OT: Big Daddy Amin Dead at 80

[Thermodyne]

Hell has a new member today...

_____________________________________

DATE=8/16/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=UGANDA/IDI AMIN/OBIT (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-306549

BYLINE=CATHY MAJTENYI

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin died Saturday in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah from complications due to multiple organ failure. He was 80 years old. As Cathy Majtenyi reports from Nairobi, the Ugandan government does not plan an official funeral.

TEXT: Idi Amin took power in Uganda following a 1971 coup against Milton Obote, the president of Uganda's first independent government.

One year after seizing power, he replaced the civilian Cabinet with a succession of military advisors, and led the country in what has been described as a brutal and arbitrary dictatorship.

Mr. Amin's regime is said to have been responsible for the deaths of at least 100-thousand Ugandans. He also expelled 40-thousand Asians whom he accused of sabotaging the economy.

Mr. Amin fled the country in 1979, after being overthrown by Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles. He was eventually granted asylum in Saudi Arabia, where he lived with his four wives until his death.

A spokeswoman for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told V-O-A that Uganda would not bar Mr. Amin's family from returning his body to Uganda, but Ugandans should not expect any special ceremonies.

/// SPOKESWOMAN ACT ///

It is up to the family. If the family wants to bring back the body, they can do it. They can bring the body if they want, but the question of a state funeral is definitely out.

/// END ACT ///

According to a reporter for Uganda's daily independent newspaper, The Monitor, many Ugandans showed a low-key reaction to Mr. Amin's death. Badru Mulumba told V-O-A that, other than an Asian association saying it's the "end of a bad chapter," people in Uganda are just going about their business.

/// MULUMBA ACT ///

People are struggling to live. After about 25 years, some of these issues mean very little to many people who are currently alive.

/// END ACT ///

He said more recent events - such as the insecurity gripping the country since President Museveni took power in 1986 - are fresher in peoples' minds. (SIGNED)

NEB/CM/DW/TW

[TerranC]

One down, about a dozen more to go...

[General Woundwort]

Good riddance to bad baggage. What galls me further is that our "staunch ally" Saudi Arabia gave this... person... asylum for so long.

Now departing Baghdad, next stop... Riyadh.

[TerranC]

Originally posted by General Woundwort:
Now departing Baghdad, next stop... Riyadh.

Then next stop: WW3.

[Gryphin]

I could be wrong but:
I belive he was given that out, (to live in Saudi Arabia), in order to get him to leave the Uganda.

[General Woundwort]

Originally posted by TerranC:
next stop: WW3.

I've got news for you - we're already in it. But it'd be more accurate to call it World War IV.

If my initial remark was somewhat in jest, the problem is no joke.

[ August 17, 2003, 23:37: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]

[General Woundwort]

ignore - messed up on edit for prior post

[ August 17, 2003, 23:37: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]

[TerranC]

Kind of hard to classify the current situation we're in as a world war when the world isn't involved it it; The United states and it's few allies against the arab world counts as the whole globe? That's news to me.

[General Woundwort]

Not a world war? There are Muslim vs. non-Muslim conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, the Sudan, Somalia, amongst others). There is a decades-old Muslim insurgency in the Philippines. The troubles in Indonesia are well-known. Arab terrorist Groups use South America (especially Trinidad and the tri-border region around Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay) as a fund-raising and laundering base - perhaps other things too. Muslim terrorists have established themselves and struck in both Europe and North America. Muslim-Hindu conflicts are one of the defining features of the tension between India and Pakistan.

And you say it isn't a global conflict?

[Fyron]

To qualify as a world war, there needs to be more than one powerful side...