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Idi Amin Dada, the African Killer

“The Kampala cruel”, “lord of the horror” and “the killer of Africa” are some of the diverse nicknames of one of the cruelest and horrible dictators of Africa.

Idi Amin Oumee was dictator of Uganda for almost ten years from (1971 to 1979). It’s told that Amin has killed from 300.000 to half million people during his government. The former-dictator of Uganda was born in middle of the decade of 20, in a small tribe of Muslim countrymen of Kakwa, in the edges of Nile, one of the most remote districts of Uganda. After leaving the school, he executed spectacular works, but an officer of the British colonial army enlisted him to the army.

Amin joined the King's African Rifles (KAR) of the British colonial army in 1946 as a cook assistant. He impressed due to his 1,90 meter of height, and his 110 kilos as well as its boxing ability, which had transformed him into a boxer champion in the category of weight-heavy of his country (1951-1960).

He was forced to join the army during the World War II. After this, in his infantry, he participated in several conflicts in Somalia and Kenya. During the following years, he got promotions and military gratuities, and in 1966, two years after the independence of the country, he became the leader of the Army. On February 2^nd, 1971, Amin declared himself as the President of Uganda. With his megalomaniac behavior and violentce, he initiated his government marked by brutality.
In 1972 he banished about 40.000 Asians, descendants of immigrants of the British Empire in India, saying that God had told him to transform Uganda into a country of black men. He threatened to burn them alive if they did not leave in 90 days. In this same year, thousands of civilians, judges, diplomats, teachers and foreigners were executed during his government. In some cases, entire villages were killed. The bodies had been poured in the river Nile. There was a such great amount of corpses. That some parts of the river were dammed.

The slaughters and carnages guaranteed him the nickname of “Sir of the horror” during his regimen. Many Ugandan accused the dictator to keep cut off heads of his enemies in a refrigerator, to feed crocodiles with corpses and he even killed one of his wives.

During his years, many believed that he was crazy. Once he declared himself “king of Scotland”, he forbade hippies and the kilts, and arrived at a funeral of the Saudi royalty using one kilt. He was also known for scoffing of some international leaders: he affirmed to give advice to American president Richard Nixon, created the “Ugandan Fund for the Salvation of England” and suggested the transference of the headquarters of ONU in New York to the capital of Uganda.

His reign of horror and blood ended in 1979, when the leader Milton Obote,(who Idi Amin had defeated) exiled in Tanzania, called an attack and, on April 11th , the dictator was defeated by the National Front of Freedom of Uganda.

He abandoned the country and he ran away to Libya, but he had to look for a new shelter when the Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi banished him from the country. He received political protection from Saudi Arabia on behalf of the Islamic charity, where he started to live until the end of his life, with his four wives and 50 children. When his health got weakened, in July, one of his four women asked him to come back to Uganda to die, but the current government denied his request, under the argument that if he returned to the country hewould be judged by his atrocities.

The dictator died when he was 80 years old due multiple failing of organs. He was buried in Saudi Arabia in a Saturday, on August 16^th, 2003. The Ugandans have reacted with a mixture of relief with the death of a tyrant and nostalgia for a leader who many had applauded for banishing Asians who dominated the economical life.

The International Amnesty lamented deeply that the dictator had deceased without being judged for his crimes against the humanity.

Idi Amin was showed in the film “The Last King of Scotland”, with the gorgeous performance of Forest Whitaker, Who was awarded with the Oscar of best actor in 2007.

by Reinaldo Ferraz