During the second Congo war where the late Kabila father fought Rwanda and Uganda, the Congolese president contacted Idi Amin for help.
With just two phone calls Amin got him over 6000 fully equipped fighters with an assortment of light and heavy weapons, uniforms, vehicles, rations...etc. These fighters were stationed in the Ituri region of Eastern Congo and that is where they encountered the Rwanda Patriotic Front soldiers of President Paul Kagame. To cut a long story short, this group of soldiers sent by Amin fought bravely against the Rwandese who were considered the toughest army fighting in Congo. Remember that they had defeated the UPDF (their supposed allies) twice in Kisangani, eastern Congo, at around that time. The RPF was however overrun by the Amin boys and in one incident, 800 RPF soldiers were caught. What happened to these soldiers is a matter too graphic to discuss because war is terrible. But Mr. Kagame himself is aware of that battle where more than 1000 Rwandese died. Now if Idi Amin had any interest of being president of Uganda again, he could have just deployed soldiers to fight the Uganda government. Wasn't it just two calls that got him 6000 fully equipped fighters? To understand Amin, one has to look at the heart of the man. He wasn't a thief. He was never corrupt. He fought for the simple citizen, every Ugandan. He fought for the black African and even the African American who was still heavily discriminitated against at the time in the US. He stood against Israeli oppression of the palestinians like we see continuing today. Amin is the only African who actually fought in the Gholan heights for two weeks until Israel and Syria signed a peace deal then he returned secretely to Uganda. He fought "imperialism" as he called it then. I call it supremacism. He fought Apartheid in South Africa, and fought Rodhesian white rule. They say he was xenophobic when he deported the Asians who had taken over the entire economy of the country. Ugandans largely beg to differ. Hatred is a very bad thing. It fuelled the souls, thoughts and actions of those who dedicated their lives against Amin. Mere Hatred. Yet let's face it. They will never equal the stature of Idi Amin particularly on the African continent where he was a revered pan-africanist. The younger generation may be fooled by the overwhelming bad press from western media, but those who remember can stand and tell their honest story. But looking forward, we should end this competition of machismo by those who try to appear tougher than Amin in order to rule. The democratic country that we should be aiming at is one where a civilian is peacefully elected president. He then serves his two terms and hands over power to another peacefully elected civilian. That is the real political benchmark Uganda has to acheive. That is the democracy I want to see.
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