Guest guest Posted September 27, 2001 Report Share Posted September 27, 2001 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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