Cannibal Idi Amin's Saudi Villa

[Guest guest]

Keegan de Lancie

 

Idi Amin Dada,cannibal and former tyrant of Uganda,Africa, escaped to

Libya at the invitation of Muammer Qaddafi, and finally settled down

in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia with his wife and 9 of his 40 children. He

has reportedly eaten one of is sons and fatally dismembered one of

his wives. Now in his late 60's, he occasionally dons the traditional

Saudi garb and goes to have coffee with his friends or go to the

grocery store.

 

People come up to him all the time to shake his hand and greet him

with a "Hello, Mr.President!". He lives in luxury in a marble villa

outside of the city and attends to his vegetable garden and goats

when he's not entertaining guests. Idi Amin killed an estimated

300,000 of his own people.

 

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. He made one known attempt to return to

Uganda, in early 1989, getting as far as Kinshasa, Zaire (now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo), where he was identified and forced

to return to Saudi Arabia. Amin's rule had many lasting negative

consequences for Uganda: It led to low regard for human life and

personal security, widespread corruption, and the disruption of

economic production and distribution.

 

 

Idi Amin (1925?- )was born a Muslim.

He was taught the ways of witchcraft however, and practiced many

strange customs. He joined the Kings African Rifles in 1946, and

advanced very quickly to the top of the military heap. In 1949 he

became a corporal, in 1963 he became a battalion commander,

in 1965 he was appointed deputy commander of the Ugandan army by

Milton Obote, and in 1968 he became the commander. He also fought on

the British "Mau Mau" campaign in Kenya. The people of Uganda looked

upon Amin with reverence, especially since he was the heavyweight

boxing champion of Uganda from 1951 to 1960. However, the

people were soon terrified of their one-time hero. Upset over the

demotion given to him by Obote and in total disagreement with Obote's

socialist economic policies, Amin took over from Obote with a

military coup in 1971. He then began a reign of terror that is one

the most infamous in modern day Africa.

 

Later in 1972 Amin announced that God had told him in a dream to

expel Uganda's Indian and Pakistani populations, who owned almost all

of Uganda's businesses. At first, only non-Ugandan citizens were

forced to leave, but eventually those with citizenship were also

expelled. Officially, about 40,000 Indians and Pakistanis left,

although many others fled across the borders. Their homes and

businesses were allocated to Ugandans who had connections to Amin.

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 in Uganda,

leading to high prices, more corruption, and greater involvement by

state enterprises in the economy.

 

Amin also called for the "extinction of Israel" and praised Hitler

for killing the Jews,(built a statue of Hitler in Garden.) for

killing the Jews. Not only was this an immoral thing to say, but

since Israel was giving Uganda military aid and weapons, they pulled

out funding immediately. Amin said these things because of a plane

hijack incident that he was involved in. In 1976, Amin collaborated

with the hijackers of an Air France plane and had them land in

Uganda. The hijackers were members of the Popular Front for the

Liberation of Palestine. Israeli commandos later stormed the plane

and in the firefight that insued, all seven hijackers, several

passengers, an Israeli soldier and 20 to 40 Ugandan troops died.

 

Some of Amin's biggest mistakes were pertaining to the relationship

with Tanzania. On September 17, 1972, a "people's" army of 1,000

supporters of Milton Obote invaded Uganda from Tanzania and attacked

Kampala. They were driven back, but Amin decided to take revenge by

sending planes to bomb Tanzanian border towns. On September 21, the

Somali foreign minister negotiated a cease-fire and a peace agreement

between Tanzania and Uganda, and the agreement was signed on October

5, 1972 at Mogidishu. Exactly six years later, Amin decided to break

the treaty in his quest for power. He decided that he would have his

men pretend to be Tanzanians and attack a Ugandan village. When they

did so, he declared war on Tanzania, claiming that they had invaded

his country. Ugandan troops invaded Tanzania and captured 710 sq.

miles before withdrawing. Fighting on the border continued until

1979 when Tanzania invaded Uganda and drove Amin out.