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Idi Amin
Idi Amin addresses United Nations General Assembly October 1975
3rd President of Uganda
In office 1971 – 1979
Preceded by	Milton Obote
Succeeded by	Yusufu Lule
Born	c. 1925, Koboko, West Nile Province or May 17, 1928 Kampala
Died	16 August 2003 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Religion	Islam

Idi Amin Dada (c. 1924–16 August 2003) was an army officer and President of Uganda (1971–1979). There was much sectarian violence during his tenure, including the persecution of the Acholi, Lango, Indian and other ethnic groups, as well as Hindus and Christians in Uganda. The death toll during Amin's regime probably will never be accurately known. An estimate from the International Commission of Jurists is that it was not less than 80,000 and more likely around 300,000. Another estimate, compiled by exile organisations with the help of Amnesty International, put the number killed at 500,000.^[1]

He gave himself the title "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular".^[2]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Military career 3 Promotion in the military 4 Seizure of power 5 Amin's rule 6 Deposition and exile 7 Portrayal in the media 8 References 9 See also 10 External links

Idi Amin never wrote an autobiography nor authorised any official biography to be written. There is some disagreement as to when and where he was born. Biographical sources usually hold that he was born in Koboko, West Nile Province, in 1924 or 1925.^[3] According to the Ugandan researcher Fred Guweddeko of Makerere University, Idi Amin was born Idi Awo-Ongo Angoo in Kampala on 17 May 1928, fathered by Andreas Nyabire (1889–1976). Nyabire was an ethnic Kakwa and Catholic who converted to Islam in 1910 and changed his name to Amin Dada.^[4] Other sources say that Dada was not his father's name, but a nickname Amin acquired during his military career.^[5]

Abandoned by his father, Idi Amin grew up with his maternal family. His mother, according to Guweddeko, was called Assa Aatte (1904–1970), an ethnic Lugbara and a traditional herbalist who among others treated members of Buganda royalty. He joined an Islamic school in Bombo in 1941, where he excelled in reciting the Qur'an. After a few years he left the school, and did odd jobs before being recruited to the army by a British colonial army officer.

Amin joined the King's African Rifles (KAR) of the British colonial army in 1946 as part of the laundry and kitchen army staff whilst training. In 1947 as a private he transferred to Kenya for infantry service. Amin claimed to have served with the KAR regiment in the Burma Campaign during World War II, but this is disputed as records indicate he was first enlisted after the war was concluded.^[1][6]

He served in the 21st KAR infantry brigade Gilgil, Kenya, until 1949 when his unit was deployed in Somalia to fight the Somali Shifta rebels who were rustling cattle.^[7] In 1952 his battalion was deployed against the Mau Mau. He was promoted to corporal the same year, then to sergeant in 1953.^[4]

In 1954, Amin was made effendi (warrant officer), the highest rank possible for a Black African in the colonial British army. Disputably, his nickname "Dada" was acquired while serving in Kenya; every time he was caught with a woman in his tent, he pleaded that she was his "dada" (Swahili for sister), in order to be let off the hook by his commanders.^[5]

Amin returned to Uganda in 1954. In 1961, with Ugandan independence two years away, he became one of the first two Ugandans to become commissioned officers with the rank of Lieutenant. He was then assigned to quell the cattle rustling between Uganda’s Karamojong and Kenya’s Turkana nomads. It is alleged that in order to disarm the Karamojong and Turkana, Idi Amin's platoon threatened to castrate the nomads unless they revealed where they had hidden their spears.

During his time in the army, Amin exercised his physical strength as a sportsman, and held Uganda's light heavyweight boxing championship from 1951 to 1960.^[2]

After independence in October 1962, Milton Obote, Uganda's first prime minister, rewarded Idi Amin for his loyalty by promoting him to captain in 1963 and deputy commander of the army in 1964.

In 1965, Obote and Amin were implicated in a deal to smuggle gold, coffee, and ivory out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A parliamentary investigation demanded by President Mutesa (also the Kabaka (King) of Buganda), put Obote on the defensive.

In 1966, Obote promoted Amin to general and commander of the Ugandan army, had five ministers arrested, suspended the 1962 constitution, and declared himself the new president. The same year Mutesa was forced into exile in Britain where he remained until his death in 1969.

Amin began recruiting members of Kakwa, Lugbara and other ethnic groups from the West Nile area bordering Sudan. Nubians were also recruited into the army. The Nubians in question had been resident in Uganda since the early 20th century, having been brought from Sudan to serve the colonial army. In Uganda, Nubians were commonly perceived as Sudanese foreigners, and erroneously referred to as Anyanya (Anyanya were southern Sudanese rebels of the First Sudanese Civil War and were not involved in Uganda). Allegations still persist that Idi Amin's army consisted substantially of Sudanese soldiers — a misconception resulting from the reality that many ethnic groups in Northern Uganda inhabit both Uganda and Sudan.^[8]

After hearing that Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, Amin seized power in a military coup on 25 January 1971, when Obote was attending a Commonwealth summit meeting in Singapore.

Idi Amin was initially welcomed both within Uganda and by the international community. In an internal memo, the British Foreign Office described him as "A splendid type and a good football player".^[9] He gave former king and president Mutesa, who had died in exile, a state burial in April, 1971, freed many political prisoners, and disbanded the secret police, the General Service Unit.

When he gained power, Amin promised to hold free and fair elections to return the country to democratic rule in the shortest period possible.^[10] However, Amin established a number of agencies to root out political dissent. These agencies, which included the Military Police, the Public Safety Unit (PSU), and the State Research Bureau (SRB), targeted Amins opponents, as well as other groups that Amin distrusted. The State Research Bureau, a military intelligence unit directly under Amin's control, and whose agents numbered about 3,000, reportedly kidnapped, tortured, and murdered suspects in their headquarters in Nakasero.^[11]

Obote, who had taken refuge in Tanzania, attempted to regain the country through a military invasion in September 1972, without success. Obote supporters within the Ugandan army, mainly from the Acholi and Lango tribes, were also involved in the invasion. Amin retaliated by bombing Tanzanian towns, and purging the army of Acholi and Lango officers. The ethnic violence grew to include the whole of the army, and then Ugandan civilians. As the violence increased, Amin became more and more paranoid, fearing a coup within his own government. The Nile Mansions Hotel in Kampala became infamous as Amin's interrogation and torture centre.^{[citation needed]}

On 4 August 1972, Amin gave Uganda's 50,000 Asians (mostly Indians of Gujarati origin) 90 days to leave the country, following an alleged dream in which, he claimed, God told him to expel them. Their expulsion resulted in a significant decline in Uganda's Hindu and Muslim population.^[12] Many Asians owned big businesses in Uganda and many Indians were born in the country, their ancestors having come from India to Uganda when the country was still a British colony. Those who remained were deported from the cities to the countryside, although most Asians were granted asylum in the United Kingdom.^[13] Ugandan soldiers during this period engaged in theft and violence against the Asians with impunity. After their expulsion, the businesses were handed over to Amin's supporters.

Also in 1972, he severed diplomatic ties with Britain and 'nationalised' 85 British owned businesses. He also expelled Israeli military advisors, turning instead to Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya and the Soviet Union for support.^[2]

In 1973, the United States closed its embassy in Kampala, after US Ambassador Thomas P. Melady recommended that the United States reduce its presence in Uganda. Melady described Amin's regime as "racist, erratic, brutal, inept, bellicose, irrational, ridiculous, and militaristic...but its most salient characteristic has been Amin's rampant xenophobia."^[14]

Uganda under Amin embarked on a large military buildup, which raised concerns in Nairobi. Early in June 1975, Kenyan officials impounded a large convoy of Soviet-made arms en route to Uganda at the port of Mombasa.^{[citation needed]}

The tension reached its climax in February of 1976 when President Amin suddenly announced that he would investigate the possibility that large parts of southern Sudan and western and central Kenya, up to within 32 km of Nairobi, were historically a part of colonial Uganda. The Kenyan government response came two days later in a stern statement that said Kenya would not part with "a single inch of territory". Amin finally backed down after the Kenyan army deployed troops and armored personnel carriers in defensive positions along the Kenya-Uganda border.^{[citation needed]}

Main article: Operation Entebbe

Amin also had strong ties to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). The Israeli embassy was offered to them as headquarters; and Flight 139, the Air France Airbus hijacked from Athens on 27 June 1976, was invited by Amin to stop at Entebbe International Airport in the city of Entebbe, 32 km from Kampala. The hijackers demanded the release of 53 PLO and Red Army Faction prisoners in return for the 256 hostages and were assisted by Amin's troops. Amin visited the hostages more than once. The hijackers agreed to the release of non-Jewish and non-Israeli passengers and a transport plane, arranged by Amin, had taken off and landed in Europe. The Israeli and Jewish hostages stayed behind. Additionally, the Air France crew refused release so long as some of their passengers were still being held. At midnight on 3 July 1976, Israeli commandos attacked the airport and freed all but four of the hostages. (One was killed by the Israeli forces, two by Ugandan soldiers, while another, 75-year-old Dora Bloch, who had been taken to a hospital before the rescue, was killed under Amin's direct orders by two army officers after the hostage rescue). One Israeli commando was also killed, Jonathan Netanyahu, the brother of the future Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In the operation, Uganda's air force was badly crippled, as its fighter jets were destroyed. The circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of Dora Bloch led the United Kingdom to close its High Commission in Uganda.^[15]

Partly on the basis of his "visions" and erratic behavior, Idi Amin is often alleged to have suffered from neurosyphilis: Deborah Hayden makes the case for this hypothesis in her Pox: Genius, Madness and the Mysteries of Syphilis. Also promoting this theory is one of Amin's physicians, who claimed he administered treatments for syphilis to Amin.^[16] Conversely, it has been said that his blood was checked repeatedly for signs of syphilis whilst British doctors held significant roles at Mulago Hospital, the teaching hospital of Makerere Medical School and that no positive results were ever obtained. The prevailing wisdom at the time — 1971/1972 — was that this was a myth originating with the Israelis. Medically, if he were suffering from tertiary syphilis, he would have progressed to overt General Paralysis of the Insane long before he disappeared from scrutiny in his Arabian exile. An alternative explanation of his behaviour could be that he was a simple, poorly-educated man who got completely out of his depth in handling power. He was certainly beholden to many of his Army officers, for which reason he could not discipline them when they took the law into their own hands.

Among the most prominent people killed by Idi Amin were: Benedicto Kiwanuka, the former Prime Minister and later Chief Justice; Janani Luwum, the Anglican Archbishop; Joseph Mubiru, the former Governor of the Central Bank; Frank Kalimuzo, the Vice Chancellor of Makerere University; and Byron Kawadwa, a prominent playwright. It is rumoured that Amin also murdered an Irish missionary.^{[citation needed]}

As the years went on, Amin became increasingly erratic and outspoken. For example, he had his tunics specially lengthened so that he could wear many fake and undeserved World War II medals , including the Military Cross and Victoria Cross, or rather, facsimiles of them. He granted himself a number of grandiose titles, including "King of Scotland".

In 1977, after Britain broke diplomatic relations with his regime, Amin declared he had beaten the British and conferred on himself the decoration of CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire). Radio Uganda then read out the whole of his new title ("His Excellency Al-Hadji Field Marshal Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Life President of the Republic of Uganda"^[1]). Amin created a series of Ugandan honors in 1972, including the Order of Uganda, two of the original recipients being British doctors, the Professor of Surgery, Sir Ian McAdam, and Consultant Physician, Dr. David Barkham. Both were expelled at the time of the Asian expulsion, allegedly for spreading what Amin termed "political gonorrhoea." He awarded himself the highest Ugandan military award, the VC, the initials designating the Victorious Cross, a deliberate play on the British Victoria Cross.

Amin was fond of racing cars (of which he owned several), boxing, and Disney cartoons. Many foreign journalists considered him a somewhat comical and eccentric figure; he was widely caricatured in the west as a murderous buffoon.

In 1977, however, the first in-depth and from-the-inside exposé of how murderous Amin's rule actually was became known. Henry Kyemba, Amin's Health Minister and a former official of the first Obote regime, had used travel for a World Health Organisation conference as a means of defecting after coming to fear for his own safety in Uganda. Resettled in Britain, Kyemba wrote and published A State of Blood, an account of Amin and his rule that destroyed any lingering comic or eccentric image still harboured about Amin.

See also: Uganda-Tanzania War

In October 1978, Amin ordered the invasion of Tanzania while at the same time attempting to cover up an army mutiny. With the help of Libyan troops, Amin tried to annex the northern Tanzanian province of Kagera. Tanzania, under President Julius Nyerere, declared war on Uganda, then began a counterattack, enlisting the country's population of Ugandan exiles.

On 11 April 1979, Amin was forced to flee the capital, Kampala, when the Tanzanian army, aided by Ugandian exiles who had united as the Uganda National Liberation Army, took the city. Amin fled to exile, first to Libya, departing Uganda in a Bell UH-1 registered 5X-UWG, where sources are divided on whether he remained until December 1979 or early 1980, before finding final asylum in Saudi Arabia. He opened a bank account in Jeddah and resided there, subsisting on a government stipend. The new Ugandan government chose to keep him exiled, saying that Amin would face war crimes charges if he ever returned. The Saudi motive was to silence him because of the harm they believed he was doing to Islam.^[1]

In 1989, Amin, who had always held that Uganda needed him, and who never expressed remorse for the abuses of his regime,^[17] attempted to return to Uganda, apparently to lead an armed group organised by Col. Juma Oris. He went as far as Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), where Zairian President Mobutu forced him to return to Saudi Arabia.

On 20 July 2003, one of his wives, Madina, reported that he was near death in a coma at the King Faisal specialist hospital in Jeddah. She pleaded with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni that he be allowed to return to die in his native land. The only response she received from Museveni was a message saying that if Amin returned to Uganda, he would have to "answer for his sins."^{[citation needed]}

Idi Amin died in Saudi Arabia on 16 August 2003, and was buried in Ruwais cemetery in Jeddah. On 17 August 2003, David Owen told an interviewer for BBC Radio 4 that while he was the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary (1977–1979), he had suggested that Amin be assassinated (this proposal was promptly rejected). Owen said: "Amin's regime was the worst of all. It's a shame that we allowed him to keep power for so long."

Jaffar Amin, the tenth of Amin's 40 children, is writing a book to counter his father's reputation as a brutal and cruel eccentric, as depicted in Giles Foden's successful 1998 book The Last King of Scotland, and the subsequent award-winning film. [1] (see "Portrayal in the media")

Main article: Idi Amin in popular culture

• Idi Amin Dada (1974) — A documentary directed by French filmmaker Barbet Schroeder.
• Raid on Entebbe (1977) — Film depicting the events of Operation Entebbe. Yaphet Kotto plays Amin.
• Victory at Entebbe (1976) — TV movie depicting the Raid on Entebbe. Julius Harris plays Amin.
• Mivtsa Yonatan (1977) (also known as Operation Thunderbolt) — An Israeli film of the event. Mark Heath plays Amin.
• Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980) — An exploitation film recreating Idi Amin's atrocities. Amin is played by actor Joseph Olita.
• The Naked Gun (1988) — Comedy movie about the bungling 'Police Squad' cops. Amin is shown at the movie's beginning in a conference with Yasser Arafat, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Col. Gaddafi.
• Mississippi Masala (1991) — Film depicting resettlement of an Indian family after the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin. Joseph Olita again plays Amin.
• The Last King of Scotland (film) (2006) — A film adaptation of Giles Foden's 1998 novel of the same name. For his portrayal of Idi Amin in this film, actor Forest Whitaker won a Golden Globe award, a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor (Drama), as well as the Academy Award for Best Actor.

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• Political parties of Uganda
• Politics of Uganda
• President for Life
• President of Uganda
• Uganda
• Uganda under Amin, part of the History of Uganda series
• Tanzania People's Defence Force
• The Last King of Scotland
• Claimants to the throne of Scotland
• Idi Amin in popular culture

• Watch Idi Amin - The Jovial Monster
• Idi Amin Cabinet Meeting Video
• BBC Article and Video — 25 January 1971: Idi Amin ousts Uganda president (BBC)
• Separate fact from fiction in Amin stories. Originally published in The Monitor
• Another biography of Amin
• Uganda — A film about Idi Amin
• The Last King of Scotland — A film loosely based on the rule of Amin.
• Letter to Idi Amin — A British subject writes to Idi Amin in an attempt to raise awareness about the compulsory purchase of his property
• "Idi Amin's son hates father's portrayal", Associated Press
• "African tyrant: The truth about Amin", Richard Dowden, The Independent, 2007-01-16.

Preceded by Milton Obote

President of Uganda 1971–1979

Succeeded by Yusufu Lule

Presidents of Uganda
Edward Mutesa II • Milton Obote • Idi Amin • Yusufu Lule • Godfrey Binaisa • Paulo Muwanga • Presidential Commission • Milton Obote • Bazilio Olara-Okello • Tito Okello • Yoweri Museveni