'The British Must Kneel at My Feet!'

During the four years that he has ruled the East African nation of Uganda, General Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada has earned a worldwide reputation as a loudmouthed buffoon. In fact, Big Daddy is a murderous and perhaps mentally unbalanced bully whose reign of terror, according to one study by the International Commission of Jurists, has led to the deaths of anywhere from 25,000 to 250,000 Ugandans (out of a population of 11 million). One of Amin's ugliest characteristics is his tendency to use human beings as political pawns, as in the case of a British author named Denis Cecil Hills, who is scheduled to be executed by a Ugandan firing squad this week.

Three months ago, Amin announced that Hills, 61, a resident of Uganda since 1964 and a lecturer at a teachers' training college until 1973, had been arrested for "spying" and for writing, in an unpublished manuscript, that Big Daddy ruled in the manner of a "village tyrant." A civil court threw out the case against Hills, who is suffering from terminal cancer. Nonetheless, a secret military tribunal quickly found him guilty of treason. Yet even before the kangaroo-court tribunal had reached its verdict, Amin was offering to trade Hills' life for some concessions from the British government. Among Big Daddy's demands: that the British press be prevented from spreading "malicious propaganda" against him; that several prominent Ugandan exiles living in Britain be forcibly returned to Uganda (to face death or imprisonment); and that Britain supply spare parts for military equipment it had previously sold to Uganda. "The British must bow," crowed Amin. "They must kneel at my feet."

Nice Irony. Worried not only about Hills but about the fate of 700 other British citizens residing in Uganda, Britain's Labor Government dispatched to Kampala two royal envoys who seemed well-suited to the assignment: Lieut. General Sir Chandos Blair, 56, and retired Major Iain Grahame, 43, who were Amin's military commanders when he was a soldier in the now. disbanded King's African Rifles. When the envoys reached Kampala, they were greeted by a guard of honor and a military band. Amin was off at a rally in honor of African Refugee Day. This was a nice irony, since a sizable number of Africa's refugees today include blacks who have fled from Big Daddy's capricious repression--not to mention the 50,000 Asian residents he expelled in 1972.

After a day of waiting in Kampala, the two officers were transported by helicopter to meet Amin in Arua, his birthplace in northern Uganda. With typical cunning, Big Daddy was waiting for them in the gloom of a thatched hut whose entrance was so low that the British officers were obliged to crawl inside, thereby enabling Radio Uganda to boast that "the two guests entered the general's house on their knees."

Still, everything started off well enough. Amin declared that he "loved" Blair and announced that "out of respect for the Queen" he had decided to postpone Hills' execution. At the next day's meeting an argument apparently broke out between Amin and the British envoys. The negotiations ended when Blair, an old-school officer with a clipped voice, gave Amin a smart military salute and stalked out of the room murmuring, "I am very disappointed."

Alert the Army! Berserk with anger, Big Daddy declared that Hills would be shot on July 4, unless British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan visits Uganda in the meantime. Trembling, Amin shouted to his defense council, "Alert the army! Alert the air force! Call Libya [an ally whose leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, is a fellow Moslem and fellow eccentric] and tell her to start sending airplanes here!" Later, complaining that Blair had been "undiplomatic, hot-tempered and totally drunk" during the talks, Amin charged that the envoy had threatened to order "British troops from Kenya" to invade Uganda, and that Britain had sent two warships "full of combat troops" to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

London immediately refuted the charges, pointing out that it had only 38 servicemen in Kenya and no combat troops whatever on the two vessels that were making routine calls at Mombasa. In the House of Commons, Callaghan declared firmly that he would be willling to go to Kampala for discussions but not under duress. "It is utterly wrong," he said, "that a man's life should be bartered against political conditions."

Olive Branch. London took some hope from a five-page telegram that Amin fired off to the Queen later in the week. Nostalgically recalling his 1971 visit to Britain, Amin wrote that he was still ready to receive Callaghan. Seizing on what seemed to be a tentative olive branch, Prime Minister Harold Wilson replied that Callaghan would go to Uganda for talks about "the whole range of political, economic, cultural and technical problems"--as soon as Hills' death sentence had been revoked.

Big Daddy has several reasons for wanting to settle the matter quickly. The summit meeting of the 43-nation Organization of African Unity is scheduled to be held next month in Kampala, and Amin, as the host, desperately wants it to be a success. Last week the government of Botswana announced that it would boycott the Kampala meeting because of Amin's "disregard for the sanctity of human life." Several other member states, possibly including Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia, may do the same.

But Amin's delight in twisting the British lion's tail may take precedence over other considerations. At week's end Radio Uganda announced that several more British citizens had been arrested on treason charges and would be tried by a military tribunal. "Their cases," the statement added, "are even worse than Hills'."

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