Janice Anderson - War Crimes and Atrocities

When Amin learned that Obote was about to have him arrested, he organized a military coup while Obote was out of the country attending a Commonwealth seminar in Singapore. Amin’s new military government accused Obote and his regime of corruption, economic mismanagement, failing to maintain law and order and suppressing democracy. Initially, the coup was fully supported by the Ugandans and welcomed by the British, with Amin’s promise of abolishing Obote’s secret police, freeing of all political prisoners, introducing economic reforms and also pledging to return the country to civilian rule as quickly as possible.

After taking power, Amin said, ‘I am not an ambitious man, personally, I am just a soldier with a concern for my country and people.’ Little did people realize that giving Amin a free rein would be the worst thing possible for Uganda. No sooner was he in charge than he ordered the mass executions of officers and troops who he believed to be loyal to the overthrown Obote. Forming his own ‘State Research Bureau’ he sent death squads out to eradicate military leaders and intelligentsia who Amin believed would oppose his rule. An explosion in a prison cell at the Makindye Prison in Kampala killed 32 army officers, and it is believed that as many as two-thirds of the army’s 9,000 officers were executed during Amin’s first year in power, many by beheading.

Obote, who had taken refuge in Tanzania, tried to regain control through a military invasion in September 1972, but his attempt failed. Amin immediately retaliated by bombing Tanzanian towns and getting rid of any Acholi and Lango officers in the army.

Amin becomes more and more paranoid, fearing a coup within his own government, and he started his own system of ethnic cleansing. Determined to make Uganda ‘a black man’s country’, Amin started to expel the country’s 40,000 to 80,000 Indians and Pakistanis from Uganda, giving them just 90 days to leave. They were only allowed to take what they could physically carry with them and were warned by Amin, ‘If they do not leave, they will find themselves sitting on fire’. Any possessions they left behind, along with their businesses and homes, were divided among Amin’s favourites within his army.

Aware of the true nature of Amin’s regime, the British and Israel governments started to remove their support and refused to sell him any more arms or ammunition. Amin then looked to other countries for support and turned to Libya for aid, with the promise to their leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, that he will turn Uganda into an Islamic state. Amin broke any relations with the UK, the USA and Israel, and gave his support to the Palestinian liberation movement. All British property in Uganda was seized and business relations between the two countries was severely restricted. Any Britains still living in Uganda were threatened with banishment. By 1973, the USA had closed its embassy in Kampala, followed by the UK closing its High Commission in Uganda in 1976.

Still paranoid that his regime was under threat, Amin started a campaign of persecution against rival tribes and Obote supporters. It is alleged that as many as 500,000 people died under Idi Amin’s regime, including ordinary citizens, former and serving cabinet ministers, the chief justice, judges, diplomats, academics, teachers, prominent Roman Catholic and Anglican clergy, senior bureaucrats, doctors, bankers, tribal leaders, business executives, journalists and a number of foreigners living in Uganda. In certain cases, entire villages were wiped out, and there are reports that so many bodies were thrown into the Nile that workers had to continually drag them out to stop the dam from clogging up. There are also reports that he threw corpses to crocodiles and then held ‘conversations’ with the decapitated heads of his victims, which he kept in his freezer. On top of this there are also allegations that he committed cannibalism.

As a result of all the terror and the displacement of the country’s economic backbone, Uganda starts a rapid downhill spiral. Always having to look over his shoulder for fear of being assassinated, Amin doubled his presidential guard and increased the size of his army. Meanwhile, the remainder of the world was disgusted by Amin’s policies and use of extreme tactics.

Amin had strong ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and in 1976 he became personally involved in hostage negotiations with Israel. It all started on 27 June, when four pro-Palestinian guerrillas hijacked an Air France flight, flying from Israel to Paris via Athens, with 250 passengers on board. Amin, on hearing about the hijack, invited the guerrillas to stop at Entebbe International Airport in the city of Entebbe, just 32 km (20 miles) outside of Kampala. The hijackers, two from the PLO and two from Germany’s Baader-Meinhof gang, diverted the plane to Entebbe, where it landed on 28 June. Here they were joined by three more colleagues, where they demanded the release of 53 PLO and Red Army Faction prisoners in return for the hostages on the plane. Idi Amin arrived at the airport to give a speech in support of the PLO and even supplied the hijackers with extra troops and weapons.

On 1 July, the hijackers agreed to release a large number of the hostages, but they decided to hold captive the remaining 100 passengers who were either Jewish or Israeli. Amin arranged for a transport plane to take the freed hostages to Europe. The crew were offered their freedom but decided to stay with the plane, while the remaining hostages were transferred into the airport building. Then the hijackers set a deadline for 11.00 p.m. for their demands to be met, and if they weren’t, they threatened to blow up the aeroplane and passengers. However, their plan was foiled when Israeli commandos stormed the the airport at midnight on 3 July. They managed to free all the hostages, with the exception of two, one of whom was killed by the Israeli forces and another, 75-year-old Dora Bloch, who had been taken to a hospital shortly before the raid, was killed under the direct orders of Amin.

During the 35-minute shoot-out, 20 Ugandan soldiers were killed along with all the hijackers. The leader of the assault force, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, was also killed by an Ugandan sentry. The Israelis managed to destroy 11 Russian-built MiG fighters, which amounted to a one-quarter of the Ugandan air force. From this time onwards, partly due to the success of the Israeli operation, the Amin regime started to crumble.

In the last few years of his regime, Idi Amin became increasingly erratic, bordering on madness. He became more outspoken and had his tunics specially tailored so that he was able to wear many World War II medals, including the Military Cross and Victoria Cross. He gave himself a number of different titles, including ‘King of Scotland’. When his diplomatic relations broke down with the UK, Amin decorated himself with the title of CBE or ‘Conqueror of the British Empire’.

It wasn’t until 1977 when the first indepth exposé of his murderous rule really became known. In an attempt to try and divert the world’s attention from his country’s internal problems, Amin launched a major attack on Tanzania. However, Tanzanian troops, with the help of armed Ugandan exiles, quickly put a stop to Amin’s army and he was forced to flee to Libya, taking with him four of his wives, several of his mistresses and about 20 of his children. After being asked to leave Libya, Amin found final asylum in Saudi Arabia, where he was told he would be allowed to stay as long as he remained out of any political activity. The Saudis provided him with a monthly stipend of about US$1,400, domestic servants and cars enabling to end his last few years in comfort.