Idi Amin.

Idi Amin. I INTRODUCTION Idi Amin (1925?-2003), president of Uganda (1971-1979), also known as Idi Amin Dada, whose brutality and disregard for the rule of law led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and plunged the country into chaos and poverty. II EARLY LIFE AND MILITARY CAREER Idi Amin was born in Buganda to parents who came from northwestern Uganda. He received little formal education and pursued a career in the army from a young age. The details of Amin's early military service are uncertain--when president, he claimed to have fought in Burma (Myanmar) in World War II (1939-1945), although he may have only served in the British army as a cook or orderly, and possibly was not involved in the war at all. Ugandan army records indicate that he entered the King's African Rifles (the British army's East African corps) in 1946. A physically imposing athlete, Amin gained the attention and admiration of his superiors by becoming the heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, a title he held from 1951 to 1960. In the early 1950s Amin campaigned with his battalion against the Mau Mau Rebellion, an uprising against British rule in Kenya. Just before Uganda became independent from Britain in 1962, Amin was promoted to lieutenant and ordered to disarm a number of cattle raiders in northeastern Uganda. While carrying out this order, Amin reportedly tortured several suspected cattle raiders. The British governor told the new prime minister, Milton Obote, about Amin's misconduct, but Obote decided to overlook it, much to his later regret. Amin was promoted to captain by 1963 and was rapidly promoted to the rank of...