{UAH} Masaka Suicide and Betrayal of Amin

Only Idi Amin knew why he called his prized unit in Masaka ‘Suicide Reconnaissance Regiment’. Amin probably didn’t mean that this unit was supposed to commit ‘suicide’ and if possible die for their leader.

With his mixing of English meanings, he probably meant that the unit is and must be ‘daring’, not ‘suicide’.

The unit commanded by Amin’s own blood relative Col. Juma Oka Rokoni (aka Juma Butabika), was the final trigger as it were, that caused Amin’s downfall.

 

First they invaded Tanzania (whether with or without Amin’s knowledge is still debatable). Then, in a clever but deceptive move as the first Tanzanian battalion led by Lt Col Col. Salim Hassan Boma walked straight at Mutukula border to launch their counter-attack on Uganda on January 22, 1979, soldiers of ‘Masaka Suicide’ and others under  Marijani simply fled the border post.

Then on February 13, 1979 as the Tanzanians moved in to attack Simba Hills and Sango Bay, Tanzanians who had made it a habit to listen in to Uganda army radio communications frequencies, heard Lt. Col. Marijani call Republic House in Kampala in panic saying:

Lt Col. Marijani: “Sir, they are really coming now; tens of thousands of them. We need urgent reinforcements and air support, over”.

Major Gen, Yusuf Gowon (Chief of Staff): “They cannot be that many. Fight them while we see what to do”

Lt. Col. Marijani: “We are going to change places. I am coming there and you come here and fight”.

 

The break down in command and too much familiarity because many officers felt that being Kakwa or Nubian meant they can question fellow Kakwa and Nubian officers made things worse for Amin. As commanders from the front arrived back at the Officers Mess in Masaka, according to one of only officers who was actually doing actual fighting and believing he was doing a duty to his country (Major Bernard Rwehururu, now retired Brigadier), the other officers that had been waiting for deployment to the front derisively would ask them “vita yenyu ana endelea namna gani (how is your war going on)?”.

 

No wonder two months later, with cowardly officers, many of whom were Sudanese and Congolese, Amin was ‘past tense’ as he liked to say and Hussein Amin and the rest had to leave Uganda in a huff.

 

Big question; could a non-relative have fought better for Amin than Col Juma Oka Rokoni?

 

Billie