Posted on 08/22/2002 4:12:25 AM PDT by jalisco555
I WAS browsing the Internet searching for situations where "loyal" generals moved to occupy state houses. My purpose, as always, was to weave an article warning against the view that it will never happen here, notwithstanding my stated position in the past that a military coup in Zimbabwe was unlikely.
What I found on Idi Amin of Uganda was amazing. But I won't tell you how Amin outfoxed Milton Obote, the founder leader of independent Uganda - maybe I might later. For now, I want to share with you what Amin did during the eight long years he was in power (1971-1979) - laying waste a beautiful and prosperous country - and the international community's response to him.
Upon assuming power in a popular coup in 1971 in which he was assisted by British and Israeli intelligence in Uganda, Idi Amin Dada (as he is some times known) is said to have appointed "well-qualified administrators" to most of the positions in his first cabinet, but he "paid no attention to their advice".
To control the army, Amin relied on the support of soldiers he had recruited from the northwest corner of Uganda, his home area. In his first year as president, he ordered massacres of large numbers of Langi and Acholi troops who were suspected of being loyal to the ousted Obote.
Amin made demands to the British and Israelis for large increases in military assistance. He was rebuffed. He then reacted by expelling British and Israeli advisers and turned to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi who gave him immediate support.
In doing so, Amin became the first black African leader to renounce ties with the Jewish state of Israel and side instead with Islamic nations in the Middle East conflict over possession of the historic region of Palestine.
As such, Amin made anti-Semitic outbursts, including praising Adolf Hitler for killing Jewish people during the Second World War.
Later, Amin announced that God had told him in a dream to expel Uganda's Indian and Pakistani populations, who owned most of major businesses in the country. At first, only non-Ugandan citizens were affected, but eventually even those with citizenship were also expelled.
Officially, about 40 000 Indians and Pakistanis were expelled, although many others fled across the borders. Their homes and businesses were allocated to Ugandans connected to Amin in what was popularly called the "nationalisation" and "indigenisation" of the Ugandan economy.
Because many of the new business owners lacked experience running profitable enterprises, corruption and mismanagement quickly caused many of these businesses to fail. Shortages developed leading to high prices, more corruption, as greater involvement by the state in the economy occurred.
Meanwhile, Amin responded to the ever-rising inflation by ordering his minister of finance to simply print more paper money.
After a counter-coup attempt orchestrated by Obote from Tanzania, Amin grew more paranoid and brutally repressive. Ugandans who criticised Amin or whom the government considered potentially dangerous to the regime were seized by roving squads of soldiers and summarily killed; their bodies were often found dismembered and horribly mutilated.
Members of the Acholi and Langi ethnic groups, who had formed Obote's support base, were particularly targeted. The number of civilians killed by the Amin regime is disputed - it is often estimated at 300 000 and some say it may have been as high as 500 000.
Among those killed were Uganda's chief justice, murdered just after he had ruled against the government by ordering a British businessman who had been arrested without a warrant to be released; the vice-chancellor of Makerere University; several ministers who served in Amin's government; and the Anglican archbishop.
However, most victims were ordinary citizens from targeted ethnic groups or districts, or were simply killed at the whim of Amin's militia. Amin was condemned by much of the international community for his brutality, but when Britain and the United States cut aid to Uganda in 1972, he successfully turned to Libya and the Soviet Union. However, he was able to purchase luxury goods and military and communications equipment from private British and US companies during most of his rule.
In 1975 fellow African heads of state elected Amin chairman of the Organisation of African Unity. He started calling himself the "Hero of Africa" and "Conqueror of the British Empire".
In 1976 Palestinian and West German terrorists hijacked an Air France plane with a large number of Israeli passengers, and Amin allowed them to land at Entebbe Airport and use it as a base. An Israeli commando raid successfully rescued more than 100 hostages; but three hostages, all of the terrorists, an Israeli commander and about 40 Ugandan soldiers were killed in the raid.
In revenge, Amin had a remaining passenger, an elderly woman who had been taken to a Ugandan hospital, murdered. The United States government did not pass a trade embargo on Uganda until 1978, a year before the overthrow of the Ugandan regime.
Amin harboured territorial ambitions over Kenya and Tanzania, which would result in Uganda having access to the Indian Ocean. Accordingly, he threatened to invade Kenya; the Kenyans reminded him of Mau Mau. Then he invaded Tanzania, seizing a strip of Tanzanian territory north of the Kagera River in late 1978. That was a fatal mistake.
The Tanzanian government swiftly mobilised its army and forced out the Ugandan soldiers. Then, joined by a contingent of anti-Amin Ugandan rebels, the Tanzanian army invaded Uganda in early 1979. By April they had fought their way to Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and overthrown Amin's fragile government, which had alienated the majority population through its murderous ways.
Amin fled to Libya where he was offered asylum, but after an altercation between his security guards and the Libyan police, he was forced to leave at the end of 1979. He then accepted asylum in Saudi Arabia, settling in Jiddah where he remains up to this day.
Amin's rule had many lasting negative consequences for Uganda and perhaps for the whole East African region: it led to low regard for human life and personal security, widespread corruption and the disruption of trade and commerce.
Up to this day, 31 years since the coup incident, Uganda and the East African region has not quite recovered from the era of the "Hero of Africa" and "Conqueror of the British Empire", Idi Amin (Dada).
Is Zimbabwe and the region immune to the Amin tragedy which started with laughter?
Professor Masipula Sithole is a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and director of the Harare-based Mass Public Opinion Institute.
Amin, Idi, an Encarta Encyclopedia Article Titled "Amin, Idi" Amin, Idi (1925?- ), president of Uganda (1971-1979), also known as Idi Amin Dada, whose brutality and disregard for the rule of law led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and plunged the country
BBC News | Africa | Idi Amin's legacy of terror Uganda has been holding celebrations to mark the overthrow of its former dictator Idi Amin 20 years ago.
And what are the odds that Mugabe will end up in Saudi, that wonderful paradise for wackjobs?
Amin was interesting. He kept some of the heads of his victims in his freezer.
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