandan-Israeli relations came in 1976. A group of Palestinian hijackers
captured an Air France Flight bearing 105 Israelis and Jews from other
nationalities. Amin allowed the hijacked plane to land in Entebbe Airport. On
July 4, 1976, Israel decided to rescue the passengers by sending in Israeli Special
Forces supported by Britain and other African countries. The rescue resulted to
a success. Three passengers, however, passed away. 2 died during the rescue.
The other, an old lady recovering from an illness in the local hospital felt
the wrath of Amin after the rescue operation. Following the Entebbe Airport
incident, Britain and Israel broke diplomatic ties with Uganda.
Amin
reacted violently and quickly. He had 200 high ranking military officials
killed. He ordered the expulsion of remaining foreigners. In addition, he took
over more 80 British major companies in Uganda and gave them away to his
cronies.
Idi
Amin relations with Africa also worsened after the 1976 incident. Before that,
African countries tried to control Amin’s unacceptable human rights violation
by giving him the chairmanship of the Organization of African Unity. However,
the act went to a no avail. Amin continued his brutal and oppressive regime.
After his conflict with Israel, he began to have close relations with Libya. Amin
found other friends in Africa besides Libya. For instance, he supported Zaire’s
Mobutu Sese Seko to end the Shaba rebellion and invasion. But in other notes,
Amin had strained relations with its neighbors like Kenya, who Amin accused of
supporting Israel during the operation in Entebbe Airport in 1976. He also had
terrible relations with Tanzania since 1972 after they supported the invasion
of former Ugandan Prime Minister Milton Obote.
Amin
launched an invasion against Tanzania in October 1978. He took the action as a
way to halt the military activities of his opponents operating from the
Tanzania, in particular, the Kagera region. Amin soon regretted the
decision. Soon enough, after a quick Ugandan advance in Tanzanian territory,
the Tanzanian army launched a counterattacked. After a successful
counterattack, Tanzania launched an invasion of Uganda. Uganda rebels who
fought against Amin’s regime joined the Tanzanians to capture the Ugandan
capital of Kampala. By April 1979, Tanzanian army and Ugandan rebels
triumphantly captured the capital city. Idi Amin fled the country to Libya. The
nine bloody and terrible years of Idi Amin’s rule ended.
Idi
Amin lived for many years after his deposition. In 1989, he attempted to return
to Uganda when he flew to Zaire. However, the Uganda threatened arrest if the
deposed general and president returned to the country. Amin never tried to step
back to his country. He then received an asylum to Saudi Arabia. There he lived
a luxurious life. In exchange for not returning to Uganda, the Saudis gave Amin
a stipend of $1,400 in addition to a modest home complete with services and a
car. Idi Amin lived until August 16, 2003 when the once violent and sadistic
President of Uganda passed away due to kidney failure.
In
Idi Amin’s wake he left a country scarred by his brutality and ruthlessness.
His paranoia combined with his brutality led to one of the most brutal regimes
that Africa and even the world had seen. He brought death to thousands of men
and women, including his closes friends and family. He brought Uganda to its
knees. And towards his demise, he never regretted a single one of his actions.
Idi Amin ranks as one of the world’s most dangerous dictators.
See
also:
Bibliography:
“Amin,
Idi.” In Dictionary of Genocide. Edited by Samuel Totten & Paul Bartrop.
Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing, 2007.
“Amin,
Idi (Idi Amin Dada).” In Encyclopedia of War Crimes & Genocide. Edited by
Leslie Hovitz & Christopher Catherwood. New York, New York: Facts On File,
Inc., 2006.
De
Gorge, Barbara. “Amin, Idi.” In Encyclopedia of Modern Dictators: From Napoleon to
the Present. Edited by Frank Coppa. New York, New York: Peter Lang Publishing,
2009.
Mensah,
Joseph. “Amin, Idi.” In Encyclopedia of the Developing World Volume 1 A-E
Index. Edited by Thomas Leonard. New York, New York: Routledge, 2006.
Nave,
Ari. “Amin, Idi.” In Encyclopedia of Africa. Edited by Kwame Appiah & Henry
Gates. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
“Britain
breaks off diplomatic relations with Uganda.” In South African History Online,
towards a people’s history. Accessed June 14, 2015. http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/britain-breaks-diplomatic-relations-uganda
“Obituary:
The buffon tyrant.” In BBC News. Accessed June 14, 2015. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/597725.stm
This is all lies. Fake and shameful. Liars. Idi Amin was better way better than you can possibly imagine liar.
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