By January 1971, Milton Obote, then President of Uganda, was prepared to rid himself of the potential threat posed by Idi Amin. Departing for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Singapore, he relayed orders to loyal Langi officers that Amin and his supporters in the army were to be arrested. Various versions emerged of the way this news was leaked to Amin; in any case, Amin decided to strike first. In the early morning hours of January 25, 1971, mechanized units loyal to him attacked strategic targets in Kampala and the airport at Entebbe, where the first shell fired by a pro-Amin tank commander killed two Roman Catholic priests in the airport waiting room. Amin's troops easily overcame the disorganized opposition to the coup, and Amin almost immediately initiated mass executions of Acholi and Langi troops, whom he believed to be pro-Obote. The coat of arms for Uganda. ... // Uganda before 1900 Main article: Uganda before 1900 The earliest human inhabitants in contemporary Uganda were hunter-gatherers. ... Before the region that is today Uganda was made into a British colony at the end of the nineteenth century it was divided between several closely related kingdoms. ... The Colonial Era Although momentous change occurred during the colonial era in Uganda, some characteristics of late-nineteenth century African society survived to reemerge at the time of independence. ... Move to independence Ugandas approach to independence was unlike that of most other colonial territories where political parties had been organized to force self-rule or independence from a reluctant colonial regime. ... Combatants Uganda Libya Tanzania Peoples Defence Force & Uganda National Liberation Army Commanders Idi Amin Tanzanian army: Julius Nyerere UNLF: Tito Okello, Yoweri Museveni, David Oyite-Ojok Strength 3,000 Libyans, unknown number of Ugandan Army troops 100,000 Tanzanians, unknown number of Ugandan resistance troops, unknown number of Rwandan... Uganda After Amin The Interim Period A month before the liberation of Kampala, representatives of twenty-two Ugandan civilian and military groups were hastily called together at Moshi, Tanzania, to try to agree on an interim civilian government once Amin was removed. ... Combatants Uganda National Liberation Front (The national army of Uganda) National Resistance Army (guerilla rebels) Commanders Milton Obote General Oyite-Ojok Brigadier Opon Acak Brigadier Olara-Okello Yoweri Museveni Salim Saleh Steven Kashaka Joram Mugume Pecos Kuteesa Fred Rwigema The war in the bush (also known as the Luwero War... Combatants Uganda Peoples Defence Force Lords Resistance Army Commanders Yoweri Museveni Joseph Kony The Lords Resistance Army (LRA),[1] formed in 1987, is a paramilitary group operating mainly in northern Uganda and parts of Sudan. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ... Victims of state terrorism from Cambodia State terrorism is terrorism that is perpetrated or sponsored by a national government or proxy state. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ... Obote pictured at the beginning of his second regime in 1980 Apollo Milton Obote (December 28, 1924, Apac, Uganda – October 10, 2005, Johannesburg, South Africa), Prime Minister of Uganda 1962-1966 and President of Uganda 1966-1971/1980-1985, was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence in... Idi Amin Dada (c. ... The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is a biennial summit meeting of the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations. ... The Lango (plural Langi) people live in the central area of Uganda, north of Lake Kyoga. ... January 25 is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ... Kampala is the capital city of Uganda. ... Location of Entebbe within Uganda. ... The 1971 Ugandan coup détat was a military coup détat executed by the Ugandan military, led by General Idi Amin, against the government of President Milton Obote on 25 January 1971. ...

The Amin coup was warmly welcomed by most of the people of the Buganda kingdom, which Obote had attempted to dismantle. They seemed willing to forget that their new president, Idi Amin, had been the tool of that military suppression. Amin made the usual statements about his government's intent to play a mere “caretaker role” until the country could recover sufficiently for civilian rule. Amin repudiated Obote's nonaligned foreign policy, and his government was quickly recognized by Israel, Britain, and the United States. By contrast, presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) initially refused to accept the legitimacy of the new military government. Nyerere, in particular, opposed Amin's regime, and he offered hospitality to the exiled Obote, facilitating his attempts to raise a force and return to power. The flag of Buganda Buganda is the kingdom of the 52 clans of the Baganda people, the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda. ... Julius Kambarage Nyerere (April 13, 1922 - October 14, 1999) was President of Tanzania, and previously Tanganyika, from the countrys founding in 1964 until his retirement in 1985. ... Kenneth Kaunda Kenneth David Kaunda, commonly known as KK (born April 28, 1924) was the first President of Zambia (1964–1991). ... Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (October 20, 1893 ?– August 22, 1978) was a Kenyan politician, the first Prime Minister (1963–1964) and President (1964–1978) of an independent Kenya. ... Flag of the Organisation of African Unity, later also used by the African Union. ...

Amin's military experience, which was virtually his only experience, determined the character of his rule. He renamed Government House “the Command Post,” instituted an advisory defense council composed of military commanders, placed military tribunals above the system of civil law, appointed soldiers to top government posts and parastatal agencies, and even informed the newly inducted civilian cabinet ministers that they would be subject to military discipline. Uganda was, in effect, governed from a collection of military barracks scattered across the country, where battalion commanders, acting like local warlords, represented the coercive arm of the government. The General Service Unit (GSU), an intelligence agency created by the previous government, was disbanded and replaced by the State Research Bureau (SRB). SRB headquarters at Nakasero became the scene of torture and grisly executions over the next several years.

Despite its outward display of a military chain of command, Amin's government was arguably more riddled with rivalries, regional divisions, and ethnic politics than the UPC coalition that it had replaced. The army itself was an arena of lethal competition, in which losers were usually eliminated. Within the officer corps, those trained in Britain opposed those trained in Israel, and both stood against the untrained, who soon eliminated many of the army's most experienced officers. In 1966, well before the mariah era, northerners in the army had assaulted and harassed soldiers from the south. In 1971 and 1972, the Lugbara and Kakwa (Amin's ethnic group) from the West Nile were slaughtering northern Acholi and Langi, who were identified with Obote. Then the Kakwa fought the Lugbara. Amin came to rely on Nubians and on former Anyanya rebels from southern Sudan. Lugbara is a Ugandan tribe who speak central Sudanic language. ... The Kakwa are a tribe situated in northwestern Uganda, southern Sudan, and northeastern Zaire, from Nilotic origin. ... Acholiland, Uganda Children in an IDP camp in Kitgum The Acholi are an ethnolinguistic group of the upper Nile valley dwelling on the east bank of the White Nile, about a hundred miles north of Lake Albert. ... The Lango (plural Langi) people live in the central area of Uganda, north of Lake Kyoga. ... Nubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. ... Anyanya is the name of the separatist southern Sudanese rebel army of the First Sudanese Civil War which started in 1955. ...

The army, which had been progressively expanded under Obote, was further doubled and redoubled under mariah Recruitment was largely, but not entirely, in the north. There were periodic purges, when various battalion commanders were viewed as potential problems or became real threats. Each purge provided new opportunities for promotions from the ranks. The commander of the air force, Smuts Guweddeko, had previously worked as a telephone operator; the unofficial executioner for the regime, Major Malyamungu had formerly been a nightwatch officer. By the mid-1970s, only the most trustworthy military units were allowed ammunition, although this prohibition did not prevent a series of mutinies and murders. An attempt by an American journalist, Nicholas Stroh, and his colleague, Robert Siedle, to investigate one of these barracks outbreaks in 1972 at the Simba battalion in Mbarara led to their disappearances and later, deaths. Mbarara is a town in southwestern Uganda, located about 266km from Kampala. ...

Amin never forgot the source of his power. He spent much of his time rewarding, promoting, and manipulating the army. Financing his ever-increasing military expenditures was a continuing concern. Early in 1972, he reversed foreign policy — never a major issue for Amin — to secure financial and military aid from Muammar Qadhafi of Libya. Amin expelled the remaining Israeli advisers, to whom he was much indebted, and became vociferously anti-Israel. To induce foreign aid from Saudi Arabia, he rediscovered his previously neglected Islamic heritage. He also commissioned the construction of a great mosque on Kampala Hill in the capital city, but it was never completed because much of the money intended for it was embezzled. Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qaddafi 1 — pronounced Gaddafi — (Arabic: معمر القذافي ) (born c. ... Embezzlement is the fraudulent conversion of property from a property owner. ...

In September 1972, Amin expelled almost all of Uganda's 50,000 Asians and seized their property. Although Amin proclaimed that the “common man” was the beneficiary of this drastic act — which proved immensely popular — it was actually the army that emerged with the houses, cars, and businesses of the departing Asian minority. This expropriation of property proved disastrous for the already declining economy. Businesses were run into the ground, cement factories at Tororo and Fort Portal collapsed from lack of maintenance, and sugar production ground to a halt, as unmaintained machinery jammed permanently. Uganda's export crops were sold by government parastatals, but most of the foreign currency they earned went for purchasing imports for the army. The most famous example was the so-called “whiskey run” to Stansted Airport in Britain, where planeloads of Scotch whisky, transistor radios, and luxury items were purchased for Amin to distribute among his officers and troops. An African proverb, it was said, summed up Amin's treatment of his army: “A dog with a bone in its mouth can't bite.” Tororo is a district in eastern Uganda. ... Fort Portal is a town in western Uganda and the seat of both the Kabarole district and the Toro kingdom. ... Para-statals or parastatals (from para- meaning mean something close or near, a prefix, and state), are fully or partially state-owned corporations or agencies. ... Terminal building, designed by Sir Norman Foster Stansted Airport is a medium-sized passenger airport with a single runway, located in the English county of Essex about thirty miles north of London. ...

The rural African producers, particularly of coffee, turned to smuggling, especially to Kenya. The smuggling problem became an obsession with Amin; toward the end of his rule, he appointed his mercenary adviser, the former British citizen Bob Astles, to take all necessary steps to eliminate the problem. These steps included orders to shoot smugglers on sight. Bob Astles (born 1924), called Lubowa among the Ngo clan, was a former British soldier who lived in Uganda and became an associate of Idi Amin. ...

Another near-obsession for Amin was the threat of a counterattack by former president Obote. Shortly after the expulsion of Asians in 1972, Obote did launch such an attempt across the Tanzanian border into southwestern Uganda. His small army contingent in twenty-seven trucks set out to capture the southern Ugandan military post at Masaka but instead settled down to await a general uprising against Amin, which did not occur. A planned seizure of the airport at Entebbe by soldiers in an allegedly hijacked East African Airways passenger aircraft was aborted when Obote's pilot blew out the aircraft's tires and it remained in Tanzania. Amin was able to mobilize his more reliable Malire Mechanical Regiment and expel the invaders. East African Airways was an airline jointly run by three countries in East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania; and Uganda, which were then part of an East African Community. ...

Although jubilant at his success, Amin realized that Obote, with Nyerere's aid, might try again. He had the SRB and the newly formed Public Safety Unit (PSU) redouble their efforts to uncover subversives and other imagined enemies of the state. General fear and insecurity became a way of life for the populace, as thousands of people disappeared. In an ominous twist, people sometimes learned by listening to the radio that they were “about to disappear.” State terrorism was evidenced in a series of spectacular incidents; for example, High Court Judge Benedicto Kiwanuka, former head of government and leader of the banned DP, was seized directly from his courtroom. Like many other victims, he was forced to remove his shoes and then bundled into the trunk of a car, never to be seen alive again. Whether calculated or not, the symbolism of a pair of shoes by the roadside to mark the passing of a human life was a bizarre yet piercing form of state terrorism. Benedicto Kabimu Mugumba Kiwanuka (May 1922 - September 22, 1972), was the first Prime Minister of Uganda, leader of the Democratic Party (Uganda) and one of the early leaders that led the country in the transition between colonial British rule and independence. ...

Amin did attempt to establish ties with an international terrorist group in June 1976, when he offered the Palestinian hijackers of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv a protected base at the old airport at Entebbe, from which to press their demands in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. The dramatic rescue of the hostages by Israeli commandos was a severe blow to Amin, unassuaged by his murder of a hospitalized hostage, Dora Bloch, and his mass execution of Entebbe airport personnel. 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Combatants  Israel  PFLP Revolutionäre Zellen  Uganda Commanders Yonatan Netanyahu† Wadie Haddad Wilfried Böse Idi Amin Strength 29 Commandos Unknown Casualties Yonatan Netanyahu killed three hostages killed five commandos wounded 6 hijackers killed 45 Ugandan soldiers killed Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe incident and sometimes the Entebbe...

Amin's government, conducted by often erratic personal proclamation, continued on. Because he was illiterate — a disability shared with most of his higher ranking officers — Amin relayed orders and policy decisions orally by telephone, over the radio, and in long rambling speeches to which civil servants learned to pay close attention. The bureaucracy became paralyzed as government administrators feared to make what might prove to be a wrong decision. The minister of defense demanded and was given the Ministry of Education office building, but then the decision was reversed. Important education files were lost during their transfer back and forth by wheelbarrow. In many respects, Amin's government in the 1970s resembled the governments of nineteenth-century African monarchs, with the same problems of enforcing orders at a distance, controlling rival factions at court, and rewarding loyal followers with plunder. However, Amin's regime was possibly less efficient than those of the precolonial monarchs. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979. ...

Religious conflict was another characteristic of the Amin regime that had its origins in the nineteenth century. After rediscovering his Islamic allegiance in the effort to gain foreign aid from Libya and Saudi Arabia, Amin began to pay more attention to the formerly deprived Muslims in Uganda, a move which turned out to be a mixed blessing for them. Muslims began to do well in what economic opportunities yet remained, the more so if they had relatives in the army. Construction work began on Kibule Hill, the site of Kampala's most prominent mosque. Many Ugandan Muslims with a sense of history believed that the Muslim defeat by Christians in 1889 was finally being redressed. Christians, in turn, perceived that they were under siege as a religious group; it was clear that Amin viewed the churches as potential centers of opposition. A number of priests and ministers disappeared in the course of the 1970s, but the matter reached a climax with the formal protest against army terrorism in 1977 by Church of Uganda ministers, led by Archbishop Janani Luwum. Although Luwum's body was subsequently recovered from a clumsily contrived “auto accident,” subsequent investigations revealed that Luwum had been shot to death by Amin himself. This latest in a long line of atrocities was greeted with international condemnation, but apart from the continued trade boycott initiated by the United States in July 1978, verbal condemnation was not accompanied by action. Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Janani Luwum (1922 – 1977), was the archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga-Zaire (1974 – 1977). ...

By 1978 Amin's circle of close associates had shrunk significantly — the result of defections and executions. It was increasingly risky to be too close to Amin, as his vice president and formerly trusted associate, General Mustafa Adrisi, discovered. When Adrisi was injured in a suspicious auto accident, troops loyal to him became restive. The once reliable Malire Mechanized Regiment mutinied, as did other units. In October 1978, Amin sent troops still loyal to him against the mutineers, some of whom fled across the Tanzanian border. Amin then claimed that Tanzanian President Nyerere, his perennial enemy, had been at the root of his troubles. Amin accused Nyerere of waging war against Uganda, and, hoping to divert attention from his internal troubles and rally Uganda against the foreign adversary, Amin invaded Tanzanian territory and formally annexed a section across the Kagera River boundary on November 1, 1978. General Mustafa Adrisi was Vice President of Uganda (1977–1978), and one of president Idi Amins closest associates. ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

Declaring a formal state of war against Uganda, Nyerere mobilized his citizen army reserves and counterattacked, joined by Ugandan exiles united as the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA). The Ugandan Army retreated steadily, expending much of its energy by looting along the way. Libya's Qadhafi sent 3,000 troops to aid fellow Muslim Amin, but the Libyans soon found themselves on the front line, while behind them Ugandan Army units were using supply trucks to carry their newly plundered wealth in the opposite direction. Tanzania and the UNLA took Kampala in April 1979, and Amin fled by air, first to Libya and later to a permanent exile at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The war that had cost Tanzania an estimated US$1 million per day was over. A Declaration of War is a formal declaration issued by a national government indicating that a state of war exists between that nation, and one or more others. ... UNLA (Uganda National Liberation Army) is the military arm of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF). ... Kampala is the capital city of Uganda. ... For the song by the Smashing Pumpkins, see 1979 (song). ... This article is about the Saudi Arabian city. ...

See also

• Uganda-Tanzania War

Combatants Uganda Libya Tanzania Peoples Defence Force & Uganda National Liberation Army Commanders Idi Amin Tanzanian army: Julius Nyerere UNLF: Tito Okello, Yoweri Museveni, David Oyite-Ojok Strength 3,000 Libyans, unknown number of Ugandan Army troops 100,000 Tanzanians, unknown number of Ugandan resistance troops, unknown number of Rwandan...

Reference

• Life Under Idi Amin: The Story of Theresa Nanziri Bukenya

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.

 - Uganda 

mariah elizabeth gutierrez The Country Studies are works published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress ( USA), freely available for use by researchers. ... The U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1789 by a constitutional convention, sets down the basic framework of American government in its seven articles. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...