Ugandan President paved way for Amin

Milton Obote, the former President of Uganda who died on Monday aged 80, led his country to independence from Britain in 1962, then laid the foundations for what was to become, under Idi Amin, one of the most brutal tyrannies in Africa.

On the eve of independence from the British, it seemed that Uganda might avoid the bloodshed and tribalism that had hampered the development of other newly independent states.

After his election, he attempted to balance the disparate tribal and regional factions within a multi-party democracy. But when democratic methods didn’t work, Obote imposed unity by force, stamping on opposition, building up the power of the army, taking all powers into his own hands and building up the apparatus of a repressive one-party state.

By relying so heavily on the military, Obote created a monster that ultimately he could not control; in 1971 he was ousted in a military coup by Idi Amin, his one-time protege whom he had promoted to army chief of staff.

Obote’s return to power nine years later, in the wake of a Tanzanian invasion of Uganda, was widely welcomed by the West after the devastation inflicted by Amin; but Obote was no more successful in curbing factionalism and insurrection than he had been during his first term of office; before long he had resorted to the brutal methods of his predecessor in a campaign of mass killings, murders and torture.

Once again, it was Obote’s failure to establish control over the army that proved his undoing; in 1985, he was ousted from power in another military coup and forced into exile a second time.

Apollo Milton Obote, the third of nine children, was born, probably in 1925, in the Lango district of northern Uganda. His father was a small farmer and minor chieftain; his mother, Puliskara, was one of his father’s four wives.

The young Obote helped tend his father’s flocks of sheep and goats until, at 12, he was speared in the shoulder by a bandit, after which he was sent to the local primary school.

Obote was not an outstanding scholar, but he was known for his imperious manner as well as for his firm belief that he was destined to lead his country.

Obote formed and was president of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), under which he declared his country as a neutral force between the East and the West and supported African nationalist movements. He granted amnesties to thousands of political prisoners and Uganda’s minorities were assured they had nothing to fear.

He encouraged private investment and development aid from the West. In May, 1963, he signed the original charter of the Organization of African Unity and suppressed a separatist revolt.

But by the mid ’ 80s, Western diplomats reported that the Milton Obote Foundation, a drab building in Kampala’s outskirts, had become the centre for tortures far worse than those meted out even by Amin.

Obote also encouraged mass attacks by the army on civilians in areas where there had been guerrilla activity, which led to thousands of refugees flooding across the border into southern Sudan. During his second period in power, as many as 200,000 are said to have died from starvation, massacre or warfare.

Obote fled to Kenya and later received asylum in Zambia. After Museveni led his rebel army to victory in 1986, the true nature of Obote’s regime was revealed with the excavation of mass graves around Kampala.

Milton Obote was married three times and had at least four children.