Dictator gave 80,000 Asians 90 days to leave

IN August 1972, Idi Amin – the tyrannical president of Uganda – ordered the country’s Asian population to leave the country within 90 days. The wealthy community of around 0,000 people, mainly Gujaratis from India, had assumed a dominant role in the economy under the British rule which ended a decade earlier. After Uganda became independent in 1962, resentment grew against the remaining Indian population.

Amin, pictured, stoked this hostility after taking dictatorial control in 1971, and a year later he expelled the entire Asian population for ‘sabotaging Uganda’s economy’. Around 27,000 fled as refugees to the UK, where they could settle as they still had British passports. The rest mainly moved to India, Canada and neighbouring Kenya. Some smuggled their jewellery out of the country, which they sold to buy businesses in their new lands. Amin was ousted in 1979, and lived the rest of his life in exile.