The MPs first walked out when President Mugabe officially opened the third session of the fifth parliament in July. They said they would not listen to his speech because their party’s position was that President Mugabe was not the legitimately elected leader of Zimbabwe. The MDC is challenging Mugabe’s victory in the High Court, citing massive rigging and intimidation. The MPs again walked out on Tuesday when debate on President Mugabe’s speech started. Later, Chinamasa skirted a question by Pumula-Luveve MP, Esaph Mdlongwa, on why Mugabe had increased the size of the Cabinet when the government had no money. Three ministries were also formed. "The number of deputy ministers has increased from nine to 12 and this is at a time when the workers of this country are heavily taxed. These deputy ministers do not act in the absence of Cabinet ministers and they do not attend Cabinet meetings. We wonder why they are being increased," Mdlongwa said. Chinamasa said he would not respond because the issue had nothing to do with government policy.

Grace Gateere

English 1102

Research Paper On A Dictator

IDI AMIN DADA

O4/02/01

Africa’s Most Feared Dictator

What would your reaction be if you knew that Adolf Hitler were alive somewhere today. Certainly you remember how much pain he caused the world? Would you attempt to have him murdered? Would you attempt to have him tortured maybe have his skin peeled off from his body in a slow and painful process? Perhaps drop him inside a pot of boiling oil? What if you knew that there is a man of the likes of Hitler alive today living in luxury in exile of course in Saudi Arabia? Would you still do all that? His name is Idi Amin Dada. He was the president of Uganda as well as Field Marshall, V.C., and Conqueror of the British army. He was president of Uganda between 1971 and 1977. The following is about his regime, how he started, where he started from and especially what he did.

Unfortunately for Idi Amin he was born of a witch. This must surely explain his weird life. He along with his friends strategically placed in the Ugandan army killed over 500,000 people and with assistance from them destroyed the economy of Uganda. At birth Amin was a very heavy baby actually twelve pounds. As a youth he was tall and towering for his age a big bully. Joseph Kamau and Andrew Cameron (1979) say that "in the sun down hours of play he would over come any opposition by simply grasping his opponent’s genitals and crushing them in his great bear paw of a hand" (p. 5). According to Henry Kyemba (1977) he started off as cook and was promoted to sergeant in the King’s African Rifles when he earned the title of Uganda’s heavy weight champion.

(p. 21)

Henry Kyemba describes him as being a renowned soldier for his willingness and smartness. He continues to explain that Amen’s height; his presence and his desire to win badges of merit marked him for promotion. (p. 48) His superiors were so enthusiastic about him that they ignored his ability to speak much English and continued to rise in rank. He was also ruthless with his opponents as previously described. It should not come as a surprise that early in his life in the army, he cut off the genitals of a group of cattle rustlers known as the Karamajong as George Ivan Smith (1980). He continued to explain that Idi Amin did this as an attempt to find out where they had hidden their weapons (p. 51). Henry Kyemba (1977) emphasizes that he actually massacred a number of people in search of arms, when Obote the president of Uganda at the time heard of this, he decided not to persecute him after all he was a black officer (p. 22). It is safe to say that Amin started to take the lives of other people very early.

According to Henry Kyemba, the end of the civil war in Belgian Congo led to a number of significant events that would change the lives of Ugandans for a long period forever. Obote was sympathetic to the rebels who were against the rule of Mobote Seseko and wishing to aid the rebels at the most gave all the responsibility to Amin who was now the Deputy Commander of the Ugandan army. In Amin’s support of the rebels, he recruited many Nubians and south Sudanese who were in revolt against their own government (p. 28). Unfortunately Amin and the southern Sudanese had other mutual interests. As Amin supported them in their civil war against their own government, in turn provided Amin with ready made corps which was steadily absorbed into many Ugandan units (p. 28). That thought alone is scary because should Amin take over from Obote by any chance the country would be under the military control of people of another nation.

It is important to realize that in the meantime Obote was becoming more and more unpopular with the people of Uganda and Amin more and more popular with his recruits. Obote did not like this and it made him feel insecure. It became even worse because there was an attempted assassination on his life and Amin was the chief suspect. Obote never thought of Amin as a threat but as an illiterate who showed no signs of political ambition unfortunately he was dead wrong. Obote was never able to find proof of Amin's attempted assassination. Right after the failed attempt, Amin had a quarrel with a Brigadier whose body together with his wife’s was found shot dead at close range inside their house. Immediately Amin was suspected yet again.

Obote organized for Amin to be arrested while attending the Commonwealth Conference in Singapore in January 1971. Unfortunately Amin got wind of this before it could actually happen and took advantage of Obote’s absence and organized a coup. Henry Kyemba (1977, p. 33).

The civilians welcomed Amin; at this point, they thought that Amin was going to be a better leader than Obote. Man has always been optimistic about new leadership and in Uganda’s case it was not an exception. Celebrations took place all over the country for several weeks. Amin gained peoples favor he even released Obote’s detainees (p. 40).

Remember earlier that Amin could not speak English? Not only could he not speak it, but he also could not read it. In short Idi Amin Dada was illiterate, and this is clearly seen through out his regime. According to George Ivan Smith (1980), "within a week of the coup he had appointed his own cabinet, dissolved parliament and ordered that no political activity should take place within the next two years" (p. 83). It is so hilarious to note that Amin never sat with his cabinet. Not once. He never sat at his desk, he never listened to his cabinet’s advice and all his orders were given verbally after all he could not write. George Ivan Smith (1980) further goes on to say "he made himself Commander in chief, Army chief of staff, Air chief of staff…He was such a military man that all he did was to take command of the situation. He called his house the ‘Command Post’ " (p. 83). How foolish he was!

After the coup the murders started immediately. Idi Amin being from the Kakwa tribe had the Langi and Acholi tribes as primary enemies. It becomes easier to understand why Amin overthrew Obote; he was after all a Langi. At the time Uganda’s army was largely comprised of a large group of Langi. Amin had a lot of them killed meanwhile telling his cabinet that he was ‘mopping up’ the mess caused by the Obote regime Henry Kyemba (1977, p. 44). Nobody had an idea what was actually going on. He had officers from the tribes of Langi and Acholi herded into a room and blown up with explosives. Many were bayoneted and dumped into the River Nile (p. 45). That is simply the way he dealt with people he did not like. Some he had tortured and killed. Other prisoners were made to fight each other with z promise that if they killed the opponent they would be released only to have another prisoner told the same thing. This was a way of killing while ensuring that it was entertaining. Towards the end of his book George Ivan Smith (1980) lets the reader know that during the purges of 1977, two hundred men were executed a day (p. 187). Amin realizing that it was becoming increasingly to bury thousands of bodies organized for the bodies to be dumped in the River Nile, whose crocodiles were supposed to finish off the corpses removing all traces of dead humans. Unfortunately this did not really work out because the bodies ended up being washed on shores. Some were seen floating half decayed and bloated on the surface of the rivers Henry Kyemba 1977, p. 45). Only somebody as sick and crazy and demented as Amin would do a thing like that.

In fact, Henry Kyemba (1977) says "Amin’s extraordinary sadism and cruelty have often been said to be a direct result of syphilis, which in its final stages affects the brain, driving the victim insane. Amin's records show that he has indeed suffered from syphilis" (p.111). Amin says, "I have also eaten human meat" (p.109). Remember Amin was the son of a witch therefore anything is possible.

As Amin went on killing officers in various positions in the Ugandan army and government professionals continued to flee from Uganda. They sought exile in Britain and in nearby African countries. Many vacuums were filled by Amin’s men who were obviously as illiterate, inexperienced and inadequate as he was. All these promotions were never confirmed in writing, Suddenly tank drivers became leaders of battalions, intelligence officers, army officials etc. In an attempt to have these men trained, he had a British officer train them whose response after a couple of trials was that for men to become intelligence officers they should have some basic intelligence! Henry Kyemba (1977, p. 50).

President Amin after talks with Gadaffi decides to change Uganda to a Muslim state. Libya was going to provide the funds necessary to do this. Poor Amin overwhelmed by the thought of receiving that much money from Libya, arms and training facilities played along. Gadaffi further urged Amin to take control of his economy as he had done from the Italians (George Ivan Smith 1980, p. 94). Hence according to the Economist (1995) Amin’s famous dream that God had instructed him to get the 70,000 Asians out of Uganda (p. 42).

An earlier edition of the Economist (1991) stated that East Africa applauded the expulsion of the Asians (p. 35). Unknown to them at the time this ‘famous dream’ would be the cause of the rapid economic decline of Uganda. The reason being that Asians controlled all of Uganda’s trade. They were the lawyers, the doctors, the businessmen, owners of industries, companies, factories etc. They virtually held Uganda’s economy in their hands. The Asians formed the middle class society of Uganda. Amin did not care about that he gave them ninety days to get out of the country.

Amin’s army officials pretended to help the Asians to pack while looting their houses. Pile after pile of boxes were laid out at the airports where the Asians believed would be put on a flight out and sent to them. This was only a dream because every single possession was taken to the homes of Amin’s friends in the army. According to Henry Kyemba (1980) Amin had great pleasure assigning the Asians houses to his officials. He did the same to their businesses. They simply could not run the businesses, hence the supply system collapsed and there after immerged a black market. Only the rich could afford those products, the rich being Amin’s friends. Ugandans had to do without the most basic of commodities such as sugar, salt, milk etc (p. 97).

After the Asians were kicked out, Amin’s men started to take on the patterns of their Leader. They became ruthless. They took whatever they wanted by force. They robbed cars at gunpoint, the Ugandan police could not be trusted, people preferred to walk to wherever they were going to, people in buses were looted and raped, it was a bad time to live in Uganda. The people sought comfort in religion. They survived on subsistence farming, after all Uganda is a very fertile country.

Amin had no respect for anybody. He had an Anglican Arch Bishop murdered. His crime was a plea to Amin to reform and stop all the bloodshed and terror reigning in the country. He died in a car accident but according to Henry Kyemba (1977) a minister during Amin’s reign, Bishop Luwum’s body was found riddled with bullets. He had to be secretly buried to prevent suspicion (p. 192). Bishop Luwum had made the mistake that cost his life he had confronted Amin about his government.

Amin squandered the money he received as aid from Libya. Instead of building mosques or at least buying more buses for the people to use or trying to rebuild the economy, Amin bought American planes, Russian ammunition, he lined his pockets with money and those of his friends. His pockets were known to literally bulge with money in all forms of currency. He also ensured that his jets and helicopters were fuelled and ready for take off incased he had to run away. He also deposited money in various countries around the world and maintains a house in Libya.

Idi Amin had five wives. He divorced three of them over national radio and later on organized to have one murdered. His second wife was found mutilated without arms and legs. He has been suspected to be the cause. He had the lover of his fifth wife murdered and married her twice in private for himself and publicly for Ugandans to witness. He had numerous affairs, has many girlfriends and over twenty children. Henry Kyema (1980) admits that there is no department in Uganda that has been left untouched by Idi Amin (p. 145-165).

Fortunately for Uganda in April 1978 Amin’s troops attacked Tanzania. The Ugandans who only know how to spill blood killed more than two thousand Ugandans destroyed homes and captured women and children. Amin employed Libyan forces that were not used to fighting in the jungle. He led them to believe that they were aiding a Muslim state fight against a Christian minority. How deceptive Amin really is. The Tanzanian soldiers invaded Uganda and caught the Libyan army by surprise. They rescued the captives held in dungeons and this marked liberation for the Ugandans subjected to oppression by one of their own.

Idi Amin is presently in Saudi Arabia. According to Giles Fodden (1998), "Mr. Amin's presence is thought to be an embarrassment to King Fahd, who is bound to honor his predecessor's offer of hospitality". This is after Amin attempted to send a consignment to Uganda thought to be arms. If anybody feels the need to take him out that would be a great satisfaction for those who suffered in his hands and the thousands upon thousands who lost their lives.