Posted on 06/01/2002 6:17:28 PM PDT by dighton
The island of Mukusu, a spectacular 23-acre paradise in Lake Victoria, is for sale at a mere £214,000. The only deterrent to prospective buyers might be the fact that it was once owned by Idi Amin and used by the despot as a combined holiday home and torture camp.
Twenty-three years after the end of Amin’s brutal eight-year dictatorship, Mukusu has been put on the market to boost tourism and shed once and for all the stigma of its association with “Africa’s Adolf Hitler”.
The island, surrounded by the crocodile-infested waters of Lake Victoria, is being marketed as a perfect site for a luxury hotel or a tycoon’s holiday home. But “Paradise Island”, as it was known by Amin, still bears the scars of his occupation.
Henry Kabwgo, 49, a fisherman who lives in a wooden shack on the island’s main beach, recalled how during fishing trips he would often see bodies bobbing in the lake, dumped from the shore by Amin’s henchmen.
Mr Kabwgo, stepping over debris that testified to the island’s years of neglect and occasional vandalism at the hands of the fishermen who have made it their home, shook his head in disbelief at his own memories.
“Amin was a terrible man, a savage. He came here for holidays, but even then he killed and tortured plenty of people,” he said, nodding towards the foundations of a former guest cottage which he described as “the torture place”.
He added: “When I was fishing, I would see many bodies, sometimes just parts of bodies, in the lake. They were enemies of Amin and so he killed them. Then the crocodiles would eat them.”
The brick shell of the dictator’s former beach home is now a makeshift school for the children of the fishermen’s shanty village. A weathered blackboard is propped up against the wall where fine pictures once hung. By night, the building shelters the island’s small herd of cattle.
The “Butcher of Uganda’s” thirst for violence and death was boundless. During his years in power, tens of thousands of personal and political enemies met with unspeakable brutality. Some were crushed alive by tanks, others disembowelled and maimed.
Prisoners were forced to beat out the brains of fellow inmates before suffering a similar fate themselves. Amin once even boasted about his own taste for eating human flesh.
Bazana Kabwegyere, an MP with the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, who went into exile during the Amin years, said: “The heads of those who were beheaded on his orders would be brought to him to talk to.”
Tim Cooper, a British businessman who is marketing the island for its owner, King Ronald Mutebi II of Buganda, does not shy away from the island’s history, admitting that Amin reportedly kept a fridge full of his victims’ heads at his beach house.
“We have to be honest and admit what the island’s association is with Idi Amin,” said Mr Cooper. “There is no point trying to hide it; people would find out sooner or later anyway. For some people, I’m sure the association would be rather off-putting. But there are others who might find it rather fascinating.”
King Ronald is Uganda’s most influential tribal chief and his kingdom of Buganda includes the modern capital city, Kampala. He is offering the island on a 49-year lease.
The king, who became a double glazing salesmen in Britain when his family was forced into exile by Amin’s predecessor, Milton Obote, is keen to exploit Lake Victoria’s tourism potential.
Last month, for the first time, Uganda commemorated Amin’s overthrow in an attempt to draw a line under the country’s dark history. Plans to bury the memory of his tyrannical reign may not be achieved so easily, however. The obese former despot wants to return from his exile in Saudi Arabia to see out his final years in Uganda.
Kivumbi Amule, Amin’s younger brother, said the former dictator had told him of his plans during a telephone conversation from Jeddah. “He said he wants to return to his country and stay with his people,” Mr Amule said. “His plans have reinvigorated him. His former voice came through so clearly, it was as if he were president again.”
The parliament in Kampala is expected to debate the issue in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, members of Amin’s vast family - the 79-year-old has 48 children - have begun trickling back to their home town of Arua, in the north, from all over the world.
On Mukusu, however, the prospect of Amin and his clan coming back is met with anger. “I hope that man never returns,” said Mr Kabwgo vehemently. “Our country, this island and this lake is finally enjoying its peace.”
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
"...even now are there many antichrists"...1 Jo 2:18
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