How Did The Ugandan Dictator Idi Amin?

Thirty-five years ago, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was overthrown after a brutal eight-year reign. His regime killed up to 500,000 people, persecuted Christians, and left Uganda a broken nation. In the aftermath, World Vision worked with the African Evangelistic Enterprise and other partners to provide emergency supplies, and then-World Vision President Stan Mooneyham promised $500,000 for relief and reconstruction. This article about his visit to Uganda appeared in World Vision magazine’s July 1979 edition.

The pink L-shaped building high on Nakasero hill is in that part of Kampala familiar to all enemies of former Ugandan President Idi Amin. The three-story structure was once the work place for some 300 men and women. Most of those handpicked
A Tanzanian soldier in his early 20s shuffles through its dark, empty corridors. Another soldier stands sentry in front of a door with a sign that reads: NO ENTRANCE – TOP SECRET.

Actually, it’s no longer a secret at all. The horrible truth is out: This place was once Idi Amin’s personal murder factory.

The official name was the State Research Bureau, the SRB. But the bureau had little to do with affairs of state, and the research was not of a university variety. Instead, it was the headquarters for Idi Amin’s dreaded secret police. Here, “enemies of the state” were brought for slaughter. Offices became torture chambers where crazed agents of Idi Amin strangled, shot, and beheaded their victims. Sometimes as many as 20 died during a single day.

An Anglican pastor, the Reverend George Lukwiya, was one of the few survivors of this place. As we stood in Mr. Lukwiya’s former cell, he told me what it was like to be a victim of Amin’s
Later, at a press conference I attended at the State House, Yusufu K. Lule, then interim president, said he was also counting on Ugandan Christians to help restore the moral and psychological fiber of the nation.

Mr. Lule went on to say, “We have a generation of young people who have seen only the examples of violence, tyranny, murder, and disrespect for property. We must reeducate them with proper spiritual and moral values. It will not be an easy task, but we pray that we may do it in less than the eight years it took Amin to destroy our country.”

At that press conference, I promised the Ugandans that World Vision would contribute at least $500,000 toward the relief and reconstruction of their nation. Right now, World Vision is working through the Church of Uganda and African Enterprise to help provide food, medicine, and other emergency supplies. Each week, additional relief shipments enter Uganda from neighboring