WIFE: Idi Amin in Coma

Sunday, July 20, 2003

From correspondents in Kampala

Agence France-Presse

Up to 400,000 people are estimated to have died during his time in office or are still unaccounted for.

Idi Amin Dada, then president of Uganda, is seen in this 1978 file photo (more from AP)

Image Credit: The Associated Press

AFP
Idi Amin, whose 1971 to 1979 reign in Uganda was one of the bloodiest in Africa's modern history, is in a coma and on a life support system in Saudi Arabia, one of his wives told AFP on Saturday.

"They have told me he is in coma and on a life support machine. We are still waiting for more information from there," Madina Amin said in a brief telephone interview.

By "they", Madina was referring to Amin's entourage in Saudi Arabia, where Idi Amin, a Muslim now in his eighties, has lived in obscurity for more than 10 years.

"We have contacted the (Kampala) government, to ask that if he dies his body can be brought back home for a decent burial," she said, adding that her husband had suffered from hypertension for some time and fallen into the coma on Friday.

Idi Amin has not been back to Uganda since he was ousted by joint forces of Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles on April 11, 1979.
(More: News.com.AU)
2003 © Agence France-Presse (AFP).

To quote MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann as he counted down last evening, “Let’s hurry it up, big boy. It’s not really hell until you get there.”

Dan