Idi Amin Dada: Difference between revisions

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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 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. Amin formally declared himself President of Uganda a week later, suspending certain provisions of the Ugandan 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.

One day, enraged, Amin personally telephoned ~~Benedict~~ Kiwanuka about his position in the country's affairs. But the lawyer did not flinch.

One day, enraged, Amin personally telephoned [https://real-life-heroes.fandom.com/wiki/Benedicto_Kiwanuka Benedicto Kiwanuka] about his position in the country's affairs. But the lawyer did not flinch.

He did not want to follow Amin's tyranny and ignore the law. They even insisted that if he did not follow, they would kill him. But he was a committed man. He knew what was right. And knowing that he would not have been killed if he supported Amin, he knew that he could not do so because of his democratic principles.

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By 1978, the number of Amin's supporters and close associates had shrunk significantly, and he faced increasing dissent from the populace within Uganda as the economy and infrastructure collapsed as a result of the years of neglect and abuse. After the killings of Bishop Luwum and ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi in 1977, several of Amin's ministers defected or fled into exile. In November 1978, after Amin's vice president, General Mustafa Adrisi, was injured in a car crash, troops loyal to him mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border. Amin accused Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere of waging war against Uganda, and ordered the invasion of Tanzanian territory, formally annexing a section of Kagera.

In January 1979, Nyerere mobilised 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 Gaddafi, Amin was forced to flee into exile by helicopter on 11 April 1979, when Kampala was captured. He escaped first to Libya, where he stayed until 1980, and ultimately settled in Saudi Arabia, where the [[House of Saud|Saudi royal family]] allowed him sanctuary and paid him a generous subsidy in return for staying out of politics.

In the following years it had become an outcast in Africa since no African country wanted to give it political asylum except for Gaddafi who gave him temporary asylum for a year.

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 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 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. Amin formally declared himself President of Uganda a week later, suspending certain provisions of the Ugandan 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.
-One day, enraged, Amin personally telephoned Benedict Kiwanuka about his position in the country's affairs. But the lawyer did not flinch.
+One day, enraged, Amin personally telephoned [https://real-life-heroes.fandom.com/wiki/Benedicto_Kiwanuka Benedicto Kiwanuka] about his position in the country's affairs. But the lawyer did not flinch.
 He did not want to follow Amin's tyranny and ignore the law. They even insisted that if he did not follow, they would kill him. But he was a committed man. He knew what was right. And knowing that he would not have been killed if he supported Amin, he knew that he could not do so because of his democratic principles.
@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 By 1978, the number of Amin's supporters and close associates had shrunk significantly, and he faced increasing dissent from the populace within Uganda as the economy and infrastructure collapsed as a result of the years of neglect and abuse. After the killings of Bishop Luwum and ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi in 1977, several of Amin's ministers defected or fled into exile. In November 1978, after Amin's vice president, General Mustafa Adrisi, was injured in a car crash, troops loyal to him mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border. Amin accused Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere of waging war against Uganda, and ordered the invasion of Tanzanian territory, formally annexing a section of Kagera.
 In January 1979, Nyerere mobilised 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 Gaddafi, Amin was forced to flee into exile by helicopter on 11 April 1979, when Kampala was captured. He escaped first to Libya, where he stayed until 1980, and ultimately settled in Saudi Arabia, where the [[House of Saud|Saudi royal family]] allowed him sanctuary and paid him a generous subsidy in return for staying out of politics.
 In the following years it had become an outcast in Africa since no African country wanted to give it political asylum except for Gaddafi who gave him temporary asylum for a year.