Idi Amin Dada, who has died in Saudi Arabia, presided over a decade-long reign of terror in Uganda that encompassed mass murder and torture and left in ruins a country once described by Winston Churchill as the Pearl of Africa.
Throughout the 1970s Amin, a former trainee cook in the King’s African Rifles, was constantly in the spotlight, hurling outlandish insults at world leaders and flaunting his brutal powers.
If the truth be told, Fleet Street and Scotland’s press initially loved the flamboyant Ugandan tyrant. His buffoonery made good copy. As well as declaring himself Emperor of Uganda and awarding himself the VC (Victorious Cross) and CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire), he also styled himself “the last king of Scotland”. He wore a kilt and tartan forage cap, symbols of a love affair with Scotland that began when Willie Cochrane, pipe major of the King’s African Rifles, taught Amin to play the bagpipes.
When British-Uganda relations were at an all-time low, he proposed marriage to Princess Anne as a way of repairing relations. He asked the Queen to send him “her 25-year-old knickers” in celebration of her silver anniversary on the throne.
But it is for his butchery rather than his clowning that Amin must be remembered. While nobody knows how many Ugandans were killed at his behest during his 1971-79 dictatorship, international human rights groups estimate the toll at between 300,000 and 500,000 out of a population of 12 million. He expelled 50,000 Ugandan Asians to Britain and Canada.
The official killers came from the chillingly named Public Safety Unit and the State Research Bureau. They mainly comprised men from Amin’s own tribe, the Kakwa of northwestern Uganda near the Sudan border. Most died because Amin, who promoted himself to field marshal, and his acolytes despised their origins or because they wanted their women, cars, houses and money.
Amin’s victims were either shot or bludgeoned to death. Many condemned men were forced to smash the skulls of fellow prisoners with sledgehammers. They, in turn, were similarly dispatched by others lined up behind them. Nicholas Moore, Reuters chief correspondent in East Africa, was arrested by Amin and shared a blood-caked prison cell with men who were dragged away to be killed in this way nearby. Describing the sound of each execution, Moore said it was “a curious noise, as of an egg being broken”.
Amin’s sadism was not taken seriously until it affected the countries that had helped him to power, Britain and Israel.
He was raised through the military ranks by British colonial officers who considered the 6'4" Amin a “good chap” who played rugby, obeyed orders and fought in Burma against the Japanese. He was promoted to sergeant and his commander, Colonel Hugh Rogers, recalled him as “a splendid and reliable soldier, a cheerful and energetic man”.
Amin became one of only two native Ugandans to be commissioned in the pre-independence army. As a King’s African Rifles lieutenant, in early 1962 he was sent on an expedition against the free-ranging, cattle-rustling Karimojong in Uganda’s northeastern “wild lands”. There he was alleged to have castrated eight Karimojong to extract confessions. He was almost court-martialled but was saved because, with independence approaching, his British superiors were unwilling to take action against one of only two Ugandan officers in the army.
Uganda’s first post-independence prime minister, Milton Obote, promoted Amin to army chief and together they established a lucrative ivory and gold smuggling operation from the Congo. When Obote cracked down on and abolished the four hereditary kingdoms of southern Uganda, Amin did the dirty work, slaughtering hundreds of Baganda tribesmen in an attack on the kabaka (king) of Buganda’s Kampala palace.
Obote established a one-party socialist republic, declared himself president, threatened to nationalise British-owned property, and plotted to get rid of Amin, whose growing power he feared. Amin, instead, got rid of Obote with the help of Britain’s MI6 and Israel’s Mossad intelligence services. Amin toppled Obote in January 1971 while the Ugandan president was attending a Commonwealth summit in Singapore. Britain immediately recognised the new Ugandan ruler. The Daily Telegraph called him “a welcome contrast to other African leaders and a staunch friend of Britain”. The left-wing New Statesman rejoiced, commenting:
“So far as Britain is concerned, Amin will undoubtedly be easier to deal with than the abrasive Obote.” Israel described Amin as its special African friend.
Even as Britain and Israel congratulated the military dictator, Amin’s mass killing had begun. Former Obote ministers were the first to die. Amin’s killer squads butchered soldiers from the Langi and Acholi ethnic groups, the backbone of the army. Truckloads of corpses were dumped into the Nile.
Chief justice Benedicto Kiwanuka was dragged away by soldiers and never seen again. The vice-chancellor of Makerere University also disappeared. When Janani Luwum, Uganda’s Anglican archbishop, spoke out against the terror, Amin denounced him. The archbishop’s bullet-riddled body, still in ecclesiastical robes, was dumped in a Kampala mortuary. Amin also killed and dismembered Kay, the gutsiest of his many wives and concubines, and dumped her remains in the boot of the car of her lover, who was also killed.
In late 1972, Amin switched allegiance from Britain and Israel to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and the Palestinians. The Israelis, his close military advisers, had refused to give him a squadron of Phantom jets to bomb Kenya and Tanzania. He advised Israeli prime minister Golda Meir to “tuck up her knickers” and run to Washington, setting the scene for one of modern history’s most dramatic rescue missions.
In June 1976, Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France plane on a flight out of Tel Aviv, flew it to Uganda’s Entebbe Airport and, with Amin’s co-operation, held hostage 100 Israelis. In a daring night raid on July 4, Israeli commandos routed Ugandan soldiers guarding the airfield and rescued the hostages. Amin took revenge against a lone elderly passenger, Dora Bloch, who had been taken to hospital in Kampala when a piece of meat got lodged in her throat. State Research Bureau men hauled her out of bed and, in full view of hospital staff, dragged her to a waiting car. Her body was dumped in a forest 20 miles from Kampala.
Amin was finally overthrown after trying to annex a part of neighbouring Tanzania whose president, Julius Nyerere, he described as a coward, an old woman and a prostitute. Some 45,000 Tanzanian troops counter-invaded and quickly put Amin’s ill-disciplined army to flight. The Tanzanians took Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on April 11 1979. Amin, a Moslem, fled to Libya before settling in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis provided him, his four wives and children with a house, cars, drivers, cooks, maids and a monthly allowance. In return the Saudis demanded that their guest stay silent and enter political retirement.
The madness of Amin … in his own words
“I want your heart. I want to eat your children.”
Idi Amin to an adviser just before dinner, undated. Amin often kept the heads of political rivals in the fridge and scolded them as he ate dinner.
“When Hitler was the prime minister [chancellor], he burned over six million Jews. This is because Hitler and all German people knew that Israelis are not people who are working in the interest of the people of the world.”
Cable to Israel’s prime minister and UN secretary general September 13 1972.
“I am keeping fit so that I can challenge President Nyerere in the boxing ring – and we will fight it out there rather than soldiers lose their lives on the field of battle. Muhammad Ali can be the referee. I will fight with one arm tied and weights on my legs so as to give President Nyerere a sporting chance.”
On settling the dispute with Tanzania, November 3 1978.
“I am the hero of Africa.”
Newsweek, March 12 1973.
“In view of the success of my economic revolution in Uganda, I offer myself to be appointed head of the Commonwealth.”
Interview, April 13 1975.
“I know some people might attempt to kill me, but I was told that anybody who tried would be crushed completely, or he’ll have an accident.”
David Frost interview, April 2 1973.
“I am appealing to all the people of Uganda, who have been traditional friends of the British people, to come forward and help their former colonial masters. These contributions will help the ordinary British who are now the victims of such measures as power cuts and inflation.”
On setting up the Save Britain Fund with £600 of his own savings, December 15 1973.
“Only yesterday I happened to look at your photograph, in which you were depicted laughing at Mr Edward Heath … you appeared very charming, happy, fresh, beautiful, intelligent and confident.”
Cable to Margaret Thatcher, February 13 1975.
“Candidates should have a military background, be experienced pipers, smart and intelligent, aged between 25 and 45, and not less than six feet tall.”
Advert for two Scottish bodyguards for Amin, October 4 1974.
“I ate them before they ate me.”
On his rivals, undated.
Fred Bridgland
Sunday Herald
17 August 2003
Article republished courtesy of Scotland’s Sunday Herald:
http://www.sundayherald.com
Please also see:
‘We heard his body had been burned in acid so nothing would identify him’
From Ishbel Matheson in Kampala, Uganda
http://www.sundayherald.com/36062
Revealed: how Israel helped Amin to take power
By Richard Dowden
17 August 2003
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=434486
Throughout the 1970s Amin, a former trainee cook in the King’s African Rifles, was constantly in the spotlight, hurling outlandish insults at world leaders and flaunting his brutal powers.
If the truth be told, Fleet Street and Scotland’s press initially loved the flamboyant Ugandan tyrant. His buffoonery made good copy. As well as declaring himself Emperor of Uganda and awarding himself the VC (Victorious Cross) and CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire), he also styled himself “the last king of Scotland”. He wore a kilt and tartan forage cap, symbols of a love affair with Scotland that began when Willie Cochrane, pipe major of the King’s African Rifles, taught Amin to play the bagpipes.
When British-Uganda relations were at an all-time low, he proposed marriage to Princess Anne as a way of repairing relations. He asked the Queen to send him “her 25-year-old knickers” in celebration of her silver anniversary on the throne.
But it is for his butchery rather than his clowning that Amin must be remembered. While nobody knows how many Ugandans were killed at his behest during his 1971-79 dictatorship, international human rights groups estimate the toll at between 300,000 and 500,000 out of a population of 12 million. He expelled 50,000 Ugandan Asians to Britain and Canada.
The official killers came from the chillingly named Public Safety Unit and the State Research Bureau. They mainly comprised men from Amin’s own tribe, the Kakwa of northwestern Uganda near the Sudan border. Most died because Amin, who promoted himself to field marshal, and his acolytes despised their origins or because they wanted their women, cars, houses and money.
Amin’s victims were either shot or bludgeoned to death. Many condemned men were forced to smash the skulls of fellow prisoners with sledgehammers. They, in turn, were similarly dispatched by others lined up behind them. Nicholas Moore, Reuters chief correspondent in East Africa, was arrested by Amin and shared a blood-caked prison cell with men who were dragged away to be killed in this way nearby. Describing the sound of each execution, Moore said it was “a curious noise, as of an egg being broken”.
Amin’s sadism was not taken seriously until it affected the countries that had helped him to power, Britain and Israel.
He was raised through the military ranks by British colonial officers who considered the 6'4" Amin a “good chap” who played rugby, obeyed orders and fought in Burma against the Japanese. He was promoted to sergeant and his commander, Colonel Hugh Rogers, recalled him as “a splendid and reliable soldier, a cheerful and energetic man”.
Amin became one of only two native Ugandans to be commissioned in the pre-independence army. As a King’s African Rifles lieutenant, in early 1962 he was sent on an expedition against the free-ranging, cattle-rustling Karimojong in Uganda’s northeastern “wild lands”. There he was alleged to have castrated eight Karimojong to extract confessions. He was almost court-martialled but was saved because, with independence approaching, his British superiors were unwilling to take action against one of only two Ugandan officers in the army.
Uganda’s first post-independence prime minister, Milton Obote, promoted Amin to army chief and together they established a lucrative ivory and gold smuggling operation from the Congo. When Obote cracked down on and abolished the four hereditary kingdoms of southern Uganda, Amin did the dirty work, slaughtering hundreds of Baganda tribesmen in an attack on the kabaka (king) of Buganda’s Kampala palace.
Obote established a one-party socialist republic, declared himself president, threatened to nationalise British-owned property, and plotted to get rid of Amin, whose growing power he feared. Amin, instead, got rid of Obote with the help of Britain’s MI6 and Israel’s Mossad intelligence services. Amin toppled Obote in January 1971 while the Ugandan president was attending a Commonwealth summit in Singapore. Britain immediately recognised the new Ugandan ruler. The Daily Telegraph called him “a welcome contrast to other African leaders and a staunch friend of Britain”. The left-wing New Statesman rejoiced, commenting:
“So far as Britain is concerned, Amin will undoubtedly be easier to deal with than the abrasive Obote.” Israel described Amin as its special African friend.
Even as Britain and Israel congratulated the military dictator, Amin’s mass killing had begun. Former Obote ministers were the first to die. Amin’s killer squads butchered soldiers from the Langi and Acholi ethnic groups, the backbone of the army. Truckloads of corpses were dumped into the Nile.
Chief justice Benedicto Kiwanuka was dragged away by soldiers and never seen again. The vice-chancellor of Makerere University also disappeared. When Janani Luwum, Uganda’s Anglican archbishop, spoke out against the terror, Amin denounced him. The archbishop’s bullet-riddled body, still in ecclesiastical robes, was dumped in a Kampala mortuary. Amin also killed and dismembered Kay, the gutsiest of his many wives and concubines, and dumped her remains in the boot of the car of her lover, who was also killed.
In late 1972, Amin switched allegiance from Britain and Israel to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and the Palestinians. The Israelis, his close military advisers, had refused to give him a squadron of Phantom jets to bomb Kenya and Tanzania. He advised Israeli prime minister Golda Meir to “tuck up her knickers” and run to Washington, setting the scene for one of modern history’s most dramatic rescue missions.
In June 1976, Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France plane on a flight out of Tel Aviv, flew it to Uganda’s Entebbe Airport and, with Amin’s co-operation, held hostage 100 Israelis. In a daring night raid on July 4, Israeli commandos routed Ugandan soldiers guarding the airfield and rescued the hostages. Amin took revenge against a lone elderly passenger, Dora Bloch, who had been taken to hospital in Kampala when a piece of meat got lodged in her throat. State Research Bureau men hauled her out of bed and, in full view of hospital staff, dragged her to a waiting car. Her body was dumped in a forest 20 miles from Kampala.
Amin was finally overthrown after trying to annex a part of neighbouring Tanzania whose president, Julius Nyerere, he described as a coward, an old woman and a prostitute. Some 45,000 Tanzanian troops counter-invaded and quickly put Amin’s ill-disciplined army to flight. The Tanzanians took Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on April 11 1979. Amin, a Moslem, fled to Libya before settling in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis provided him, his four wives and children with a house, cars, drivers, cooks, maids and a monthly allowance. In return the Saudis demanded that their guest stay silent and enter political retirement.
The madness of Amin … in his own words
“I want your heart. I want to eat your children.”
Idi Amin to an adviser just before dinner, undated. Amin often kept the heads of political rivals in the fridge and scolded them as he ate dinner.
“When Hitler was the prime minister [chancellor], he burned over six million Jews. This is because Hitler and all German people knew that Israelis are not people who are working in the interest of the people of the world.”
Cable to Israel’s prime minister and UN secretary general September 13 1972.
“I am keeping fit so that I can challenge President Nyerere in the boxing ring – and we will fight it out there rather than soldiers lose their lives on the field of battle. Muhammad Ali can be the referee. I will fight with one arm tied and weights on my legs so as to give President Nyerere a sporting chance.”
On settling the dispute with Tanzania, November 3 1978.
“I am the hero of Africa.”
Newsweek, March 12 1973.
“In view of the success of my economic revolution in Uganda, I offer myself to be appointed head of the Commonwealth.”
Interview, April 13 1975.
“I know some people might attempt to kill me, but I was told that anybody who tried would be crushed completely, or he’ll have an accident.”
David Frost interview, April 2 1973.
“I am appealing to all the people of Uganda, who have been traditional friends of the British people, to come forward and help their former colonial masters. These contributions will help the ordinary British who are now the victims of such measures as power cuts and inflation.”
On setting up the Save Britain Fund with £600 of his own savings, December 15 1973.
“Only yesterday I happened to look at your photograph, in which you were depicted laughing at Mr Edward Heath … you appeared very charming, happy, fresh, beautiful, intelligent and confident.”
Cable to Margaret Thatcher, February 13 1975.
“Candidates should have a military background, be experienced pipers, smart and intelligent, aged between 25 and 45, and not less than six feet tall.”
Advert for two Scottish bodyguards for Amin, October 4 1974.
“I ate them before they ate me.”
On his rivals, undated.
Fred Bridgland
Sunday Herald
17 August 2003
Article republished courtesy of Scotland’s Sunday Herald:
http://www.sundayherald.com
Please also see:
‘We heard his body had been burned in acid so nothing would identify him’
From Ishbel Matheson in Kampala, Uganda
http://www.sundayherald.com/36062
Revealed: how Israel helped Amin to take power
By Richard Dowden
17 August 2003
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=434486