Idi Amin Dada Oumee
AKA 'Big Daddy', AKA 'Conqueror of the British Empire'.
Kill tally: 100,000-500,000 (most sources say 300,000).
Background: The British government declares Uganda its protectorate in 1894. Surrounding kingdoms are incorporated, with the borders becoming fixed in 1914. Independence is achieved peacefully in 1962 but rising tensions between the country's different ethnic groups see prime minister Milton Obote impose a new republican constitution establishing himself as president and abolishing all the country's kingdoms. Ethnic tensions continue to rise. Idi Amin seizes power in a coup in January 1971.
Mini biography: Born in 1924 or 1925 into the Kakwa tribe in Koboko, near Arua in the northwest corner of Uganda, close to the borders with Congo and Sudan.
1946 - Amin joins the King's African Rifles of the British colonial army, serving in the British action against the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya (1952-56). He rises to the rank of lieutenant, becoming one of only two native Ugandans to be commissioned during British rule. In 1951 he becomes the heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, holding the title until 1960. The authorities become concerned about Amin when he is accused of torture.
1962 - Uganda achieves independence from Britain. Amin is a supporter of Milton Obote, the new nation's prime minister. Obote overlooks the allegations of torture against Amin, promoting him to captain by 1963 and to colonel and deputy commander of the army in 1964.
1966 - Amin backs Obote when a financial scandal and opposition from the kingdom of Buganda causes the prime minister to suspend the constitution. Obote imposes a new republican constitution establishing himself as president and abolishing all the country's kingdoms. Amin is appointed chief of the army and air force, serving in the position until 1970. He begins to build a support base in the army by recruiting from his own Kakwa tribe. His relations with Obote start to sour.
1970 - The relationship deteriorates further following the murder of Amin's sole rival among senior army officers. Obote removes Amin from his command position late in the year and places him in an administrative role.
1971 - Amin discovers that Obote intends to arrest him on charges of misappropriating millions of dollars of military funds. On 25 January, while Obote is out of the country, Amin stages a coup. He is declared president and chief of the armed forces. Almost immediately he initiates mass executions of troops he believes to be loyal to Obote.
Amin becomes field marshal in 1975 and life president in 1976. He expels the country's 50,000 Indians and Pakistanis in 1972, challenges Britain and the United States, breaks relations with Israel, and supports Libya and the Palestinians, becoming personally involved when Palestinians hijack a plane and order it fly to Entebbe in Ugandan.
Domestically, Amin launches a campaign of persecution against rival tribes, murdering between 100,000 and 500,000 (most sources say 300,000). The size of the army is increased. Military tribunals are placed above the system of civil law, soldiers are appointed to top government posts, and civilian cabinet ministers are informed that they will be subject to military discipline. The country's economy begins to collapse.
1978 - In an attempt to divert attention from Uganda's internal problems, Amin launches an attack on Tanzania, a neighbouring country to the south, in October. Tanzanian troops, assisted by armed Ugandan exiles, quickly put Amin's demoralised army to flight and counter-invade.
1979 - The invading Tanzanian forces take Kampala, Uganda's capital, on 11 April. Amin, a Moslem, flees to Libya, finally settling in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi's provide him with a monthly stipend of about US$1,400. He leads a comfortable life.
1989 - He attempts to return to Uganda but is identified at Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and forced to return to Saudi Arabia.
2001 - Amin remains at large in Saudi Arabia, although it is reported that he wishes to return to Uganda. He continues to be popular in his home province and begins to fund the rebuilding of family properties destroyed by the Tanzanian troops who expelled him in 1979.
Comment: By all accounts ill-educated, if not illiterate, and a buffoon, Amin would be a joke if his legacy wasn't so cruel. But perhaps it is not his villainy that is only to blame for the havoc that was wrought in Uganda. While there is a lot of history to Uganda, and to all the other countries on the African continent, it's pretty well guaranteed that wherever there was a colonial administration there is now a can of worms.
Africa has suffered more than any other continent from its colonial past, which has breed Ugandas and Rawandas and South Africas and Zimbabwes and greed and corruption and death.
More information
Uganda - A Country Study (Library of Congress Country Studies Series)
Page created on 20 February 2001. Reviewed 14 May 2002
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