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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio Welcome Back to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: where we reveal a new piece of history every day.

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Speaker 1: Today is April eleventh. The day was April eleventh, nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy nine. Ugandan dictator dy A Mean was forced to

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Speaker 1: flee Libya when Tanzanian troops and Uganda National Liberation Front

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Speaker 1: forces captured Kampala, the capital, and overthrew a means regime.

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Speaker 1: A means rule was brutal, and his deposition was a

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Speaker 1: culmination of eight years of genocide, economic deterioration, human rights violations,

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Speaker 1: and suppression of his opposition. Uganda have been a protectorate

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Speaker 1: of the British Empire since eighteen nine, and then as

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Speaker 1: early adult years, he served in the British Colonial Army.

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Speaker 1: He was a skilled but cruel soldier. From nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: two to nineteen fifty six, he served with the British

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Speaker 1: during the suppression of the Mau Mau Uprising and Kenya.

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Speaker 1: Even though he was known for his brutality. During this time,

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Speaker 1: he was promoted from sergeant to lance corporal, to sergeant

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Speaker 1: major to platoon commander. In nineteen fifty nine, he reached

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Speaker 1: the rank of Affinity, the highest rank a Black African

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Speaker 1: could get in the British King's African Rifles Regiment at

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Speaker 1: the time. By nineteen sixty one, he had reached the

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Speaker 1: rank of lieutenant. Amen was also known for his sports ability.

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Speaker 1: He was a swimmer, rugby player and boxer. In nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty one, he became the light heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda,

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Speaker 1: a title he held until nineteen sixty. Uganda gained its

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Speaker 1: independence from Britain in nineteen sixty two, and Milton Obote

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Speaker 1: became the Prime Minister of the country. By the mid

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, Abote and Amine had become close. Amen was

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Speaker 1: promoted to major, then colonel. He helped the Prime Minister

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Speaker 1: established military training camps, and the pair were implicated in

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Speaker 1: working together to smuggled coffee, ivory and gold from Congo

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Speaker 1: to trade for arms. In nineteen sixty six, Amen was

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Speaker 1: appointed Chief of the Army and Air Force, but by

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Speaker 1: the late nineteen sixties their relationship had taken a turn

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Speaker 1: for the worse. There were a couple of assassination attempts

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Speaker 1: on Abot's life, and Abote began to distrust a mean. Nevertheless,

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Speaker 1: Amen was promoted to Chief of General's staff in eighteen seventy,

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Speaker 1: but in January nineteen seventy one, while Obote was in Singapore,

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Speaker 1: a Mean staged a military coup. Obote went into exile,

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Speaker 1: and a Mean set to work on promoting the military

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Speaker 1: by putting military tribunals above the system of civil law

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Speaker 1: and appointing soldiers to top government positions. Amin became president

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Speaker 1: and Chief of the Armed Forces that year, field marshal

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five, and then president for life. At first,

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Speaker 1: Amen seemed charming and charismatic, and Ugandan's welcomed his rule.

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Speaker 1: He was seen as a nationalist, and he freed political

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Speaker 1: prisoners and abolished Obote's secret police, but he also employed

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Speaker 1: killer squads to murder Abote supporters, mainly targeting people from

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Speaker 1: the Atoly and Longo ethnic groups, but his reign of

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Speaker 1: terror soon extended to people from all walks of life,

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Speaker 1: including journalists, students, military personnel, diplomats, and tribal leaders. Internal

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Speaker 1: security forces known as the State Research Bureau and Public

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Speaker 1: Safety Unit acted as informants and terrorized locals, killing and

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Speaker 1: abducting thousands of people. In nineteen seventy two, he attacked

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Speaker 1: Israel in Britain since they had refused to sell him weapons.

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Speaker 1: Amine proceeded to force tens of thousands of Israelis and

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Speaker 1: Asians who held British passports out of Uganda. Because he

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Speaker 1: expelled such a significant portion of the workforce, manufacturing and

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Speaker 1: commerce took huge hits, and the economy collapsed. Inflation skyrocketed.

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Speaker 1: But Amine reveled in his power, sending telegrams to world

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Speaker 1: leaders praising or insulting them. The world began to take

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Speaker 1: notice of Amine and his ruthlessness, and Amine took advantage

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Speaker 1: of the spotlight. He became known as the Butcher of Uganda.

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Speaker 1: He supported the hijacking of a flight from Tel Aviv

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Speaker 1: to Paris by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

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Speaker 1: He ordered mass executions and had people's bodies dumped in

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Speaker 1: the Nile River. He discredited criticism of his regime and

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Speaker 1: made shocking remarks like saying Hitler was right to kill

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Speaker 1: millions of Jewish people. It's estimated that his regime was

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Speaker 1: responsible for somewhere around three hundred thousand depths. But over time,

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Speaker 1: as the regime's atrocities piled up, people recognize a means

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Speaker 1: beside and denounced his violence, a means allies and troops

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Speaker 1: began to turn on him. In October nineteen seventy eight,

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Speaker 1: Amene ordered an invasion of Tanzania. He sent troops into

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Speaker 1: the country to annex the Kagia Salient territory in northwest Tanzania,

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Speaker 1: but with the help of Ugandan exiles, Tanzanian troops drove

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Speaker 1: a means army out and invaded Uganda, capturing the capital

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Speaker 1: of Kampala. On April eleventh, nineteen seventy nine, Amen, a

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Speaker 1: Muslim convert, fled Uganda with his four wives, some of

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Speaker 1: his mistresses, and many of his children. He was offered

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Speaker 1: sanctuary in Libya, but he soon up the country after

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Speaker 1: a dispute between his bodyguards and Libyan authorities. He moved

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Speaker 1: to Iraq, then to Saudi Arabia, where he was given

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Speaker 1: asylum in the name of Islamic charity. Amin died in

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia in August of two thousand three. I'm Eves

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Speaker 1: Jeff Coote, and hopefully you know a little more about

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Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. If you feel like

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Speaker 1: correcting my pronunciation or my accent on anything that I've

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Speaker 1: said in the show, feel free to leave a very

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Speaker 1: kind comment on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. At t d

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Speaker 1: i h C Podcast, thanks for joining me on this

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Speaker 1: trip through time. See you here in the exact same

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Speaker 1: spot tomorrow