By Spy Uganda
Kampala: General Amin, the new ruler of Uganda, on 2nd February 1971 proclaimed himself Supreme Commander and Head of State, dissolved Parliament, and appointed a purely advisory Council of Ministers. The council consists mainly of noncontroversial civilian administrators.
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General Amin was also Defence Minister. The most interesting appointments concern two men alleged to have been privy to a plot against General Amin – Mr EW Oryema, former Inspector general of police who became Minister for Minerals and Water Resources, and Mr FL Okwaere, former prisons commissioner, who became Minister of Agriculture.
Although there was condemnation for Amin’s actions, the world only stood by to watch as within Uganda a wild scramble for passports and visas began. Some countries were willing to receive the refugees, others made excuses. Meanwhile, there were rumours in the background. Idi Amin was building concentration camps and silencing dissent. He was an admirer of Adolf Hitler, and the Ugandan Asians could see where things were heading if they didn’t leave soon.
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It was the hardship of the Ugandan Asians that originally inspired author Claire Duende to write her recently published novel ‘The Fortunicity of Birdie Dalal’. The book follows the experiences of a young Ugandan Asian woman who loses everything and comes to England to forge a new life with her family.
“I was writing a novel about loss, and starting again, and I distinctly recalled images of Ugandan Asians disembarking at Heathrow Airport in 1972. The lost look on their faces as they arrived in our cold country was heart-breaking. They were rock bottom, yet over the years they have integrated fully and gone on to prosper.
More About Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee 1925 – 16 August 2003 was a Ugandan military officer who served as the President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Popularly known as the “Butcher of Uganda”, he is considered one of the most brutal despots in world history.
Amin was born in Koboko to a Kakwa father and Lugbara mother. In 1946, he joined the King’s African Rifles (KAR) of the British Colonial Army as a cook. He rose to the rank of lieutenant, taking part in British actions against Somali rebels in the Shifta War and then the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya.
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Uganda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, and Amin remained in the armed forces, rising to the position of major and being appointed Commander of the Uganda Army in 1965. He became aware that Ugandan President Milton Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, so he launched a military coup in 1971 and declared himself President.
During his years in power, Amin shifted from being a pro-Western ruler enjoying considerable support from Israel to being backed by Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko, the Soviet Union, and East Germany.
In 1975, Amin became the chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), a Pan-Africanist group designed to promote solidarity among African states. Uganda was a member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1977 to 1979. The UK broke diplomatic relations with Uganda in 1977, and Amin declared that he had defeated the British and added “CBE” to his title for “Conqueror of the British Empire”.
As Amin’s rule progressed into the late 1970s, there was increased unrest against his persecution of certain ethnic groups and political dissidents, along with Uganda’s very poor international standing due to Amin’s support for the terrorist hijackers in Operation Entebbe. He then attempted to annex Tanzania’s Kagera Region in 1978, so Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere had his troops invade Uganda; they captured Kampala on 11 April 1979 and ousted Amin from power. Amin went into exile, first in Libya, then Iraq, and finally in Saudi Arabia, where he lived until his death on 16 August 2003.
Amin’s rule was characterised by rampant human rights abuses, including political repression, ethnic persecution and extrajudicial killings, as well as nepotism, corruption, and gross economic mismanagement. International observers and human rights groups estimate that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed under his regime.
