Idi Amin was Israels Stooge

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday August 18, 2003 14:23 by Ali H.

In yesterdays Sunday Tribune there was an interesting piece om the former Ugandan dictator Idi Amins links to Israel. Naturally when one thinks of Idi Amin and Israel one's mind goes back to Entebbe in 1976. In fact Amin's coup was backed by the Brits and the Israelis, each of who had their own agendas. Israels in particular was to undermine the Sudanese regieme which was friendly with Egypt by backing the Christian rebels in the South of the country, a conflict that persists to this day.

In the early years of Ugandan independence, President Milton Obote invited delegations from Israel to help carry out farming projects in northern Uganda and to assist training the Army. Israel had a specific interest in Uganda: its proximity to Sudan. The Israelis were soon moving into southern Sudan to assist directly the Anyanya movement against Khartoum. In 1966, however, Obote visited Khartoum, and came to an agreement that Uganda would exert every effort to restore peace in the south. But the policy was ignored by the Defense Ministry and by Idi Amin, who was up to his eyeballs in smuggling operations in the Congo (now Zaire) and Sudan. Amin was in charge of an operation which smuggled gold and ivory out of Congo, in exchange for giving weapons to Congolese rebels, and was brought before a commission of inquiry when it was discovered that he was pocketing thousands of dollars in the process.

Ugandan Army officers also charged that Amin was working--against government orders--with the Sudan rebels inside Sudan. They alleged he went on a number of unauthorized flights with a foreign pilot--possibly Astles--to meet Sudanese rebels and arranged to supply them with materiel intended for the Ugandan Armed Forces. A German mercenary named Rolf Steiner was an accomplice in the operation. In his autobiography, {The Last Adventurer,} Steiner relates that he had arranged a meeting in Kampala ``under the supervision of General Idi Amin with the purpose of reaching an agreement on the leadership of the [Sudanese] liberation front.'' Out of this meeting, Steiner was given money to buy goods wholesale and ship them across Uganda to the tribal chiefs in southern Sudan. Steiner notes that ``although not all-powerful, he [Amin] was strong enough to order his army to turn a blind eye to my harmless smuggling service.''

Meanwhile, Obote refused to grant Israel landing rights for their supplies to the Anyanya. The crisis over Sudan policy hit in November 1970. Steiner was arrested by Ugandan police upon reentering Uganda from Sudan. Obote stated, in a later interview, ``The government of Uganda as such was not involved in aiding the Anyanya but was involved in finding political solutions in the Sudanese conflict. The arrest of Steiner brought out the fact that Israel was using Uganda to supply Anyanya.'' Obote was couped while he was in Nairobi, on his way back from the Singapore Commonwealth conference. As he relates, ``It is doubtful that Amin, without the urging of the Israelis, would have staged a successful coup in 1971.... Israel wanted a client regime in Uganda which they could manipulate in order to prevent Sudan from sending her troops to Egypt.... The coup succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.... The Israelis set up in Uganda a regime which pivoted in every respect to Amin, who in turn was under the strictest control of the Israelis in Kampala.... The Israelis and Anyanya were hilarious; the regime was under their control.''

When the Sudanese civil war was halted in 1972, Israel quickly lost interest in Amin. Enter Libya. In February 1972, Amin visited Libya, striking a pact with its President Muammar Qaddafi. In March 1972, all Israeli personnel were told to leave Uganda. In August 1972, all Asians were expelled, whereupon Britain withdrew its support for Amin. In September 1972, Libya proffered full military assistance to Uganda and sent 500 technicians to Kampala. By 1974, the intelligence services in Uganda were being run by Libya, and Libya was giving Amin Soviet MiG fighters. Libya even supplied troops to defend Amin when the Tanzanian Armed Forces invaded Uganda to drive Amin out. Overseeing the entire venture, from beginning to end in 1979, was London's Astles.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/dossiers/idi_amin.htm