Ugandans pray for Amin

2003-08-17 17:12

Kampala - Hundreds of Muslims on Sunday gathered at Uganda's main mosque to pray to God to judge leniently former president Idi Amin, who has died in exile in Saudi Arabia.

The mosque at Old Kampala Hill, where British explorer Captain Lugard erected the first building of the city, overlooking the current city centre, was filled to capacity, with more people praying from outlying grounds.

"To say that Amin was the worst criminal, is to misrepresent the facts," a speaker said, reacting to government officials, whose eulogy he said was "un-African," a reference to the tradition never to speak ill of the dead.

Many government officials had used Amin's death to take a swipe at Uganda's former dictator, blamed for the death of over 300 000 people.

Amin 'did some good things'

"No body will make us waiver from the fact that Amin did a number of good things for the country," opposition politician Hussein Kyanjo told the gathering that included Amin's children, relatives and some government officials.

Kyanjo asked government officials to give "Muslims a break to mourn their dear one, Idi Amin," whom they said donated the land on which the mosque stood and who founded the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) - the highest organ of the Muslim faith in Uganda.

Islamic cleric Haruna Sengooba asked the government to allow them to observe annual prayers on August 17 in remembrance of Amin's death.

"So many of us came here as a testimony to show that in spite of what is said, Amin worked for this country.

'Show us the skulls'We challenge those castigating him to show the world the skulls of those he killed, like we have been shown the skulls of those killed after him," UMSC religious affairs secretary Mahad Kakooza said.

Several skulls of victims of the five-year bush war that brought President Yoweri Museveni to power were shown for a year in central Uganda's Luwero triangle - the centre of the war.

Amin's former education minister Abu Mayanja described the late former leader as a person who had "a lot of interest and vision for Uganda," saying his first government after he seized power in 1971 was full of professionals and that it had never been equalled in Ugandan history after him.

"God should judge him according to the limitations that existed during his time and the circumstances he worked under," Mayanja, who has also served in the current government, said, asking: "Who had counted and documented the people Amin had killed?"

- AFP