di Amin
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| Idi Amin Dada | |
 Idi Amin addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York, 1975 | |
| | |
|---|---|
| In office 1971 – 1979 | |
| Vice President | Mustafa Adrisi |
| Preceded by | Milton Obote |
| Succeeded by | Yusufu Lule |
| | |
| Born | mid 1920s[1] Koboko or Kampala[1] |
| Died | 16 August 2003 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia |
| Nationality | Ugandan |
| Spouse | Malyamu Amin (divorced) Kay Amin (divorced) Nora Amin (divorced) Madina Amin Sarah Amin |
| Profession | Military officer |
| Religion | Islam |
Idi Amin Dada (mid 1920s[1] – 16 August 2003), commonly known as Idi Amin, was a Ugandan military dictator and the president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles, in 1946, and advanced to the rank of Major General and Commander of the Ugandan Army. He took power in a military coup in January 1971, deposing Milton Obote. His rule was characterized by human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings and the expulsion of Asians from Uganda. The number of people killed as a result of his regime is unknown: estimates from human rights groups range from 100,000 to 500,000.
From 1977 to 1979, Amin titled himself as "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor[2] Idi Amin Dada, VC,[3] DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular."[4] In 1975–1976, despite opposition[citation needed], Amin became the Chairman of the Organization of African Unity, a pan-Africanist group designed to promote solidarity of the African states.[5] During the 1977–1979 period, Uganda was appointed to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.[6]
Dissent within Uganda, and Amin's attempt to annex the Kagera province of Tanzania in 1978, led to the Uganda-Tanzania War and the fall of his regime in 1979. Amin fled to Libya, before relocating to Saudi Arabia in 1981, where he died in 2003. Amin and his regime have been the subject of films and documentaries including General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980) and The Last King of Scotland (2006).
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[edit] Early life and military career
Amin never wrote an autobiography or authorized any official account of his life. There are discrepancies as to when and where he was born. Most biographical sources hold that he was born in either Koboko or Kampala around 1925.[7] According to Fred Guweddeko, a researcher at Makerere University, Idi Amin was the son of Andreas Nyabire (1889–1976). Nyabire, a member of the Kakwa ethnic group, converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam in 1910 and changed his name to Amin Dada. Abandoned by his father, Idi Amin grew up with his mother's family. Guweddeko states that Amin's mother was called Assa Aatte (1904–1970), an ethnic Lugbara and a traditional herbalist, who treated members of Buganda royalty, among others. Amin joined an Islamic school in Bombo in 1941. After a few years he left school and did odd jobs before being recruited to the army by a British colonial army officer.[8]
| Chronology of Amin's military promotions | |
| King's African Rifles | |
| 1946 | Joins King's African Rifles |
| 1947 | Private |
| 1952 | Corporal |
| 1954 | Effendi (Warrant Officer) |
| 1961 | First Ugandan Commissioned Officer, Lieutenant |
| Uganda Army | |
| 1962 | Captain |
| 1963 | Major |
| 1964 | Deputy Commander of the Army |
| 1965 | Colonel, Commander of the Army |
| 1968 | Major General |
| 1971 | Head of State Chairman of the Defence Council Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces Army Chief of Staff and Chief of Air Staff |
| 1975 | Field Marshal |
[edit] Colonial British army
Amin joined the King's African Rifles (KAR) of the British Colonial Army in 1946 as an assistant cook.[7] He claimed he was forced to join the Army during World War II and that he served in the Burma Campaign,[9] but records indicate he was first enlisted after the war was concluded.[10][11] He was transferred to Kenya for infantry service as a private in 1947 and served in the 21st KAR infantry battalion in Gilgil, Kenya, until 1949. That year, his unit was deployed to Somalia to fight the Somali Shifta rebels who were rustling cattle there.[12] In 1952 his brigade was deployed against the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya. He was promoted to corporal the same year, then to sergeant in 1953.[8]
In 1954 Amin was made effendi (warrant officer), the highest rank possible for a Black African in the colonial British army of that time. Amin returned to Uganda the same year, and in 1961 he was promoted to lieutenant, becoming one of the first two Ugandans to become commissioned officers. He was then assigned to quell the cattle rustling between Uganda's Karamojong and Kenya's Turkana nomads. In 1962 he was promoted to captain and then, in 1963, to major. The following year, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the Army.[8]
Amin was an active athlete during his time in the army. At 193 cm (6 ft 4 in), he was the Ugandan light heavyweight boxing champion from 1951 to 1960, and a swimmer and rugby player.[13][14]
[edit] Army commander
In 1965 Prime Minister Milton Obote and Amin were implicated in a deal to smuggle ivory and gold into Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The deal, as later alleged by General Nicholas Olenga, an associate of the former Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, was part of an arrangement to help troops opposed to the Congolese government trade ivory and gold for arms supplies secretly smuggled to them by Amin. In 1966, Parliament demanded an investigation. Obote imposed a new constitution abolishing the ceremonial presidency held by Kabaka (King) Edward Mutesa II of Buganda, and declared himself executive president. He promoted Amin to colonel and army commander. Amin led an attack on the Kabaka's palace and forced Mutesa into exile to the United Kingdom, where he remained until his death in 1969.[15][16]
Amin began recruiting members of Kakwa, Lugbara, Nubian, and other ethnic groups from the West Nile area bordering Sudan. The Nubians had been residents in Uganda since the early 20th century, having come 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). Because many ethnic groups in northern Uganda inhabit both Uganda and Sudan, allegations persist that Amin's army consisted substantially of Sudanese soldiers.[17]
[edit] Seizure of power
Eventually, a rift developed between Amin and Obote, worsened by the support Amin had built within the army by recruiting from the West Nile region, his involvement in operations to support the rebellion in southern Sudan, and an attempt on Obote's life in 1969. In October 1970, Obote himself took control of the armed forces, reducing Amin from his months-old post of commander of all the armed forces to that of commander of the army.[18]
Having learned that Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, Amin seized power in a military coup on 25 January 1971, while Obote was attending a Commonwealth summit meeting in Singapore. Troops loyal to Amin sealed off Entebbe International Airport, the main artery into Uganda, and took Kampala. Soldiers surrounded Obote's residence and blocked major roads. A broadcast on Radio Uganda accused Obote's government of corruption and preferential treatment of the Lango region. Cheering crowds were reported in the streets of Kampala after the radio broadcast.[19] Amin announced that he was a soldier, not a politician, and that the military government would remain only as a caretaker regime until new elections, which would be announced as soon as the situation was normalised. He promised to release all political prisoners.[20]
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".[21] He gave former king and president Mutesa (who had died in exile) a state burial in April 1971, freed many political prisoners, and reiterated his promise to hold free and fair elections to return the country to democratic rule in the shortest period possible.[22]
[edit] Presidency
[edit] Establishment of military rule
On 2 February 1971, one week after the coup, Amin declared himself President of Uganda, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Army Chief of Staff and Chief of Air Staff. He announced that he was suspending certain provisions of the constitution and soon instituted an Advisory Defence Council composed of military officers, with himself as the chairman. Amin placed military tribunals above the system of civil law, appointed soldiers to top government posts and parastatal agencies, and informed the newly inducted civilian cabinet ministers that they would be subject to military discipline.[18][23] Amin renamed the presidential lodge in Kampala from Government House to "The Command Post". He disbanded the General Service Unit (GSU), an intelligence agency created by the previous government, and replaced it with the State Research Bureau (SRB). SRB headquarters at the Kampala suburb of Nakasero became the scene of torture and executions over the next several years.[24] Other agencies used to root out political dissent included the military police and the Public Safety Unit (PSU).[24]
Obote took refuge in Tanzania, having been offered sanctuary there by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. He was soon joined by 20,000 Ugandan refugees fleeing Amin. In 1972, the exiles attempted to regain the country through a poorly organized coup attempt, without success.[25]
[edit] Persecution of ethnic and other groups
Amin retaliated against the attempted invasion by Ugandan exiles in 1972 by purging the army of Obote supporters, predominantly those from the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups.[26] In July 1971, Lango and Acholi soldiers were massacred in the Jinja and Mbarara Barracks,[27] and by early 1972, some 5,000 Acholi and Lango soldiers, and at least twice as many civilians, had disappeared.[28] The victims soon came to include members of other ethnic groups, religious leaders, journalists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In some cases entire villages were wiped out.[29] In this atmosphere of violence, many other people were killed for criminal motives or simply at will.[30] Bodies floated on the River Nile in quantities sufficient to clog the Owen Falls Hydro-Electric Dam in Jinja on at least one occasion.[31]
The killings, motivated by ethnic, political and financial factors, continued throughout Amin's eight-year reign.[28] The exact number of people killed is unknown. The International Commission of Jurists estimated the death toll at no fewer than 80,000 and more likely around 300,000. An estimate compiled by exile organizations with the help of Amnesty International puts the number killed at 500,000.[10] Among the most prominent people killed 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; Byron Kawadwa, a prominent playwright; and two of Amin's own cabinet ministers, Erinayo Wilson Oryema and Charles Oboth Ofumbi.[32]
In 1977, Henry Kyemba, Amin's health minister and a former official of the first Obote regime, defected and resettled in Britain. Kyemba wrote and published A State of Blood, the first insider exposé of Amin's rule.
In August 1972, Idi Amin declared what he called an "economic war", a set of policies that included the expropriation of properties owned by Asians and Europeans. Uganda's 80,000 Asians were mostly Indians born in the country, whose ancestors had come to Uganda when the country was still a British colony. Many owned businesses, including large-scale enterprises, that formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy. On 4 August 1972, Amin issued a decree ordering the expulsion of the 60,000 Asians who were not Ugandan citizens (most of them held British passports). This was later amended to include all 80,000 Asians, with the exception of professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and teachers. A plurality of the Asians with British passports, around 30,000, emigrated to Britain. Others went to Australia, Canada, India, Sweden, and the U.S.[33][34][35] Amin expropriated businesses and properties belonging to the Asians and handed them over to his supporters. The businesses were mismanaged, and industries collapsed from lack of maintenance. This proved disastrous for the already declining economy.[23]
[edit] International relations
- Further information: Foreign relations of Uganda
Following the expulsion of Indians in 1972, India severed diplomatic relations with Uganda. The same year, as part of his "economic war", Amin broke diplomatic ties with Britain and nationalized 85 British-owned businesses. He also expelled Israeli military advisers and turned to Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya and the Soviet Union for support.[26]
In 1973, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Patrick Melady recommended that the United States reduce its presence in Uganda. Melady described Amin's regime as "racist, erratic and unpredictable, brutal, inept, bellicose, irrational, ridiculous, and militaristic".[36] Accordingly, the United States closed its embassy in Kampala.
In June 1976, Idi Amin allowed an Air France aeroplane hijacked by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-EO) and two members of the German Revolutionäre Zellen to land at Entebbe Airport. There, the hijackers were joined by three more. Soon after, 156 hostages who did not hold Israeli passports were released and flown to safety, while 83 Jews and Israeli citizens, as well as 20 others who refused to abandon them, continued to be held hostage. In the subsequent Israeli rescue operation, codenamed Operation Thunderbolt (popularly known as Operation Entebbe), nearly all of the hostages were freed. Three hostages died and 10 were wounded; six hijackers, 45 Ugandan soldiers, and one Israeli soldier, Yoni Netanyahu, were killed. This incident further soured Uganda's international relations, leading Britain to close its High Commission in Uganda.[37]
Uganda under Amin embarked on a large military build-up, which raised concerns in Kenya. Early in June 1975, Kenyan officials impounded a large convoy of Soviet-made arms en route to Uganda at the port of Mombasa. Tension between Uganda and Kenya reached its climax in February 1976 when Amin announced that he would investigate the possibility that parts of southern Sudan and western and central Kenya, up to within 32 kilometres (20 mi) of Nairobi, were historically a part of colonial Uganda. The Kenyan Government responded with a stern statement that Kenya would not part with "a single inch of territory". Amin backed down after the Kenyan army deployed troops and armored personnel carriers along the Kenya-Uganda border.[38]
[edit] Erratic behaviour
As the years went on, Amin became increasingly erratic and outspoken. In 1977, after Britain had broken 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 President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor[2] Idi Amin Dada, VC,[39] DSO, MC, CBE."[10] In 1971, Amin and Zaire's president Mobutu Sese Seko changed the names of Lake Albert and Lake Edward to Lake Mobutu Sese Seko and Lake Idi Amin Dada, respectively.[40] Amin became the subject of rumours and myths, including a widespread belief that he was a cannibal.[41][42][43] Some of the unsubstantiated rumours, such as the mutilation of one of his wives, were spread and popularised by the 1980 film, Rise and Fall of Idi Amin.[44]
During Amin's reign, popular media outside of Uganda often portrayed Amin as an essentially comic figure. In a 1977 assessment typical of the time, Time magazine article described him as a "killer and clown, big-hearted buffoon and strutting martinet".[45] For focusing on Amin's excessive tastes and self-aggrandizing eccentricities, the foreign media was often criticized for downplaying or excusing his murderous behavior.[46] Other commentators even suggested that Amin had deliberately cultivated his reputation in the foreign media as an easily-parodied buffoon in order to defuse international concern over his administration of Uganda.[47]
[edit] Deposition and exile
- Further information: Uganda-Tanzania War
By 1978, the number of Amin's close associates had shrunk significantly, and he faced increasing dissent from within Uganda. After the killings of Luwum and ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi in 1977, several of Amin's ministers defected or fled to exile.[48] Later that year, after Amin's vice president, General Mustafa Adrisi, was injured in a car accident, troops loyal to him mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border.[23] Amin accused Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere of waging war against Uganda, ordered the invasion of Tanzanian territory, and formally annexed a section of the Kagera Region across the boundary.[23][25]
Nyerere mobilized the Tanzania People's Defence Force and counterattacked, joined by several groups of Ugandan exiles who had united as the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA). Amin's army retreated steadily, and despite military help from Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi, he was forced to flee on 11 April 1979 when Kampala was captured. He escaped first to Libya and ultimately settled in Saudi Arabia.[7]
Amin held that Uganda needed him and never expressed remorse for the abuses of his regime.[49] In 1989, he attempted to return to Uganda, apparently to lead an armed group organised by Colonel Juma Oris. He reached Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), before Zairian President Mobutu forced him to return to Saudi Arabia.
[edit] Amin's Death
On 20 July 2003, one of Amin's wives, Madina, reported that he was in a coma and near death at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She pleaded with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to allow him to return to die in Uganda. Museveni replied that Amin would have to "answer for his sins the moment he was brought back."[50] Amin died in Saudi Arabia on 16 August 2003. He was buried in a simple grave in Ruwais Cemetery in Jeddah.[51]
[edit] Family and associates
A polygamist, Idi Amin married at least six women, three of whom he divorced. He married his first and second wives, Malyamu and Kay, in 1966. The next year, he married Nora and then Nalongo Madina in 1972. On 26 March 1974, he announced on Radio Uganda that he had divorced Malyamu, Nora and Kay.[52][53] Malyamu was arrested in Tororo on the Kenyan border in April 1974 and accused of attempting to smuggle a bolt of fabric into Kenya. She later moved to London.[52][54] Kay died on 13 August 1974, reportedly from an attempted surgical abortion performed by her lover Dr. Mbalu Mukasa (who himself committed suicide). Her body was found dismembered. In August 1975, during the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting in Kampala, Amin married Sarah Kyolaba. Sarah's boyfriend, whom she was living with before she met Amin, vanished and was never heard from again. According to The Monitor, Amin married a wife a few months before his death in 2003.[54]
Sources differ widely on the number of children Amin fathered; most say that he had 30 to 45.[55] Until 2003, Taban Amin, Idi Amin's eldest son, was the leader of West Nile Bank Front (WNBF), a rebel group opposed to the government of Yoweri Museveni. In 2005, he was offered amnesty by Museveni, and in 2006, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Organisation.[56] Another of Amin’s sons, Haji Ali Amin, ran for election as Chairman (i.e. mayor) of Njeru Town Council in 2002 but was not elected.[57] In early 2007, the award-winning film The Last King of Scotland prompted one of his sons, Jaffar Amin, to speak out in his father's defense. Jaffar Amin said he was writing a book to counter his father's reputation.[58]
On 3 August 2007, Faisal Wangita, one of Amin's sons, was convicted for playing a role in a murder in London.[59]
Among Amin's closest associates was the British-born Bob Astles, who is considered by many to have been a malign influence, and by others as a moderating presence.[60] Isaac Malyamungu was an instrumental affiliate and one of the more feared officers in Amin's army.[48]
[edit] Portrayal in media and literature
[edit] Film dramatisations
- Victory at Entebbe (1976), a TV film about Operation Entebbe. Julius Harris plays Amin. Godfrey Cambridge had originally been cast as Amin in the production, but died of a heart attack on the set.
- Raid on Entebbe (1977), a film depicting the events of Operation Entebbe. Yaphet Kotto plays Amin.
- Mivtsa Yonatan (1977) (also known as Operation Thunderbolt), an Israeli film about Operation Entebbe. Mark Heath plays Amin.
- Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980), a film recreating Idi Amin's atrocities. Amin is played by Joseph Olita.
- The Naked Gun (1988), a comedy film which begins potraying Idi Amin (played by Prince Hughes) along with characters depicting other world leaders such as Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ruhollah Khomeini, and Muammar al-Gaddafi who are meeting in Beirut, Lebanon to conspire a plan to attack the United States until Lieutenant Frank Drebin (played by Leslie Nielson) arrives and fights with them.
- Mississippi Masala (1991), a film depicting the 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 (2006), a film adaptation of Giles Foden's 1998 fictional novel of the same name. For his portrayal of Idi Amin in this film, actor Forest Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a BAFTA, the Screen Actors' Guild award for Best Actor (Drama), and a Golden Globe.
[edit] Documentaries
- General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), directed by French filmmaker Barbet Schroeder.
- Idi Amin: Monster in Disguise (1997), a television documentary directed by Greg Baker.
[edit] Books
- State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin (1977) by Henry Kyemba
- The General Is Up by Peter Nazareth
- Ghosts of Kampala: The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980) by George Ivan Smith
- The Last King of Scotland (1998) by Giles Foden (fictional)
- Idi Amin Dada: Hitler in Africa (1977) by Thomas Patrick Melady
- General Amin (1975) by David Martin
- The Collected Bulletins of Idi Amin (1974) by Alan Coren, portraying Amin as an amiable, if murderous, buffoon in charge of a tin-pot dictatorship
- I Love Idi Amin: The Story of Triumph under Fire in the Midst of Suffering and Persecution in Uganda (1977) by Festo Kivengere
- Impassioned for Freedom: Uganda, Struggle Against Idi Amin (2006) by Eriya Kategaya
[edit] Television
- Tittybangbang (2007), Tony Way played Amin in the BBC comedy sketch show
Idi Amin
Full name Idi Amin Dada Oumee. AKA 'Big Daddy', AKA 'Butcher of Africa', AKA 'Conqueror of the British Empire', AKA 'Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea'.
Country: Uganda.
Kill tally: 100,000-500,000 (most sources say 300,000).
Background: The British Government declares Uganda its protectorate in 1894. Surrounding kingdoms are incorporated, with the borders becoming fixed in 1914. Independence is achieved peacefully on 9 October 1962 but rising tensions between the country's different ethnic groups see Prime Minister Milton Obote impose a new republican constitution establishing himself as president and abolishing all the country's kingdoms. Ethnic tensions continue to rise. Idi Amin seizes power in a coup in January 1971.
Mini biography: Born between 1923 and 1925 into the Kakwa tribe in Koboko, near Arua in the northwest corner of Uganda, close to the borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. His father is a farmer and a follower of Islam. His mother is a member of the Lugbara tribe and is said to practice sorcery.
(Amin's younger brother, Amule, claims that Amin was in fact born in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and that their father was working as a policeman there at the time.)
Amin's parents separate soon after his birth. Amin is raised by his mother, who becomes a camp follower of the King's African Rifles, a regiment of the British colonial army. She will have more children from other relationships, with Amin becoming the third of eight siblings.
Amin receives only a rudimentary education but excels at sports and reportedly converts to Islam at an early age.
1946 - He joins the King's African Rifles as an assistant cook. In 1948 he is promoted to corporal. By 1958 he is sergeant-major and platoon commander.
1951 - Amin becomes the heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, holding the title until 1960.
1952 - He serves in the British action against the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya (1952-56) and is described by officials as "a splendid type and a good (rugby) player, but virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter."
One former commander remembers Amin "as a splendid and reliable soldier and a cheerful and energetic man." Another former commander describes Amin as "an incredible person who certainly isn't mad - very shrewd, very cunning and a born leader."
1959 - He is made a warrant officer with the rank of 'effendi', a position specially created by the colonial army for noncommissioned Africans with leadership potential.
1961 - He rises to the rank of lieutenant, becoming one of only two native Ugandans to be commissioned during British rule.
1962 - Troops under Amin's command commit the 'Turkana Massacre' while conducting an operation to suppress cattle stealing by tribesmen spilling into the north of Uganda from the neighbouring Turkana region of Kenya. Investigations by the British authorities in Kenya reveal that the victims of the massacre had been tortured, beaten to death and, in some cases, buried alive. However, with Uganda's independence only months away, the authorities decide against court-martialling Amin for his "overzealous" methods.
Uganda achieves independence from Britain on 9 October. The king of the Baganda tribe, Sir Edward Mutesa, becomes the new nation's first president. The government is led by Prime Minister Milton Obote, who Amin supports.
Overlooking the charges of torture, Obote promotes Amin to major in 1963 and to colonel and deputy commander of the army and air force in 1964, the same year that Amin helps put down an army mutiny at Jinja, Uganda's second city.
Shortly after independence Amin is sent to Israel on a paratrooper training course. He will become a favourite of the Israelis when he acts as a conduit for the supply of arms and ammunition to Israeli-backed rebels fighting a war in southern Sudan.
1966 - Following a financial scandal implicating Obote and Amin in gold smuggling, and on the back of growing opposition from King Mutesa, Obote suspends the constitution, arrests half his cabinet, and installs himself as president for life. King Mutesa is driven from his palace in a military operation led by Amin and forced into exile. A new constitution abolishes all the country's kingdoms.
Amin is subsequently promoted to major-general and appointed chief of the army and air force. He begins to build a support base in the army by recruiting from his own Kakwa tribe. However, his relations with Obote start to sour.
1969 - In December an unsuccessful attempt is made to assassinate Obote. Brigadier Pierino Okoya, the deputy chief of the army and Amin's sole rival among senior army officers, tells Obote and Amin that the net is closing in on the perpetrators and that all will be revealed at a second meeting scheduled for 26 January 1970.
1970 - On 25 January Okoya and his wife are shot dead at their home. Relations between Obote and Amin deteriorate further following the murder. In November Obote removes Amin from his command positions and places him in an administrative role.
1971 - Amin discovers that Obote intends to arrest him on charges of misappropriating millions of dollars of military funds. On 25 January, while Obote is out of the country attending the Commonwealth Conference in Singapore, Amin stages a coup that is later reported to have been backed by Israel and welcomed by the British.
Amin's military government accuses Obote and his regime of corruption, economic mismanagement, suppressing democracy, and failing to maintain law and order. Obote later calls Amin "the greatest brute an African mother has ever brought to life."
The coup is initially supported by Ugandans, with Amin promising to abolish Obote's secret police, free all political prisoners, introduce economic reforms, and quickly return the country to civilian rule. However, elections will never be held during Amin's reign.
"I am not an ambitious man, personally," Amin says after taking power, "I am just a soldier with a concern for my country and its people."
Amin is declared president and chief of the armed forces. Almost immediately he initiates mass executions of officers and troops he believes to be loyal to Obote. Thirty-two army officers die when dynamite blows up the cell in which they are being held at the Makindye Prison in Kampala. Overall, as many as two-thirds of the army's 9,000 soldiers are executed during Amin's first year in power.
In foreign affairs, Amin is initially pro-West and inclined towards Britain and Israel. His first overseas trip as president is a state visit to Israel. This is followed a separate state visit to London that includes a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.
However, his position changes after he returns from a trip to Libya around the end of 1971.
1972 - Now determined to make Uganda "a black man's country", Amin expels the country's 40,000-80,000 Indians and Pakistanis in the closing months of the year, reportedly after receiving a message from God during a dream.
"I am going to ask Britain to take responsibility for all Asians in Uganda who are holding British passports, because they are sabotaging the economy of the country," Amin declares at the start of August.
The Asians, most of who are third-generation descendants of workers brought to Uganda by the British colonial administration, are given 90 days to leave the country and are only allowed to take what they can carry. "If they do not leave they will find themselves sitting on the fire," Amin warns. The businesses, homes and possessions they leave behind are distributed without compensation to Amin's military favourites.
With the true nature of Amin's regime becoming apparent, the British and Israeli governments begin to back-pedal on their support, refusing to sell him more arms.
Amin then looks to Libya for aid, promising Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi that he will turn Uganda into an Islamic state. The Soviet Union also provides aid and arms for a time.
Amin now challenges Britain and the United States, breaks relations with Israel, and throws his support behind the Palestinian liberation movement. British property in Uganda is appropriated, business relations between the two countries are restricted, and those Britons remaining in Uganda are threatened with expulsion.
To secure his regime Amin launches a campaign of persecution against rival tribes and Obote supporters, murdering between 100,000 and 500,000 (most sources say 300,000).
Among those to die are ordinary citizens, former and serving Cabinet ministers, the chief justice, Supreme Court judges, diplomats, academics, educators, prominent Roman Catholic and Anglican clergy, senior bureaucrats, medical practitioners, bankers, tribal leaders, business executives, journalists and a number of foreigners.
In some cases entire villages are wiped out. So many corpses are thrown into the Nile that workers at one location have to continuously fish them out to stop the intake ducts at a nearby dam from becoming clogged.
The size of the army is increased, and much of the country's budget is diverted from civilian to military spending. Military tribunals are placed above the civil courts, soldiers are appointed to top government posts, parliament is dissolved and civilian Cabinet ministers are informed that they will be subject to military discipline.
Ruling by decree, Amin also creates his own security apparatus to identify and eliminate opponents. At its height, the security force will consist of about 18,000 men serving in three squads - the Public Safety Unit, the State Research Bureau and the military police. Amin's Presidential Guard also doubles as a death squad, as well as protecting the dictator from the many assassination attempts made against him.
As terror reigns Uganda's economy begins to collapse, partially through mismanagement and partially as a result of the expulsion of the Indians and Pakistanis, who had formed the country's economic backbone.
1975 - Amin promotes himself to field marshal and awards himself the Victoria Cross. The following year he declares himself president for life.
During 1975 he stages a publicity stunt for the world media, forcing white residents of Kampala to carry him on a throne then kneel before him and recite an oath of loyalty.
In the summer, Denis Hills, a Uganda-based British subject, is sentenced to death by the regime for describing Amin as a "village tyrant". The sentence is dropped only after the British foreign secretary travels to Kampala to plead for Hills' life.
Hills, who is eventually freed, later warns against viewing Amin as a buffoon or murderer, explaining that Amin's "aggressive black national leadership" had won him many admirers in Africa.
"(Amin) has the successful tribal chief's compensatory qualities for his lack of formal education: cunning, a talent for survival, personal strength and courage, an ability to measure his opponents weaknesses and his subject's wishes," Hills says.
"It is not enough to dismiss Amin as a buffoon or murderer. ... He is an African reality. He has realised an African dream. The creation of a truly black state. He has called into being a new crude, but vigorous, middle class of technicians and businessmen."
Meanwhile, Amin takes up the rotating position of head of the Organisation for African Unity, but is largely seen as an embarrassment. During the same period, Uganda is appointed to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
1976 - Amin becomes personally involved in hostage negotiations with Israel when pro-Palestinian guerrillas hijack an Air France passenger jet carrying 105 Israelis and Jews on 27 June and order it fly to Entebbe in Uganda. However, he is deeply humiliated when Israeli commandos stage a successful raid and rescue the passengers on 4 July.
Only two of the hostages are killed during the 58-minute operation and only one is left behind; Dora Bloch, a British-Israeli grandmother who had been released by the hijackers for medical treatment.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin later accuses Amin of "collaborating with the terrorists while using deceit and false pretences" during the hostage negotiations. Amin is also accused of allowing reinforcements to join the original four hijackers.
In the wake of the Entebbe raid a furious Amin has Dora Bloch and more than 200 senior officers and government officials executed. He also expels foreigners from Uganda and unleashes a new round of violence, ordering the execution of anyone suspected of opposing him.
At the end of July Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Amin's regime. Amin declares that he has beaten the British and confers upon himself the title of 'Conqueror of the British Empire'.
1977 - In January Amin accuses the Anglican archbishop of Uganda of conspiring in an invasion plot. The next day the archbishop and two Cabinet ministers are murdered.
The US, meanwhile, cuts off aid to Uganda, with President Jimmy Carter saying that Amin's policies "disgusted the entire civilised world."
1978 - The price of coffee, Uganda's main export, begins to fall, further damaging the already staggering Ugandan economy. Armed rebellions break out in the southwest, coup attempts become an ever-present threat, and the Libyans begin to cut aid.
In an attempt to divert attention from the country's internal problems, Amin launches an attack on Tanzania, a neighbouring country to the south, at the end of October. Tanzanian troops, assisted by armed Ugandan exiles, quickly put Amin's army to flight and counter-invade.
1979 - Beating back the Ugandan's heavy resistance, the invading Tanzanian forces take Kampala on 11 April. Amin flees to Libya, taking his four wives, several of his 30 mistresses and about 20 of his children.
After begin asked to leave Libya he lives for a time in Iraq before finally settling in the port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where he is allowed to stay provided he keeps out of politics. The Saudis provide him with a monthly stipend of about US$1,400, domestic servants, cooks, drivers and cars. He leads a comfortable life with his four wives in a modest house.
Besides a huge death toll, Amin has left Uganda with an annual inflation rate of 200%, a national debt of US$320 million, an agricultural sector in tatters, closed factories and ruined businesses.
1980 - Milton Obote returns to power in Uganda following a general election. Obote's second administration is said to be at least as violent as Amin's, with security forces mercilessly combating an insurgency movement. According to the current government of Uganda, more than 500,000 civilians die as a result of the conflict. Obote is once again ousted in July 1985.
1989 - Amin attempts to return to Uganda to reclaim power but is identified at Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and forced to return to Saudi Arabia.
1999 - Amin gives an interview to an Ugandan newspaper, saying he likes to play the accordion, fish, swim, recite from the Koran and read. He expresses no remorse for the abuses of his regime and is reported to say, "I'm very happy now, much happier now then when I was president."
2001 - It is reported that Amin wishes to return to Uganda. He continues to be popular in his home province and begins to fund the rebuilding of family properties destroyed by the Tanzanian troops who expelled him in 1979.
The Ugandan Government says that Amin is free to return but would have to "answer for his sins" and would be dealt with according to the law. Amin's relatives are able to travel to and from Uganda, and several of his children live and work there.
2002 - Uganda officially celebrates Amin's downfall for the first time.
2003 - In July Amin is reported to be in a coma and on life support in the intensive care unit of the King Faisal specialist hospital in Jeddah, where he has been receiving treatment for hypertension and general fatigue for three months. He had been admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure on 18 July. It is also reported that he is suffering from kidney failure but has refused treatment for the condition.
The current president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, says he will arrest Amin if he returns to the country alive but if he dies abroad his body could be brought back for burial.
"If Amin comes back breathing or conscious I will arrest him because he committed crimes here," Museveni says, adding that if his body is brought back for burial "we shall not give him state honours. He will be buried like any other ordinary Ugandan."
Amin dies in hospital of complications due to multiple organ failure at 8.20 a.m. on 16 August. He is buried in Jeddah's Ruwais cemetery during a small funeral ceremony just hours after his death.
Comment: By most accounts an illiterate and gluttonous buffoon, Amin has become the subject of many bizarre rumours and myths. There are stories of cannibalism, of feeding the corpses of his victims to crocodiles, of keeping severed heads in a freezer at his home and bringing them out on occasions for "talks" - most or all of which are unsubstantiated, but not necessarily untrue. He is known to have admired the German dictator Adolf Hitler and is quoted as saying that Hitler "was right to burn six million Jews." It is also said that he planned to have a statue of Hitler constructed in Kampala.
During his rule, Amin was a subject of ridicule in the West. His many outlandish statements were generally seen as somewhat eccentric if not a complete joke. The satirical British magazine 'Punch' at one time ran a weekly column supposedly written by Amin. There was even an irreverent pop song about him that did well in the charts. And Idi Amin would be a joke if his legacy was not so cruel.
But perhaps it's not just Amin's cruelty to which we should look when seeking answers for the havoc he wrought in Uganda. While there's a lot of history to all the countries of Africa, and while the continent was far from peaceful before the arrival of Europeans, it's too often the case that wherever there was a colonial administration there is now a can of worms.
We'll never know how Africa would have developed if it hadn't been colonised, but the outcome could hardly have been worse.
Africa has suffered more than any other continent from its colonial past, which has breed Ugandas and Congos and Rawandas and South Africas and Zimbabwes and greed and corruption and death.
An obituary for Amin published in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' on 18 August 2003 eloquently summarises the predicament. "Amin's tragedy, like that of so many Africans, was to have admired a civilisation whose external trappings he strongly desired, but of whose internal workings he had no idea, while at the same time he was partly enclosed in the mental world of a primitive tribalist," the obituary concludes.
"He was a product of multiculturalism, African-style, and able to use relatively advanced methods to achieve brutal, primitive ends. Like every African dictator, he was confusion's masterpiece."
Mohammed Amin (Mo)
Coming from a rather 'information sheltered' upbringing in Kenya, I was exposed rather late to the photographers who make it into the history of photography compilations. Those that I was exposed to, seem unremarkable in comparison. Their work mostly graced the coffee table, or the touristy section of the bookshop, with titles like, Beautiful Kenya, or Vanishing Africa (some of them awesome photographers in their own right).
One of these photographers, Mo (Mohamed Amin), made it really big though.
I remember him for two things, his pictures of sunsets - some that showed the sun so high in the sky that the scene could never have been so orange, as though he'd not been bothered to wait, and had thrown on an orange filter to get the effect - and for his images of "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."
But neither of those are what made him big, big. In 1984 he hit the world stage with what might as well be one of the first links in the chain of starving people pictures.
Aidan Hartley in his absolutely ripping book 'Zanzibar Chest' (see images from the book here) writes:
"His greatest triumph was TV footage, voiced over by the BBC's Michael Buerk, of the first pictures to break the 1984 Ethiopian famine. Mo's pictures whipped up publicity, rock songs and concerts that raised funds for food that probably saved a further two million from hungry deaths. He may have seemed diffident but he was as conceited as hell and never let you forget about his fame
"Mo proudly showed me his office. Covering the walls were framed snaps of Mo with Bob Geldof, Queen Elizabeth giving Mo his MBE medal, Mo with Sidney Pointer, Mo with sundry Third world despots, honorary degrees, TV awards and a platinum disk of the song 'We are the world'."
In Africa one has to be able to face blood and guts. Facing the whimsical Idi Amin is likely to make you shake your head in disbelief, while expecting at any moment a sudden death sentence after a joke turned sour. The last scene in this quite long video shows the shifting paranoid eyes of this buffoon. Somewhere about midway, Mo is filmed together with Castro and Idi Amin together.
Mo had one major talent of many, he was always on the spot:
'He was no media cowboy, no thrill seeker.... he was brave and committed, and his genius was being there when it happened.' - Michael Buerk
He died in the hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Flight 96 crash (amateur footage from cnn), November 23, 1996.
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