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3:55 pm - Friday December 5, 2014

Home » People » Blogs » Idi Amin Son Protests Guardian's Obituary

Amin's executions rocked the nation between 1972 to 1979

Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's son, Hussein Juruga Amin, has written a complaint to the Guardian newspaper in United Kingdom, saying it published an obituary about his father which he said had "errors."
Idi Amin, who was toppled by revolutionary forces in 1979 after destroying the country's economy nd committing the most horrendous crimes since post-independence, died on 16 August 2003. His obituary for the Guardian was written by Patrick Keatley, the paper's distinguished Commonwealth and diplomatic correspondent, who himself died two years later.
"Allow me to raise my displeasure at a Guardian obituary about my father, Idi Amin," writes Hussein Amin from Kampala, where he hopes "to become an MP representing our home town" in 2016.
The newspaper said it is used to a wide range of complaints and that it was a surprise to receive an email from Idi Amin's son Hussein.
"It is not clear why he writes now rather than at the time of publication."
In his lengthy letter he takes issue with a number of points in the obituary but says: "I am not sure if you can take this from Idi Amin's son however factual my criticism is."
The readers' editor's office said it always considers a complaint seriously, from wherever it comes, adding, the son of the principal is always worth listening to, although that relationship does not guarantee the complainant will always be right.
Hussein is the son of Kay, Amin's fourth wife, who is mentioned in the obituary in a section not questioned by his son.
The concerns included the death toll during Idi Amin's regime; whether he took part in the Burma campaign during the second world war; his part in the Turkana massacre; and even the estimated date of his birth as stated in the obituary: "Amin was born around 1925 – exact records were not kept for Africans in those days – in Koboko county in West Nile district, home of the Kakwa tribe."
According to his son: "Amin was born in Kampala. My grandfather Andrea Nyabira Amin was a police officer then deployed at Kololo barracks, a suburb of the capital city. He had served in the King's African Rifles during the First World War and joined the police force in 1920. My father was born in 1928 while my grandfather was serving in Kampala and my grandmother was a herbalist treating the royal family of Buganda where the capital Kampala is."
Details of Amin's family life have some authority when told by his son, said the Guardian.
"However, Hussein Amin's other assertions, no matter how deeply felt, could not be independently verified; for instance, the number of deaths for which Idi Amin was responsible."
Keatley said in the obituary: "The death toll during the Amin regime will never be accurately known. The best estimate, from the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, is that it was not less than 80,000 and more likely around 300,000. Another estimate, compiled by exile organisations with the help of Amnesty International, put the number killed at 500,000."
Hussein says the best estimate by the International Commission of Jurists put the death toll at 30,000-80,000, not 80,000-100,000.
Guardian said Keatley, who knew Idi Amin and had to flee Uganda for his life while a reporter, was right: the ICJ did put the figure somewhere between 80,000 and 300,000. This figure is also supported by the Dictionary of National Biography, although it attributes it to Amnesty International.

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