Purges and Peace Talks

"I have very accurate information," declared Ugandan Dictator Idi Amin Dada last week, as he proceeded to rattle off a lengthy list of potential invaders. They included neighboring Tanzania, Britain, Israel, Zambia, India, Rwanda, Sudan, "some countries in NATO," plus "two other countries"--one of them presumably China--all conspiring with Algeria, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, Malawi and Guyana. But Ugandans should not worry, Amin added, because "the Uganda armed forces are prepared to deal with the threat," and he was in direct command.

The Ugandan army under Amin's command was in fact the biggest threat facing Ugandans last week. The army, now dominated by his own West Nile group of Moslem tribes, had already massacred thousands of Lango and Acholi tribesmen after Amin's overthrow of President Milton Obote in 1971. Since last month's brief battle with invading Ugandan exiles from Tanzania, the army has turned on the Baganda, the country's largest tribe. Military police have made wholesale arrests, including Benedicto Kiwanuka, the Chief Justice of Uganda who was also the Baganda's most revered leader. Also arrested were the head of Makerere University and the president of the National Students Union.

At the same time, the flight of Uganda's Asians continued. Suspecting that some were not abiding by the deadline he had given them of 48 hours between the time they got their exit papers and the moment they left the country, Amin ordered a house-to-house search for Asians. By last week some 14,000 had left for England, India and Canada (the U.S. also announced that it would admit 1,000 refugees). But according to the private calculations of Uganda's police, an average of five Asians a day were being shot by soldiers, mostly at roadblocks.

Last week Uganda's neighbors, who have been alarmed by Amin's policies, stepped up efforts to keep peace in the area. Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko visited Kampala, and was presented by Amin with the Order of the Source of the Nile, Uganda's highest medal. The two leaders even agreed to rename Lake Albert and Lake Edward, which lie on the border of Zaire and Uganda and will henceforth be known, respectively, as Mobutu Sese Seko Lake and Idi Amin Dada Lake. More important, Mobutu seemingly won Amin's agreement to extend the Nov. 8 deadline for the departure of the estimated 50,000 Asians holding British citizenship and to attend a peace conference to reduce tensions that have arisen with neighboring Rwanda.

But no sooner had Mobutu left the country than Amin reneged. He would not be able to attend the conference, he said, because he was "busy commanding the armed forces." As for extending the deadline, he denied that he had ever promised to do so. "I continue to believe, until proved wrong," said Mobutu generously in Kinshasa, "that in Kampala I had talks with a real, conscientious and honest statesman. I would be very disappointed if the facts should prove the contrary." Late last week, however, Amin sent U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim a message saying that the Asians would be allowed to keep their possessions and would not be mistreated if they did not meet the deadline.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve Uganda's conflict with Tanzania fared somewhat better. Amin finally agreed to send Foreign Minister Wanume Kibedi to a Somalia-sponsored peace conference in Mogadishu, where Tanzanian Foreign Minister John Malacela had been waiting. At week's end, the two ministers issued a joint communique saying that an agreement had been reached.

Meantime, TIME Correspondent John Blashill learned in Nairobi last week that Amin has had invasion plans of his own--against Tanzania--and may still be entertaining such notions. Amin's ostensible aim would be to obtain an outlet to the sea for his landlocked country, and the port he has long had in mind is Tanga, near the northern Tanzanian border with Kenya.

According to Israeli Ambassador to Kenya Reuven Dafni, Amin canvassed such a plan in Israel and asked for Phantoms, Skyhawks and speedboats (to transport his army across Lake Victoria) and for Israeli staff officers to draw up detailed invasion plans. The Israelis refused, because they did not wish to get involved and because Amin already owed them a great deal of money. (Amin subsequently kicked all Israeli military advisers and civilians out of Uganda.) A similar request to Britain also proved futile.

There are two indications that suggest Amin may still be planning such an invasion. In a recent speech he attacked Africa's existing national boundaries as unrealistic and unjust legacies of the colonialist powers. He has also reportedly tried to place an order with France for 30 armored cars and have Libya pay for them. An invasion of that kind is both unthinkable and impossible. It would bring down the wrath of Black Africa on his head, and the wrath would be reinforced by troops and arms. Besides, Amin's 12,000-man army is simply not big enough to hold a strip of land 600 miles long.

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