Idi Amin

Many would know Idi Amin from his portrayal by actor Forest Whitaker in the hit movie The Last King of Scotland – told through the story of a young Scottish doctor who becomes one of his close advisers.

He is one of the world’s most famous crazed tyrants – having become ultra paranoid, he killed over 250,000 of his suspected opponents and brutally tortured tens of thousands more.

His love of anything Scottish is the reason why today visiting true Scots are advised not to wear Scottish jerseys, because Amin is the dictator that Ugandan's try to forget.

One of his former wives was found with her limbs dismembered in the boot of a car.

Amin ordered that they be sewn back together with the torso so that he and her children could go and see the body.

Members of his chief justice, ministers, even church leaders were taken away by special guards – never to be seen again.

Henry Kyemba, Amin’s former Health Minister, said that he performed blood rituals on many of his victims.

Amin once boasted to him that he had eaten human flesh, and it is said he kept the heads of some victim’s in fridges.

Idi Amim began his climb to power while Uganda was under British rule.

He was a commissioned officer when Uganda won independence in 1962 – despite being a concern to the British military because of his illiteracy or lack of any schooling.

He was recruited by the British in 1946 to serve as a trainee cook in the Kings African Rifles.

British officers admired his loyalty – and his successes in sport, which included being the national heavy weight boxer and as a rugby player.

He was posted to Kenya as a corporal during a British campaign where he excelled in his brutality during the torture of prisoners – and rose again to sergeant major.

After murdering three tribesmen in Kenya Amin faced a court martial, but the prime minster Milton Obote merely reprimanded him allowing Amin to keep climbing until he eventually became one of Obote’s top officers.

Amin eventually seized power from Obote while he was away at a commonwealth conference forcing him into exiule in Tanzania.

Amin’s 1971 coup met little resistance and the new president became a national hero – touring the country making many promises of good times ahead.

He feared a counter attack from Obote so established death squads to eradicate opponents – which saw the mass killing of the Langi and Acholi tribes people he thought supported Obote.

“It was impossible to dispose of the bodies,” recalled a former Amin minster.

They were dumped in the Nile instead.

These massacred tribes would face further attacks from the Lords Resistance Army years later.

Amin had no idea how to run an economy and would routinely order banks to just print cash when his budgets ran out.

As the economy plundered under his rule he ordered the expulsion of all Asian’s – in an attempt to boost his popularity.

A total of 50,000 left, including many doctors, dentists, businessmen, technicians and professors – resulting in government revenues being cut by 40 per cent over night.

Among his self awarded titles were president for life, conqueror of the British empire and “the true heir to throne of Scotland.”

He often tried to impress African diplomats by mocking the British,.

At a UN meeting he praised the Palestinians who killed Israel’s Olympic participants and even said Hitler was right to kill six million Jews.

The end of his tyranny came in 1979 when he ordered the invasion of Kagera salient in northern Tanzania – allowing his troops to loot and plunder at will.

Tanzania responded with 45,000 troops and decided to invade Uganda forcing Amin to flee to Saudi Arabia where he died in 2003.

His rule left Uganda broke, lawless and ravaged and with a death toll of over 250,000.

Obote regained power in 1980 in disputed elections plunging Uganda in an anarchic civil war –and the further death of an estimated 300,000 civilians.

By the time Obote lost power in 1985 Uganda was amongst the poorest countries in the world.