After the Fall

Big Daddy's bankrupt state

Any remaining mystery concerning Big Daddy's whereabouts has apparently been resolved. The U.S. State Department last week confirmed earlier press releases that Uganda's Idi Amin Dada, who was driven into exile two months ago by a combination of Ugandan exiles and Tanzanian soldiers, has taken refuge in Libya, along with two of his wives, about 20 of his children and at least one concubine. Behind him, as TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief David Wood discovered during a recent visit, the deposed dictator left a country on the brink of economic and political bankruptcy. Wood's report:

Tanzanian armed forces have reached the northernmost corners of Uganda, and the fighting by remnants of Idi Amin's army is over. But in the capital city of Kampala, the new government of President Yusufu Lule is hard pressed to maintain even a resemblance of stability. Squabbling within the government, a hastily assembled coalition of often opposing tribal and ideological groups, is so heated that the new regime is barely able to address itself to the crucial problems of reconstruction.

At the center of the trouble is the rivalry between supporters and opponents of former President Milton Obote, who was ousted by Amin in 1971 and has lived in exile in Tanzania ever since. Obote has remained there since Amin's overthrow, presumably because Lule and his colleagues felt that the ex-President's presence would have a disruptive effect on the new government. A week ago, Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere, godfather of sorts to the new regime in Kampala, called its leaders to Tanzania to talk over their differences. One result of the meeting is that Obote is apparently free, with Lule's approval, to return to Uganda and take part in rebuilding the country.

The collapse of Amin's rule set off an orgy of reprisals by northern tribesmen, especially the Acholi, whom Amin's forces had been killing by the thousands for years. In one grisly incident, a captured Ugandan soldier, his arms and feet bound, was suddenly attacked by a knife-wielding Acholi woman who slashed off his genitals, stuffed them in his mouth and then slit open his stomach. Taken into custody, she explained that she had waited five years to avenge the murder of her husband by agents of Amin's dread State Research Bureau, who had killed him in exactly the same way.

The Tanzanian force in Uganda numbers about 50,000. Tanzanian army officials say that fewer than 200 of their soldiers have been killed, compared with about 1,000 of Amin's troops and 300 to 400 of the Libyan soldiers that Strong man Muammar Gaddafi sent to Amin's aid. There are no reliable estimates of civilian casualties, but they were apparently low. The Tanzanian force has been reasonably well disciplined, though there have been repeated reports that soldiers, both Tanzanian and Ugandan, have been commandeering automobiles, looting houses and in a few cases killing civilians. Nyerere, who admitted that the war against Amin cost his country more than $250 million, announced two weeks ago that his army would soon begin pulling out of Uganda. Some of his troops, however, would remain behind to help train the new Ugandan army. In Kampala, the withdrawal of the Tanzanian soldiers is a sticky issue. Though many Ugandans resent the presence of an occupation army, they realize that the Tanzanians are virtually the only security force in Kampala at the moment.

Perhaps no one is more hated in Uganda today than British-born Bob Astles, who was Idi Amin's most trusted aide. After Amin's fall, Astles fled to Kenya, where he was captured, interrogated and finally extradited to Uganda last week. When he learned that he would be sent back to Uganda, according to Kenyan authorities, Astles tried to escape by jumping from a window. But by the time he arrived in Uganda a few hours later to face a murder charge, Astles had regained his composure. Said he: "It's nice to be back. I know I will get justice. I'm not scared."

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