They can't forget Idi Amin's horrors

For a split second, one can almost feel the horror in retired chartered accountant Natubhai Shah's calm demeanour as he placidly recollects eight years of his career during the murderous regime of Idi Amin.

"Here I was, on an official tour with Idi Amin's entourage, trying to cross the Nile river when a military van stopped me from going ahead. One of the armymen discreetly handed me a pair of binoculars. It was a chilling sight. Amin was standing besides the river, cutting flesh off an Asian man and feeding it to crocodiles in the river," Shah says, sitting in his bungalow in the serene Uganda Society on Gurukul road in Ahmedabad.

That was 35 years ago. Even today, Shah calls himself lucky. "I was the only CA in the whole of Kampala then, hence was exempted from the expulsion. I even took two helicopter trips with Amin thereafter." Sharing the anguish with six Indian families who lived in common quarters in Kampala, was the only respite, Shah recalls.

Today, this Nadiad-born 75-year-old holds forth an old newspaper clipping showing him standing next to a beaming Amin at a charity event. The picture may look 'happy', but that was not enough to make Shah accept an offer to work again in Uganda after he returned to Ahmedabad in 1974. "Never again, I said."

So tough are the memories to erase that Ramanbhai Patel, 80, from Surat cancelled his plans to re-visit Uganda in October this year following the April 12 rioting. Born in Uganda, Patel was forced to flee in 1972, leaving behind his pharmaceutical factory and other business establishments in Jinja, near Kampala.

"I had to rush back from London then, where I had gone to meet my daughters. News of a young lawyer in our neighbourhood being forcibly taken away left us completely shaken."

Patel left the country for London at the end of October 1972, with 50 pounds in his pocket the maximum one could take back as per the decree. His daughter Vibha Marfatia, who was born in Uganda, told TOI that she was shocked that she would not be able to visit the country of her birth any more.

Maybe the reason why Shah and many others, take the events of April 12 with a pinch of salt. "The situation today is much better," says septuagenarian, Narayan Mashru of Rajkot, who too fled Uganda 35 years ago and was forced to live as a refugee in Mumbai with his family for some time.

'Lazy Ugandans jealous of Indians'

Tushar Tere

15 April, 2007 2320hrs IST

VADODARA: Are citizens of Uganda really worried about their country's ecology or are they just wary of Indians controlling their country's economy? Indians, who fled Uganda in 1970s, said that the Ugandans are an insecure lot as they don't enjoy as much power as Indians settled there do.

"We enjoyed much more power and say in the economy than Ugandans themselves. Being industrious in nature and having sharp entrepreneurship skills, Indians set up their own businesses in Uganda and grew fast," said Navneet Patel, one of the Indians who fled Uganda in 1972.

"Ugandans are not hard-working hence no one offers them powerful positions. That's why they don't want Indians," said Patel. He added that ecology concern is just an excuse for waging war against Indians.

Majority of the important businesses in Uganda that include agriculture, construction and textiles are controlled by Indians. The Mehtas have a powerful hold on the sugarcane industry. "Many Ugandans feel that Indians are using the resources that are meant for the locals. Hence they dislike outsiders, especially Asians," said Sonal Amin, whose parents are settled in Kampala.

"Some of them don't work themselves and do not allow others to work. The fact that Indians are ahead of Ugandans in several sectors has not gone down well with them," Amin felt.

Dipti Patni, whose husband is settled in Kampala, too agreed with Amin. "While Ugandans don't want us in their country, they know that it is the Indians who have boosted their economy and brought prosperity. They feel that we have outsmarted them in every segment and have earned much political clout," Patni said. "Also, Ugandans feel that the affluent Indians didn't respect them and treated them like slaves which is not true," she added.

While, Patel said that Indians were left to fend for themselves during the 1972 forced exodus by dictator Idi Amin, both Amin and Patni said the current government is protecting their families and they are safe in Uganda.

"We lived through a nightmare when we were asked to leave Uganda within 90 days. There was no law and order and local Ugandans were on a looting spree. They even raped many Indian women who were fleeing to neighbouring countries," Patel recalled.

Idi Amin had targeted Indians in the 70s

Indrani Bagchi

15 Apr, 2007 0021hrs IST

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Idi_Amin_had_targeted_Indians_in_70s/articleshow/1911455.cms

NEW DELHI: The Indian government has secured consular access for relatives of the Devang Raval, who was stoned to death by an enraged crowd in Uganda targeting Indians. His body will be flown to Ahmedabad on Sunday for the last rites.

The riots, according to sources, were actually a demonstration that went out of control. Ugandans, spurred by environment conservationists, have been agitating against a government proposal to cut down 7,000 hectares, or one-third of the Mabira forest, for sugarcane plantation. Mabira, which is 50 km from Kampala, has been a nature reserve since 1932.

Environmentalists have been protesting since last year when Museveni ordered a feasibility study of the proposal. Ecologists say the plan would increase soil erosion, dry up rivers and pollute Africa’s largest Lake Victoria.

The trouble was over the proposal on behalf of India-owned Mehta group.

This fact gave the rioters a ready target, Indians, who are one of the more prosperous business communities in Uganda, though not necessarily the most popular.

However, scenes of Indian men being beaten by enraged mobs brought back memories of the 1970s when Uganda’s most famous dictator, Idi Amin, threw thousands of Indians out. In August 1972, he ordered Asians who were not citizens of Uganda to leave the country, and within three months all 60,000 had left, most of them for the UK, some to Kenya, and other African countries.

Although a small minority, Asians had played a significant role in Ugandan business and finance, and their expulsion hurt the economy.

Several thousand Asians have since returned, but continue to be viewed with residual hostility.

Many of Thursday’s demonstrators carried placards telling Indians to leave Uganda, and as the protest turned bloody, armed police had to rescue more than 100 Asian men.

Museveni refuses to be cowed down by the protests. He is determined to go ahead with the plan to cut down forest land for sugarcane. He was quoted as saying that conservation is a luxury not afforded by poor countries seeking economic development.

On Thursday, he said he would not be swayed by conservationists. “I cannot be intimidated. The future of all countries lies in processing (goods)... I shall not be deterred by people who do not see where the future of Africa lies.”

The protests have also had the unfortunate effect of dividing Uganda’s Asian community.

While some say the forest land had already been depleted so agriculture would just make it more lucrative, others are asking the Mehta group not to go ahead with the plan and invite greater public ire against Indians.

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