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| Sunday, 17 August 2003 |
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Uganda despot Amin dies JEDDAH, Saturday (Reuters) Former dictator Idi Amin, blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of Ugandans in the 1970s, died on Saturday in a Saudi hospital where he had been critically ill for weeks, a senior medical source said. "We can confirm that Mr Idi Amin has died from complications due to multiple organ failure," the source at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. Amin, one of the bloodiest despots in Africa, has been living in exile, chiefly in Saudi Arabia, since his ouster from Uganda in 1979. He was in his late 70s. Amin, who was in near-death condition for weeks, had received death threats by telephone, prompting the hospital management to post guards at his bed in the intensive care unit. A man who expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, Amin was denounced inside and outside Africa for massacring tens of thousands of people - some estimates say more than 100,000 - under his despotic 1971-79 rule. A former boxing champion, he came to power in a 1971 coup and his rule was characterised by eccentric behaviour and violent purges. He was driven from power in 1979 by forces from neighbouring Tanzania and Ugandan exiles, and was given sanctuary by Saudi Arabia in the name of Islamic charity. Amin, a Muslim, has lived quietly in Jeddah on a government stipend with his four wives. It was not immediately clear what would happen to Amin's body. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had said that if Amin died abroad, his body could be taken home for burial. |
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