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. However, his position
changes after he returns from a separate state visit to
London that includes a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.
1972
-
Reportedly after receiving a
message from God during a dream; Amin is 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. He
say's "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."
The
Asians are mostly 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 personal favorites
and friends.
With the
true nature of Amin's regime becoming apparent, the
British and Israeli governments stop their support
and refuse to sell him more arms. Amin then looks
to Libya for aid and promises Libyan leader Colonel
Muammar Gaddafi that he will turn Uganda into an Islamic
state.
Amin now
challenges Britain and the United States and breaks
relations with Israel. He then gives his support to the
Palestinian liberation movement. British property in
Uganda is confiscated and those Britons remaining in
Uganda are threatened with expulsion.
Amin then 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 prominent Roman Catholic and
Anglican clergy, Supreme Court judges, diplomats,
academics, educators, Cabinet ministers, the chief
justice, senior bureaucrats, medical practitioners,
bankers, tribal leaders, business executives,
journalists and a number of foreigners and ordinary
citizens. 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.
It was
rumored that he decapitated and ate his victims and kept
some of his enemies' heads as trophies in his
refrigerator and threw their bodies into his swimming
pool filed with crocodiles.
After beating back the Ugandan's heavy
resistance in 1979, the invading Tanzanian
forces take Kampala, Uganda's capital on 11
April. Amin flees to Libya taking his four wives
and several of his 30 mistresses and about 25 of
his children.
He
is asked to leave Libya and 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 a safe harbor for more than
20 years and with a monthly stipend of about
US$1,400, domestic servants, cooks, drivers, and
cars. He leads a comfortable life with his four
wives, 30 mistresses and 25 children in a
new house provided by the Saudi Arabian
monarchy.
Besides a massive half a million death toll,
Amin has left Uganda with a national debt of US
$320 million, an annual inflation rate of 200%,
the agricultural sector in ruins, closed
factories, ruined businesses and deportation of
3 generations of Asians.
