Word: amin
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Uganda's President Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin has established himself before the world as an ignorant, cruel and megalomaniacal despot. Last week, as his pronouncements grew wilder and wilder, East Africans were beginning to wonder whether Amin was not merely out of his depth in the job, but out of his mind as well. Items...
...inspected Uganda's military bases seeking possible sites for transit camps for the 40,000 to 50,000 Asians of British citizenship whom he has ordered expelled by Nov. 7. Amin accuses the British government of not granting immigration vouchers quickly enough, but the real bottleneck is his own government-which, as of last week, had issued exit permits for only 60 Asians. Nonetheless, Amin insists that any Asians still in the country on Nov. 7 will be interned. The decision to uproot the Asian community, he has said, came straight from Allah...
...Amin accused "British crooks" of plotting to assassinate him, and put under surveillance all 7,000 Britons living in Uganda. He also charged that Britain was planning a "land, sea and air invasion" of Uganda. When it was pointed out that landlocked Uganda is miles from any ocean, Amin belittled British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home for betraying his "ignorance about Africa" by plotting a naval attack in the first place. He greeted the newly arrived Canadian High Commissioner in Kampala, William Olivier, by asking him when Canada intended to throw out the Queen and install a Canadian...
...Amin's critics have charged that the emotional President is trying to mask his own shortcomings by exploiting his black countrymen's traditional prejudice against the Asians. Since he seized power 18 months ago, for example, Amin has driven Uganda to the verge of bankruptcy, mostly through an excess of military spending (reportedly $90 million last year, v. $20 million in 1968-69). Now his decision to expel the Asians, who pay a large share of the country's taxes and employ tens of thousands of Africans, will cause incalculable disruption to the nation's economy...
...meantime, the British government-which last week finally cut off aid to Uganda, freezing a $24.5 million interest-free loan-arranged for seven British airlines to cooperate in the massive airlift that was to begin in mid-September. But the plan was upset by General Amin's outrageous assertion that the Asians should be carried out of Uganda by East African Airways, which is jointly owned by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The airline, which is far too small to handle such a massive operation on its own, was said to be considering a plan to charge $274 apiece...