In recent years, the Central African region has been plagued by chaotic wars, the government has lost control over the people, and the United Nations has repeatedly warned that Central Africa has fallen into a state of anarchy, and the local area is full of guerrillas, and even the African Union peacekeeping force cannot protect itself.
However, not only in Central Africa, but also in the Black African region, most countries are not doing well, but the three neighboring countries of Central Africa, Congo and Uganda are the leaders, and these three countries have not seen peace since the Cold War.
The three chaotic countries of black Africa actually have their own roots, because these three countries gave birth to three anti-human tyrants, Bokassa, Mobutu, and Amin, among which Uganda has the smallest territory, but Amin who came out is the most brutal and has the worst behavior.
So much so that decades after Amin's ouster, the country is still wanted worldwide for this murderer.
A former Ugandan official once described the Amin era: "No one in Uganda was safe except for Amin. The people of Uganda are starving, and officials are terrifying because they don't know when they will be pulled to feed the crocodiles. ”
In the end, Uganda was swept away by the Tanzanian army, a "disciple" of the People's Liberation Army, and the people welcomed the Tanzanian army, and Amin fled the country when the army was defeated, and the country became the typical 20th century regime in which "the people welcomed the invaders".
As soon as Amin ran, the people of Uganda celebrated, and the country began its long reconstruction.
So, how terrible was Uganda in Amin's time?
[a]
The only president of mankind who can't be counted: Amin
If you open the history of mankind during the Cold War, the name of Idi Armin Dada must be stained with blood.
In the 70s of the 20th century, when he controlled Uganda, famine, massacres, plagues, and wars swept Uganda one after another, so much so that domestic netizens ridiculed Amin as "the incarnation of the Apocalypse Knight".
People always say that people who do bad things are either stupid or bad, and Amin is stupid and bad.
Amin, born in 1926, was the child of an ordinary peasant family in northern Uganda. The land where Amin was born was one of the best places in Africa with water and heat resources, and agriculture was very developed, and the local black people lived here thousands of years ago.
But in modern times, European colonizers took a fancy to the land, which was rich in coffee, cotton, palm and other cash crops, and the British forcibly occupied it as a colony and formally annexed Uganda at the end of the 19th century.
After Uganda became a source of raw materials for the British, the British brought away crops from here for little pay to the locals, resulting in the poverty of the black people here.
In order to maintain regional stability, the colonial government established by the British also recruited troops in the local area and formed a puppet army to maintain stability, and Amin was a member of the puppet army in his early years.
In fact, in his childhood, Amin's family conditions were acceptable, but the unlucky Amin's father died early, and the family property was divided by the family uncles, so he was forced to leave home with his mother to beg for a living. His mother was a tribal wizard who took Amin to villages and villages to make money.
Ah Ming never went to school since he was a child, and grew up wandering around different villages all day long, eating hundreds of family meals.
When he reached adolescence, because of his tall horses, he was captured by the British and sent to join the army, first to maintain stability in the local area, and later to fight in Asia with the British army.
It is not known what Amin did on the battlefield, but according to his own account, he was the bravest soldier in the Scottish Rifles, and he did receive a British medal.
Until Amin became president, he could only add or subtract math within 10, and he had to break his fingers when counting.
In the 50s of the 20th century, Amin became an officer in his hometown, enjoying the top treatment of three full meals a day and drinks in the evening. He was nearly 2 meters tall and weighed more than 200 pounds at the time, and he looked very imposing at a glance.
Because of this, the British promoted him to be the commander of the suppression of the black uprising, hoping that he would conquer the rebels with his "leadership temperament".
Amin also lived up to expectations, excelling in counterinsurgency, killing his own countrymen without mercy, and the British and Ugandans were jealous of this murderous military leader.
In the 1960s, Britain and France were forced to withdraw from Africa when the United Nations promoted the liberation of international colonies.
Before leaving Uganda, the British government, fearing that the new government would get the hang of it, sent Amin to the new government for punishment.
Amin had slaughtered civilians during the suppression of the uprising, and it was reasonable to go to jail if he didn't shoot him, but Amin was miraculously acquitted. Because the Ugandan government was extremely short of military talents at that time, Prime Minister Obote thought that Amin could lead the troops and it would be absolutely useful to keep them.
At the end of the 60s, because Uganda was on the edge of Lake Victoria and had a navy of several small boats, Amin became the commander of Uganda's army, navy and air force. He worked with Prime Minister Obote to suppress the rebellion of the border tribes and consolidate the central power.
Moreover, these two people still smell the same, they are both corrupt, stealing national resources, and hunting illegally, and the matter finally got into trouble with the African Union.
Then-President Mutesa wanted to investigate the two, and Obote finally ordered Amin to organize a military coup to overthrow Mutesa and put himself on the throne.
At the beginning of his ascension, Amin was also considered to have made meritorious contributions, and he still lived a corrupt life. But Obote was afraid that Amin would one day "add a yellow robe" and overthrow himself, so he secretly cut his military power.
Amin was pinned down by Obote and was depressed all day, just when the British approached Amin. It turned out that Obote carried out economic reforms after coming to power, which moved Britain's cheese, and Britain wanted Amin to come to power to safeguard Britain's overseas interests.
Since the former suzerain's country has spoken, Ah Ming has not shirked much. In early 1971, Obote staged a coup d'état during his visit, and Obote became president, and Obote began his exile.
The British promised to support Amin's regime as long as Amin defended the interests of British mining companies and plantations, and Amin agreed.
But the British government never expected that it would release an "ogre".
[two]
Amin: It's better to be a good president than to indulge in lust
So Amin initially guaranteed the interests of the British, and in exchange for a series of economic support from the British, including hundreds of millions of dollars in government loans every year, a large amount of food, medicine, and weapons and ammunition for the army.
Britain even sent some military personnel to help train Amin's army, which greatly strengthened the Ugandan army.
Two years before he came to power, Amin also wanted to make great efforts to create a new atmosphere in Uganda. Mr. Amin, who describes himself as the "leader of the people," said that his coup was aimed at ousting the embezzler Obote and that he wanted to bring a new world to Uganda.
Amin also really released a lot of political prisoners and lowered agricultural taxes, reformed government agencies, streamlined the civil service, and reduced corruption and waste.
Subsequently, the small country of Uganda made its first appearance in European newspapers, and the British boasted that "our partner in Uganda was a leader who worked hard and loved his people."
Amin also made the masses call himself "dear big brother", and he often wore a military uniform to inspect the people and mingle with the people.
Ugandans gradually developed a good impression of this big man, and felt that he was really a hero who saved the country from heaven. It wasn't until former President Obote arrived in neighboring Tanzania that Amin's disguise was punctured.
Although overthrown, Obote did not give up regaining power, and he settled in Tanzania in southern Uganda and formed a government-in-exile.
This news made Amin very uneasy, and it didn't take long for Amin to meet the killer sent by Obote, and he narrowly escaped, but this behavior angered Amin.
Amin asked the Tanzanian government to expel Obote, but Tanzania was unmoved.
Angry, Amin ordered the expulsion of Tanzanians from the country and the confiscation of their property. Later, Amin declared "stability maintenance" in the country, calling on the people of the whole country to act together, with the slogan "Pick out the pests left behind by Obote".
The so-called "pest pest" is actually to erase all the influence left by Obote.
Amin started with Obote's relatives, men, and tribes, searched for all those who had anything to do with Obote, and then took them to the prison in the capital Kampala to be tortured and slaughtered.
He also had his men tortured, whipped, flooded, and burned, to make them confess to those who had ties to the Obote government.
If it is found that Obote has something to do with him, then the prisoner will be brought before President Amin for trial. Amin would personally torture the prisoners with whips, sticks, and bayonets, and then sentence them to death when they were dying.
Eventually, prisoners were often beheaded, mutilated, or even fed directly to crocodiles.
Most of the prisoners were unrelated to Obote's government-in-exile, but were tortured and died in prison.
The Rangi tribe, from which Obote was born, and the Akeli tribe and the Langgo tribe, who were closely related to Obote, all struggled with the massacre of Amin, and many of them ended up in exile in neighboring countries.
These tragedies have brought more Ugandans closer to Obert.
The killing excites Amin and makes Amin's regime more and more violent.
Because the president has long asked the military and police to arrest and torture people, the status of the military in the Amin government has been greatly improved, and the illiterate military leaders have become important members of the government, and the soldiers and secret police have overridden the civil servants, and even openly perform the duties of the government.
The people of Uganda have suffered, the government is already corrupt, and now there is more exploitation by the military and police, and most of the harvest that the people have cultivated throughout the year has been taken away.
And because Amin hates Obote, many people with the sound "O" in their names have been killed by mistake, forcing Ugandans to change their names in large numbers.
Later, Amin found a bunch of models as wives, and there were 4 official wives before and after, and there were countless mistresses, rumored to have 15-20.
These wives were elected by the people to pay tribute, and they gave birth to more than 50 children for Amin, who often took the whole family on flights overseas for vacations.
Of course, with 4 wives and a bunch of mistresses, it is naturally impossible for Amin to take care of him.
A few years after their marriage, one of Amin's mistresses had an affair with a guard, and without saying a word, Amin sentenced them to death and sent them to prison for dismemberment. Armin then froze their heads in the freezer and cut off parts of their limbs and put them on a plate.
Amin also called his men and lovers to watch the "spectacle" and warned them that if they did something behind him, this would be the end. In order to show his cruelty, Amin even ate a piece of meat in public.
[three]
Carter: This is the most brutal regime on earth
Amin built a splendid palace in the capital, Canberra, at a cost of more than $300 million, several times Uganda's annual income. The design and construction of this royal palace was carried out by a British team, and the standards are on par with that of an English-style royal palace.
However, his own pleasures, coupled with his corruption, brought Amin's government to the brink of collapse after three years of operation, the country ran out of money, the people became poor, and the taxes could not be collected.
Uganda is an agrarian country, and its people are not wealthy, and they work on foreigners' plantations to make ends meet, while homesteaders have poor harvests due to the lack of improved seeds and fertilizers.
After being scraped by Amin several times, famine has occurred in parts of Uganda, and refugees have migrated across the border with their families in search of survival.
The African Union had to inquire about the situation of Amin's government when there was a wave of refugees in peacetime, but Amin vowed that "the refugee flow was a conspiracy by neighboring countries to subvert Uganda, and they left voluntarily."
Ironically, because the Islamic regimes in Africa, such as Libya, Algeria and Egypt, still support Uganda, a brotherly Islamic country, the AU did not hold Amin accountable for his actions and made him the rotating chairman of the AU.
When Amin came to power, he took over a lot of industries and minerals, most of which were left over from the Obote government, and these industries were state-owned, but no one under Amin's command could run them, and finally had to abandon them all.
At that time, there were also a lot of foreign and foreign small business activities in Uganda, multinational companies from the United Kingdom, and small business people were mostly Indian and Pakistani.
These companies have paid their taxes in accordance with the law, but Amin still believes that they are "thieves" who have stolen their wealth.
So Amin called the representatives of the companies and told them to swear allegiance to the "protector of Uganda" and "the pure leader of Africa", and the business owners swore allegiance and paid tribute to him.
As for the Indians and Pakistanis who were among the people, Amin ordered them to be evicted and confiscated all their property, because he believed that these belonged to Uganda in the first place.
As a result, there was a nationwide smashing and looting in Uganda, where Indians and Pakistanis had their shops smashed and goods looted, and they fled to the airport with their children and the elderly. Before boarding the plane, the Asian trinkets and cash were snatched by the military.
India and Pakistan are both part of the British Commonwealth, and these businessmen were also brought by the British, and Amin did this to slap Britain in the face, and the governments of India and Pakistan both complained to the British.
Britain questioned Amin, who was so angry that he actually launched a denunciation against his former suzerain, Britain, saying that Britain was the main culprit in the exploitation of Uganda, and announced the confiscation of the assets of British companies.
At this time, Western countries completely saw the true face of this white-eyed wolf - a madman without reason. As a result, Britain, the United States, France and other countries immediately united to sanction Amin.
But Amin was not alone, Uganda had the Islamic world behind him, and the Soviet Union was the main benefactor of the Islamic world at that time. So, Amin quickly found the Soviet Union again, hugged Brezhnev's thigh, and got Soviet-style weapons.
Amin was a military man, and he thought that foreigners hated him and that the only way was to send troops to conquer him. But he didn't know that there is another weapon in the modern world called "economic sanctions" - Europe and the United States stopped importing Ugandan coffee beans, and Uganda's economy collapsed in response.
With bags of coffee beans left at the train station to rot, the farmers don't get a penny. After the Asian traders left, the Ugandan market also stopped functioning, and the necessities of rice, oil, sugar, salt, and medicine were not sold, and Ugandan society stopped functioning.
In 1977 and 1978, Uganda was on the verge of collapse, with fleeing people forming tribes across the border and Ugandan government officials fleeing.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter shouted at the time: "The Ugandan government is the most brutal regime on earth, and the AU should pay attention to the people there." ”
Hiding in Tanzania, Obote decided the time had come, and he assembled an army to counterattack Uganda with the support of Tanzania.
Unexpectedly, the armies of the Amin government, equipped with Soviet-style weapons, were about to collapse at the touch of a button, and although Amin shot a group of generals, he could not stop the tide of rout.
The people of Uganda welcomed the Tanzanian army everywhere to "liberate" themselves, and Amin gave many speeches, but no one cared. In the end, Amin left Libya, and because of his discord with Gaddafi, he went to Saudi Arabia to hide.
After the formation of the new government, Uganda submitted an application to the United Nations to extradite Amin for trial, but Amin hid in Saudi Arabia and refused to hand him over, saying that he was suffering from illness.
Amin died in Saudi Arabia in August 2003 at the age of 78. But the mess he left behind has not been cleaned up in Uganda to this day.
Literature / Shogakuno
Resources:
1. "The Road to Doom for a Cannibal President", Guo Wei
2. "The Flames of War in Uganda and Amin", Naval Soldiers