Why Israel and Britain were delighted at Amin's rise

By RICHARD DOWDEN

When Radio Uganda announced at dawn on 25 January 1971 that Idi Amin was the new ruler of Uganda, many people suspected that Britain was behind the coup.

A fierce critic of British arms sales to South Africa, Milton Obote, the president Amin overthrew, was that week at the Commonwealth summit in Singapore haranguing the British Prime Minister, Ted Heath.

However, Foreign Office papers released last year point to a different conspirator: Israel. The first telegrams to London from the British high commissioner in Kampala, Richard Slater, show a man shocked by the coup.
But he quickly turned to the man who he thought might know what was going on: Colonel Bar Lev, the Israeli defence attache. He found the colonel with Amin; he had spent the morning of the coup with him.

The Israelis moved quickly to consolidate the coup. In the following days Bar Lev was in constant contact with Amin. A telegram from Mr Slater said that Bar Lev had gone into detail to show that "all potential foci of resistance ... had been eliminated". In those times elimination meant only one thing. Shortly afterwards Amin made his first foreign trip, a state visit to Israel. The Israelis gave him a personal jet, tanks and small arms.

But why was Israel interested in a small country in central Africa? The reason is spelt out in a later telegram from Mr Slater who explains that Israel had supplied rebels in southern Sudan with arms as a way of punishing the Sudan government for supporting the Arab cause in the Six-Day War.

"The main Israeli objective here is to ensure that the rebellion in southern Sudan keeps on simmering for as long as conditions require the exploitation of any weakness in the Arab world."

In the 1960s Amin had become close to the Israelis when they were training the new Uganda army. In addition to becoming chief of staff of the Uganda army he ran a sideline operation for the Israelis, supplying arms to the Sudanese rebels.

Amin had his own motive for helping them. Many of his own people, the Kakwa, live in southern Sudan. Obote, however, wanted peace in southern Sudan. He became aware what Amin was doing in Sudan and this contributed to the rift between them. That worried the Israelis and they were even more worried in November 1970, when Obote sacked Amin as head of the army. Their stick for beating Sudan was suddenly taken away.

If the British had little to do with the coup itself they welcomed it jubilantly. It had deposed a fiery critic of British arms sales to South Africa.

"General Amin has certainly removed from the African scene one of our most implacable enemies in matters affecting Southern Africa ... Our prospects in Uganda have no doubt been considerable enhanced providing we take the opportunities offered to us," wrote an enthusiastic Foreign Office official in London.

The Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, quickly moved to protect Amin, ordering that he be kept informed about Obote's movements in case he tried to get back to Uganda though Kenya.

He then tackled the problem of recognition. London was reluctant to be the first to recognise the victor of a military coup; eventually Kenya was persuaded to recognise Amin and Britain followed suit. But Mr Slater in Kampala remained reluctant. Sir Alec gave Mr Slater his orders: "The PM will be watching this and will, I am sure, want us to take quick advantage of any opportunity of selling arms. Don't overdo the caution."

- INDEPENDENT