IDI AMIN DADA WAS A MONSTROUS LEADER,HE WAS AN OBVIOUS BULLY.HE BECAME KNOWN AS THE "BUTCHER OF UGANDA" FOR HIS BRUTAL,DESPOTIC RULE CHILE PRESIDENT OF UGANDA IN THE 1970s.HE IS POSSIBLY THE MOST NOTORIOUS OF ALL AFRICA'S POST-INDEPENDENCE DICTATORS.500,000 PEOPLE WERE KILLED DURING HIS EIGHT YEARS RULE.

Amin imposed military rule, essentially throwing out the Ugandan constitution. Amin’s military tribunals held authority over Uganda’s judicial courts, leaving Amin with unchecked power. He turned the presidential residence into his command center and base of operations.Amin eliminated anyone who posed a threat to him; real or imagined, often using torture to get information out of his perceived enemies. His first move as President of Uganda was to free many political prisoners, thus forming alliances with them. He then dispatched kill squads to hunt down and execute any known supporters of Milton Obote. The kill squads soon targeted people from various ethnic groups, suspected homosexuals, journalists and students.

Idi Amin Dada was the third President of Uganda. On this day (2nd Feb 1971) Idi Amin Dada was a military leader turned president of Uganda, who was in power from 1971 to 1979. Amin was a very charismatic but ruthless leader. His style of ruling was brutal, and ran the country economically poorly. Amin ignored human rights, repressed the Ugandan people, racially persecuted the people and executed the people without hesitation.His father leftt the family while Dada was still a young boy, he was then raised by his mother, a herbalist and diviner.Idi Amin received little formal education.He was a member of the Kakwa ethnic group, a small Islamic tribe that was settled in the region. In 1946, Dada joined the King’s African Rifles, KAR (Britain’s colonial African troops), and served in Burma, Somalia, Kenya (during the British suppression of the Mau Mau) and Uganda. He rose through the ranks, reaching sergeant-major before finally being made an effendi, the highest rank possible for a Black African serving in the British army.He seized power in a military coup in 1971 and ruled over Uganda for 8 years. Estimates for the number of his opponents who were either killed, tortured, or imprisoned vary from 100,000 to half a million. In 1979, his reign of terror came to an end as Ugandan exiles and Tanzanians took control of the capital of Kampala, forcing Amin to flee. Never brought to justice for his heinous crimes, Amin lived out the remainder of his life in Saudi Arabia.Died in 2003 from kidney failure.Amin was the president of Uganda and abused the powers that came with it. Being the president, he had the ultimate power; political, lawful, anything you can think of. He appointed himself to Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Army Chief of Staff, and Chief of Air Staff. During his reign, he directed most of the countries money towards the military; improving the number of soldiers and equipment.Amin was close with the president before him, but over time, their relationship deteriorated and Amin decided to seize power with a military coup over the then president while he was at a commonwealth meeting.At the beginning of his time as president, Amin had promised to free political prisoners and he did so shortly after. One week after his siege, Amin declared himself president of Uganda, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Army Chief of Staff and Chief of Air Staff. He then announced that he was suspending certain aspects of the Ugandan constitution and soon brought in an advisory council with military officers and himself as chairman being a part of it. After that, he replaced the civil law with military tribunals and gave soldiers top government positions. Following the change of law and military officials in the top jobs, Amin started his brutality by accusing certain Ugandan people of criminal acts and executing them. Sometimes, not even bothering to accuse them. Some of the ethnic groups involved were the intellectually gifted, foreigners, politicians, reporters, homosexuals, religious leaders, lawyers, judges and other nationalities of people. During his reign, its believed that Amin killed between 100,000 to 500,000 of the Ugandan people and other foreigners within the country.In some ways, Amin was a very corrupt man, depending how you define corrupt. He was more often viewed as a very erratic, unpredictable and outspoken dictator. He gave himself many titles and appointed himself the leader of many branches within Uganda. He was easily influenced by Gaddafi during their early years as allies, which is proven when Gaddafi told Amin to expel all Ugandan Asians from Uganda in 1972. Amin was most definitely a greedy man, giving himself many titles and selfishly directing most of Ugandas money towards military aid, leaving his people to suffer economic horrors. He was an erratic man with a very short temper, a reason why so many people died in his time as the president.Overall, Amin started his reign with good intentions; to help his people and to help his country to become a better land. But as time went on, the power went to his head and he abused the Ugandan people, the foreigners who lived within the country and the rights he bestowed upon himself. He was a monstrous leader.He was an obvious bully but capable of menacing charm. He was by no means stupid though he devoted his energy to preserving his own tyranny as well as liquidating his enemies and those who possessed something he wanted, like an attractive wife.

Idi Amin and Sarah Kyolaba married after he spotted her performing at the age of 19. They are pictured on their wedding day in 1975.She married the dictator after he spotted her performing at the age of 19. The pair were later married in a lavish £2million ceremony in the country's capital Kampala. She was said to be his 'favourite wife' and went by the title Lady Sarah Kyolaba Idi Amin.

Idi Amin, who reportedly fathered 43 children, Taban Amin, Jaffar Amin, Faisal Wangita, Ali Amin, Mwanga Amin, Moses Amin, Hussein Amin, Khadija Abria Amin, Haji Ali Amin, Maimuna Amin, Wasswa Amin, Iman Amin, Kato Amin.He was forced from Uganda in 1979, fled to Libya, then Iraq and finally Saudi Arabia, where he was allowed to settle provided he stayed out of politics.

Idi Amin Dada, a former heavyweight boxing champion, was the military dictator and self-appointed president of Uganda during the 1970s. When he took control of the small African country back in 1971 the people hailed him as a hero. However, they could not have know what kind of man their glorious General would prove himself to be. Maybe the pressures of leadership got to him because pretty soon he began to act very strangely indeed.Of all Amin’s larger than life characteristics, his ego is perhaps the most famous. He awarded himself many titles and honours, eventually styling himself as ‘His Excellency, President for Life Field Marshall Al Hadj Doctor Idi Amin Dada, 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’. This made him one of the most powerful men in the world, in his own mind at least. But there was one title he did not award himself – that of king. This is not to say that he did not wish to be a king, however. He is rumored to have sent a love letters to Queen Elizibeth II of England, proposing marriage and even that he be made King of Scotland. This is a strange thing for any man to do, especially one known to have despised the British. Of course, Queen Elizabeth did not return Amin’s affections. Perhaps she was turned off by the knowledge that he was a polygamist, amongst other things. He is known to have married at least six women throughout his life, one of whom was found dead, her body horrifically mutilated, after falling pregnant to another man. Amin is also thought to have fathered as many as 43 children.Extremely charismatic and skilled, Amin quickly rose through the ranks. His stature was rather notable. He stood six feet, four inches tall and was a Ugandan boxing champion from 1951 to 1960, as well as a swimmer. He soon became notorious among fellow soldiers for his overzealous and cruel military interrogations. Eventually he made the highest rank possible for a Black African serving in the British Army. From 1952 until 1956, he served in the Allied forces’ Burma campaign during World War II, and in the British action against the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya (1952–56).Before Uganda’s independence in 1962, Amin became closely associated with the new nation’s prime minister and president, Milton. The two men worked to smuggle gold, coffee and ivory out of Congo, but conflicts soon arose between them, and on January 25, 1971, while Obote was attending a meeting in Singapore, Amin staged a successful military coup. Amin became president and chief of the armed forces in 1971, field marshal in 1975 and life president in 1976. Idi Amin was initially welcomed both within Uganda and by the international community. King Freddie had died in exile in 1969 and one of Amin’s earliest acts was to have the body returned to Uganda for state burial. Political prisoners (many of whom were Amin followers) were freed and the Ugandan Secret Police was disbanded. However, at the same time Amin had ‘killer squads’ hunting down Obote’s supporters.Idi Amin awarded himself many titles and honors, eventually styling himself as ‘His Excellency, President for Life Field Marshall Al Hadj Doctor Idi Amin Dada, 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’. This made him one of the most powerful men in the world, in his own mind at least.Amin persecuted many members of many ethnic groups including religious leaders, journalists, artists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In this atmosphere of violence, many other people were killed for criminal motives or simply at will. Bodies were often dumped into the Nile River.Amin became known as the “Butcher of Uganda” for his brutality. It is believed that some 300,000 people were killed during his presidency. In July 1976 he was personally involved in the hijacking of a French airliner to Entebbe. In October 1978 Amin ordered an attack on Tanzania. Aided by Ugandan nationalists, Tanzanian troops eventually overpowered the Ugandan army. As the Tanzanian-led forces neared Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on April 13, 1979.

Idi Amin Executions: A crowd of twenty-thousand Ugandans, including women and children, watched from a stadium in a pouring rain as Ugandan soldiers prepared for execution by firing squad two alleged guerrillas from Bugsihu, Tom Masaba, a former captain in the Ugandan Army and Sebastino Namirundu (pictured), Mbale, February 1973. Masaba and Namirundu were interrogated, stripped naked, fitted with short white aprons and tied to their execution posts. Masaba, who was accused of being a terrorist, was reported to have said, "Let those, like me, who are killing innocent people in the country, come out and report to the authorities.

When the enemy forces during the 1979 war had reached Kampala City, Idi Amin fled Kampala to Arua through Jinja, Mbale, Lira and Gulu. He then flew to Libya, a day after the fall on Kampala, April 11, 1979. Among those he flew with from Arua airstrip in West Nile was his confidant and former minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Abdul Hamid Jumba-Masagazi.But he he 77-year-old shared the events of the day they fled into exile. “I was also trying to flee to Kenya but I was stopped at Malaba [Uganda-Kenya border] by the State Research Operatives. They told me they had an order from president Amin to bring me back and that I was to be killed if I refused. So they brought me to Jinja and the following day, took me to Arua and then together with Amin, we went to Libya,” Jumba-Masagazi said.But while he said he could not remember others passengers on the plane to Libya apart from Amin and some of his family members, he recalls that the number of passengers was about 30 or so; which corresponds well with the figure given by other witnesses this reporter spoke to in West Nile who were present as Amin fled. Asked what the mood was like during the flight, Jumba-Masagazi responded that there was hardly any conversation during the Arua-Tripoli non-stop journey in a C-130 military jet offered by the former Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to evacuate Amin and his immediate family. “When we reached Libya, we were given a house to stay. We breathed a sigh of relief. But we were heavily guarded. There was no going out. We were like prisoners,” he narrated. But later, Amin, perhaps out of anger or frustration told Jumba-Masagazi to return to Uganda. “Amin sarcastically told me, ‘go back to Uganda, the Baganda will give you a job. They are back in power’.” It was at this time that Jumba-Masagazi decided to go to Saudi-Arabia where he had contacts. “I got a job with the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia. Its president Mohammed Ali was my friend.” But because of the poor working relations with other senior employees partly because of his colour, after two years, Jumba-Masagazi went to West Germany where he stayed until 1985 when he returned to Uganda. In 1986, the NRM established a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the violation of human rights in Uganda from October 9, 1962, to January 25, 1986.During the hearing, Jumba-Masagazi was accused by the commissioners of concocting a letter allegedly written by former president Milton Obote while in exile in Tanzania to Archbishop of Uganda Janani Luwum asking him to join and propel a war against Amin’s regime. It was this letter that in February 1977, led to the death of Luwum and two other ministers Erinayo Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi. For that, Jumba-Masagazi was imprisoned but later released. When this reporter asked him about the said letter, he denied knowledge of it. But when this reporter insisted that he admitted to the inquiry having written the fake letter but on Amin’s orders, Jumba-Masagazi said: “I don’t remember. But I could have said that.”In 1979, dissent within Uganda and Amin's attempt to annex a province in Tanzania, which led to war with the neighboring country, brought his eight-year regime to an end, forcing him to flee into exile to Libya and then Saudi Arabia, where he lived with four of his wives and 43 of his children until his death in 2003."My father always said the best protection can only come from within the immediate family, and that is why he kept close only the offspring he could trust. When we got to Libya, I was 12–13 and stayed close to my father until the age of 18. I was his cook, messenger, banker, driver, and bodyguard. I had direct access to his love and affection, and I was in a unique situation in which I could ask him direct, and at times prodding,questions."Amin's two eldest sons left his side ("one joined Gaddafi's Islamic Legion where he served as a fighter pilot, and the other was sent as a diplomat to Morocco and the UAE"), making Jaffar one of the closest people to his father.Jaffar also spoke to his father about the Entebbe Operation, in which Israeli commandos stormed the old terminal in Entebbe to release over 100 Israeli and Jewish hostages. The daring operation entailed traveling to Uganda in Hercules planes while flying under the radar so as to not be detected; dressing up as Ugandan soldiers and riding a Mercedes made to look like Amin's car to deceive the enemy; taking over the terminal and killing the terrorists; destroying the Ugandan Air Force fleet; and finally, rescuing and returning the hostages to Israel.On their way to the terminal, the raid force encountered two Ugandan soldiers. Instead of ignoring them and driving on as initially planned, Sayeret Matkal Commander Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu ordered to shoot them. The gunfire drew the attention of the Ugandan soldiers stationed at the airport, leading the Israeli commandos—in the Mercedes limousine and two Range Rovers to speed towards the terminal. On their way into the terminal building, Netanyahu was shot by a Ugandan soldier, likely firing from atop the control tower, and was fatally wounded. He succumbed to his wounds even before the hostages were rescued."He had gone to Mauritius to handle the chairmanship of OAU (Organization of African Unity). Then he got a phone call, he got information from his ambassador in Lesotho, Maj. General Isaac Lumago, a Christian from the same tribe, warning him of an impending attack because the deadline (that the hijackers had set for their demands to be met) was, I think, the very next day. So he rushed out of the OAU meeting after presenting and took off."“My father explained to me that (the Israelis) knew people in Uganda, and that there was a long suspicion that people in Uganda have been compromised.” This meant, Jaffar says, that the Israeli Hercules pilots knew exactly how to fly into Uganda in a way that allowed them to stay below the radar.

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.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 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 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 when the situation was normalised. He promised to release all political prisoners.

Idi Amin received little formal education: sources are unclear whether or not he attended the local missionary school. However, in 1946 he joined the King'S African Rifles, KAR (Britain's colonial African troops), and served in Burma, Somalia, Kenya (during the British suppression of the Mau Mau) and Uganda. Although he was considered a skilled, and somewhat overeager, soldier, Amin developed a reputation for cruelty - he was almost cashiered on several occasions for excessive brutality during interrogations. He rose through the ranks, reaching sergeant-major before finally being made an effendi, the highest rank possible for a Black African serving in the British army. Amin was also an accomplished sportsman, holding Uganda's light heavyweight boxing championship from 1951 to 1960.As Uganda approached independence Idi Amin's close colleague Apolo Milton Obote, the leader of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC), was made chief minister, and then prime minister. Obote had Amin, one of only two high ranking Africans in the KAR, appointed as First Lieutenant of the Ugandan army. Sent north to quell cattle stealing, Amin perpetrated such atrocities that the British government demanded he be prosecuted. Instead Obote arranged for him to receive further military training in the UK.On his return to Uganda in 1964, Idi Amin was promoted to major and given the task of dealing with an army in mutiny. His success led to a further promotion to colonel. In 1965 Obote and Amin were implicated in a deal to smuggle gold, coffee, and ivory out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - the subsequent funds should have been channeled to troops loyal to the murdered DRC prime minister Patrice Lumumba, but according to their leader, General Olenga, never arrived. A parliamentary investigation demanded by President Edward Mutebi Mutesa 11 (who was also the King of Buganda, known colloquially as 'King Freddie') put Obote on the defensive - he promoted Amin to general and made him Chief-of-Staff, had five ministers arrested, suspended the 1962 constitution, and declared himself president. King Freddie was finally forced into exile in Britain in 1966 when government forces, under the command of Idi Amin, stormed the royal palace.Coup d'EtatIdi Amin began to strengthen his position within the army, using the funds obtained from smuggling and from supplying arms to rebels in southern Sudan. He also developed ties with British and Israeli agents in the country. President Obote first responded by putting Amin under house arrest, and when this failed to work, Amin was sidelined to a non-executive position in the army. On 25 January 1971, whilst Obote attended a Commonwealth meeting in Singapore, Amin led a coup d'etat and took control of the country, declaring himself president. Popular history recalls Amin's declared title to be: "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."Idi Amin was initially welcomed both within Uganda and by the international community. King Freddie had died in exile in 1969 and one of Amin's earliest acts was to have the body returned to Uganda for state burial. Political prisoners (many of whom were Amin followers) were freed and the Ugandan Secret Police was disbanded. However, at the same time Amin had 'killer squads' hunting down Obote's supporters.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. In July 1971, Lango and Acholi soldiers were massacred in the Jinja and Mbarara Barracks, and by early 1972, some 5,000 Acholi and Lango soldiers, and at least twice as many civilians, had disappeared.The victims soon came to include members of other ethnic groups, religious leaders, journalists, artists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In this atmosphere of violence, many other people were killed for criminal motives or simply at will by Amin, who often stuffed the Nile River with their bodies.The killings, motivated by ethnic, political, and financial factors, continued throughout Amin's eight-year reign.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. Among the most prominent people killed were Benedicto Kiwanuka, the former prime minister and 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.In August 1972, 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 from the Indian subcontinent and born in the country, their ancestors having come to Uganda when the country was still a British colony. Many owned businesses, including large-scale enterprises, which 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, except for professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers. A plurality of the Asians with British passports, around 30,000, emigrated to the UK. Others went to Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Sweden, Tanzania, and the U.S. 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.Idi Amin, who has died at an age thought to be 78, was one of the most brutal military dictators to wield power in post-independence Africa.While chief of staff of the Ugandan army, under Dr Milton Obote's civilian government, he seized power in 1971. He made himself president, with the rank of field marshal, and after eight years of power left Uganda a legacy of bloodthirsty killings and economic mismanagement. Parliament was dissolved; no elections were held; secret police - most of them in plain clothes - exercised absolute power of life and death; and the courts and the press were subjugated to the whims of the executive. He became an assistant cook in the King's African Rifles. He claimed to have fought with the regiment in the Burma campaign in the war. This was true of many Africans who joined the British colonial forces, but in Amin's case was an audacious lie. His record file shows his entry into the KAR took place in 1946. 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, he was forced to flee into exile by helicopter on 11 April 1979, when Kampala was captured.On 19 July 2003, one of Amin's wives, Madina, reported that he was in a coma and near death at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from kidney failure.She pleaded with the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, to allow him to return to Uganda for the remainder of his life. Museveni replied that Amin would have to "answer for his sins the moment he was brought back".The death toll during the Amin regime will never be accurately known. The best estimate, from the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, 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.