“In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order.” -Idi Amin
Idi Amin, who was also known as the “Butcher of Uganda” due to his brutal rule while he was president of Uganda in the 1970s. Idi Amin is possibly the most well known of all Africa's dictators. Idi Amin was the president of Uganda from 1971-1979. He was also a military dictator that killed more than 500,000 Ugandan citizens. Idi Amin was began by being welcomed by both Uganda and by the world.
Idi Amin referred to himself as "His Excellency, President for life, field marshal, Al Hadji Doctor." Which explains a lot about his reign. Idi Amin's rule was not a pleasant one. It could be summed up in the words abusing basic human rights, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption, and economic mismanagement. Idi Amin wasn't always a monster. He started out as just another young man, although somewhere between being a cook and becoming a dictator, something drastically changed.
Idi Amin had always been friendly with Israel and Britian, but in 1972 Idi Amin began attacking Israeli and British people, for no other reason then the fact that he didn’t like that they would not sell him weapons. Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi agreed to aid Idi Amin kill these people. With Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi’s help Idi Amin began forcing Israelis and fifty thousand Asian people out of Uganda.
Idi Amin’s policy was to stay in power at any cost. He would do anything to stay in control. Even if that meant killing people that opposed him. He used violence and terror to get rid of his enemies, whether they were real, or because of his paranoia, imaginary. There were several ways Idi Amin disposed of his opponents. Such as in 1971. Idi Amin became aware that Obote intended to arrest him based on charges of embezzling millions of dollars of military funds. While Obote was out of the country in January, Idi Amin had an idea that would take care of the Obote problem. Idi Amin was declared president and chief of the armed forces and almost right after he begins mass execution of troops he believed to be loyal to Obote.
Under Idi Amin’s rule, money and wealth had become more important than human life. Idi Amin used dehumanization to feel better about the fact that he was slaughtering his citizens. The human casualties of Idi Amin’s rule was extremely large. He killed thousands upon thousands of Ugandan citizens.
When citizens of Uganda and the world began to doubt Idi Amin and the way his rule was going he attacked Tanzania, a neighboring country to the south, in October. Tanzanian troops, as well as exiled and armed Ugandan citizens, put Amin's army to flight and in turn, ended up invading Uganda.
"Even Amin does not know how many people he has ordered to be executed... The country is littered with bodies."
-Henry Kyemba, Idi Amin's longtime friend and a former health minister.
How did he become president? do they vote like we do? and that makes me so sad that people can kill thousand of people over no reason.
ReplyDeleteHe seems like a horrible man and did not rule the way he promised. It appears to me that so many leaders after Stalin and Hitler killed so many of their own people for no reason or just because they have the power to.
ReplyDeleteI also don't understand how he got into power, from being a cook to becoming a dictator? But it seems like all military dictators turn into mass-murderers over their obsession of money and power. It's unfortunate that even when Obote was trying to charge him with his crimes, Amin used violence to keep his power longer.
ReplyDeleteIts deeply troubling that somebody can have such a disregard for human life. He didn't even know how many people he had sent to their deaths. It sounds like Stalin who just picked random people to die just to scare them into obeying him. While it is extremly horrible that this could ever happen, at least history can teach us to watch for people like this in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe peice that really effects me is that he did not even know how many he people he had killed, in the event of this it shows me that he lacked many skills needed to run much of anything.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely blows my mind that time and time again, dictators get away with the mass murder of their own people. People need to realize that when something like this is happening, it is the moral responsibility of the other countries in the world to put a stop to it, otherwise genocides and mass murders are just going to keep happening.
ReplyDeleteI am astounded that people like this get into power. It doesn't make sense to me that he went from being a cook to a ruler, how did this happen?
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