Idi Amin supported the British, killed 500 thousand people, defected to the Soviets, then died in Saudi Arabia.

Today, 14 years ago, Idi Amin Dada died. The dictator has been in a coma since July 19, 2003 due to kidney failure. His savage track record while serving as the 3rd President of Uganda is remembered worldwide.

Citing the testimony of historians, Amin once led the worst regime in Africa as Pol Pot once led Cambodia.

Some observers called him "Adolf Hitler from Africa." Idi Amin Dada is as cruel as Hitler in Germany: once the power is successfully grasped, one of the main programs is genocide aka genocide of the ethnic group which is considered the culprit of the country's chaos.

Amin seized Uganda's number one seat with a military coup that ousted President Militon Oboye on February 2, 1971. In addition to top political leadership, Amin also declared himself Commander of the Armed Forces, Army Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff of the Ugandan Air Force. Military law he puts on civil law. Officers under him he appointed to fill the position of the governor and other important positions.

Amin considers anyone who is still loyal to Obote as the number one threat. The dissidents, mostly from the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups, soon became the target of mass cleansing.

According to Sue Lautze's Harvard research, the Lango and Acholi armies were massacred in two military armies, Jinja and Mbarara, in July 1971. In early 1972, five thousand Acholi and Lango soldiers were killed. In the massacre civilians were killed with more than twice the casualties of military casualties.

Genocide also targets local religious leaders, journalists, artists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students, intellectuals, suspected criminals, and foreigners who happen to be in Uganda. Many of them are victims of misdirection.

During the eight years in power (until 11 April 1979), the bodies of the people Amin did not like were flooded in the Nile and lakes of Uganda. The exact number is unknown. The International Commission of Jurists named the 80,000-300,000 victims. Amnesty International recorded 500,000 deaths.

The story of Amin madness is the concoction of witness testimony of history with a myth deliberately built for the sake of the image of Amin. Some of them are false. But the two stories that really happen describe the level of Amin's cruelty is really beyond reason. He once threw the body of the slaughter victim to his pet crocodile. Amin was also told to keep the victim's head in the refrigerator-some of whom were sometimes invited to talk.

One rumor that is still unbelievable but growing widely mentioned that Amin is a cannibal. When a reporter asked the rumor at a press conference, Amin replied:

"I do not like human flesh, it's too salty," he laughed.

Soldiers of British Colonial Army

The narrative that "that is the nature of the Africans when given the reins of power" is not correct-it can even be said to be racist and perpetuate the practice of colonialism. Amen's savagery did not emerge from a vacuum, but the effect of British colonialism itself.

Uganda was under British Protectorate rule since the 1890s, when 32,000 workers from India-then under British rule-were trafficked to East Africa to be employed in the railroad project. Most can go home, but another 6,724 remain in Uganda to become traders, foremen of cotton spinning production, or other work.

This phase led to the development of Asian populations in Uganda, some of which are more economically established than Ugandans themselves.

Some researchers show that the British Colonial Army played an important role in raising Amin. In 1946, Amin joined the King's African Rifles or KAR, a British Colonial Army battalion containing a mixture of British soldiers and soldiers from the British colonies of Africa.

Amin's career at KAR is brilliant. Initially he was just a cook's assistant in the barracks, but a few years later his career sped into the position of Lieutenant (not only that, he was Uganda's first indigenous lieutenant!). Amin was trained intensively to help Britain fight Somali insurgents in the Shifta War and Mau Mau rebels in Kenya.

After the independence of Uganada in 1962, Amin was promoted to captain and a year later his rank rose to become major. He was appointed Deputy Commander of the Army in 1964, and the following year as Commander of the Army. In 1970, a year of military coup against President Obote, Amin was promoted as Commander of the Ugandan Armed Forces.

Amin was the favorite soldier of the British Colonial Army. His tall stature (193 cm) and athletic (former heavyweight champion of the 195 period, Read next Peran Inggris Membekingi Diktator Buas Idi Amin