Ailing Amin 'would face trial'
2003-07-23 09:09
Kampala - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni warned Tuesday that ailing former dictator Idi Amin, in a coma in Saudi Arabia, would face trial for his atrocities if he returned to his homeland alive.
Museveni said: "If Amin comes back alive, he will be prosecuted for the atrocities he committed against the people of Uganda."
Amin, meanwhile, remained in a coma and on life-support in a hospital in the Red Sea port of Jeddah, with his condition stable, but critical, said clinic officials.
"He is still alive. His condition, however, has not improved and he remains in a coma and on a life-support machine in the intensive-care unit" at King Faisal Specialist Hospital, one of Saudi Arabia's top medical centres, said a medical source.
Hospital officials refused to specify the exact cause of Idi Amin's illness or provide details about his condition at the request of family members who have been living with him in Saudi Arabia in obscurity for more than 10 years.
Idi Amin, a Muslim now in his eighties, was admitted to hospital last Friday and fell into a coma a day later.
Campaign of brutality
On Tuesday, his wife and daughter joined the notorious former dictator at his bedside.
Amin's eight-year reign during the 1970s saw a horrific campaign of brutality in Uganda with between 100 000 and 300 000 people killed.
Minister for the presidency Kirunda Kivejinja, who has been handling the link between Amin's family and the government, said: "Amin's wife and daughter left yesterday (Monday) aboard Ethiopian Airlines and they are already in Jeddah."
The government "facilitated" the trip, he added, without elaborating.
As armed forces chief, Amin staged a coup in January 1971 when President Milton Obote was out of the country and proclaimed himself head of state.
"Big Dada," as he became known, began by slaughtering Obote loyalists, but the killing quickly spread from the barracks to the entire country.
It included an Anglican archbishop, a chief justice and several cabinet ministers.
Leaving his country in economic ruins, Amin first sought refuge with Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and then in Saudi Arabia, where he has lived ever since in luxury with several wives and some of his estimated 50 children among the oil sheikhs of Jeddah.