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Title: | Soviet prop to Idi Amin's regime: an assessment |
Author: | Mulira, J. |
Year: | 1986 |
Periodical: | The African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs (ISSN 0856-0056) |
Volume: | 13 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 105-122 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Uganda East Africa |
Subjects: | foreign policy arms trade politics Political development Amin, Idi, 1925-2003 |
Abstract: | While external factors contributed, to a certain extent, to the coup of 1971 in Uganda, its inherent causes lay in the contradictions existing in the complex Ugandan society, which for generations had been beset by ethnic, religious, and class differences. In attempting to deal with these contradictions, President Obote antagonized and alienated several groups which preferred to retain the 'status quo'. Amin utilized the anti-Obote groups to oust Obote and to win the political support that was crucial for the consolidation of his power. When he did not receive the assistance he expected from the West and Israel - essentially: sophisticated arms - he turned first to the Arab world, and later to the Communist bloc. The Soviets, for their own economic, ideological and strategic interests, moved in to fill the political, economic and military 'vacuum' created by the departure of the Western countries from Uganda. Although Amin publicly announced that the Soviet arms were to be used for defensive purposes against external enemies of Uganda, he also, in fact, planned to use them against his neighbours, Kenya and Tanzania. The worst effect of Soviet arms on Uganda, however, can be measured at the level of their destruction of Ugandans. The Soviet bloc, particularly the USSR, continued to supply arms to Amin's regime, even knowing that they were being misused, thus sustaining a regime which was detrimental to the Ugandans. Notes, ref. |