Amin opens ‘year of peace, love’

Press, 27 January 1978, Page 5

Amin opens ‘year of peace, love’

iNZPA Koboko (Uganda); ( Tanks and armoured cars; (have clanked and rumbledi past the mud huts of President Idi Amin’s birthplace to ( mark his seven years of dictatorial rule. President Amin called for peace and love, and said there were no “violations of so-called; human rights” in Uganda. j Before President Amin : spoke, 6000 Ugandans] watched as Soviet-made ve-| hides and troops passed the] Presidential reviewing stand.] Colourfully garbed tribal I ■ dancers sw'irled and shuffled. | Uganda's newlv trained' women pilots flew light air-1 craft over the crowd gath-] ered for the occasion at the grass airstrip of the sleepy! village of Koboko. “I have said this should' I be a year of peace, love,! [unity, and reconciliation,”] said President Amin, who: has been accused of tortur-l

[ing and murdering tens of (thousands of people who opi posed him. “It is very imjportant to have peace with your neighbours.” President Amin said he wanted to assure the entire world community that whatever has been said about violations of so-called human rights ", . . doesn't ] exist here. Since you came | here today, how many people have you found (dead?” i President Amin, who has (survived at least six reI ported assassination attempts, declared that he was (“protected by God.” | “I am not afraid of any Iman because I know when 1 am going to die,” he said, (but did not say when that would be. He seized control lof Uganda and its 11 million (citizens in 197) in a coup 'd’etat when President Milton ■ Obote was out of the counItry.