Posted by AssurHaddon from dialup-67.73.32.104.Dial1.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (67.73.32.104) on Saturday, August 16, 2003 at 10:19PM :
Brutal dictator Idi Amin dies in Saudi hospital
IDI Amin, the brutal former dictator of Uganda, died today in a Saudi hospital.
Amin had been on a life-support machine since July 18. He was in a coma and suffering from high blood pressure when he was admitted to the King Faisal Specialist hospital. Later, hospital staff said, he suffered kidney failure.
Amin was forced from Uganda in 1979, fled to Libya, then Iraq and finally Saudi Arabia, where he was allowed to settle provided he stayed out of politics.
A one-time heavyweight boxing champion and soldier in the British colonial army, Amin seized power on January 25, 1971, overthrowing President Milton Obote, who was abroad.
Human rights groups say as many as 500,000 people were killed during Amin’s 1971-1979 rule over Uganda. Amin, 80, who had six wives and 43 children, once declared himself "King of Scotland".
He was flown on the Queen’s flight in July 1971 from London to Edinburgh, to attend the beating of the retreat at the Castle by the pipes and drums of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.
"I like Scots best because they are the best fighters in Britain and do not practise discrimination," said the former NCO, who made himself a field marshal and awarded himself the Victorious Cross and a CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire).
He learned to play the bagpipes, wore the kilt and put one regiment of his own army into kilts.
He died at 8.20am local time, a hospital official said.
-- AssurHaddon
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