Aide says Amin has vanished

Press, 1 December 1978, Page 6

Aide says Amin has vanished

NZPA-Reuter Nairobi j President Idi Amin, of [I Uganda, has mysteriously [! disappeared from public!’ view amid signs of panic in southern Uganda in the face of an invasion by Tanzanian forces, an aide of the President has said. “It’s a mystery, there’s [! something to it,” the aide[i said in a telephone inter-; view. “Everybody is on pins!; and needles.” The aide, who asked not; to be identified, said President Amin had not been ! seen or heard of in Kampala; since Tuesday morning. Her also said that previous dis-[’ appearances by the President!: had been connected with 11 assassination attempts. President Amin has sur-h .vived more than 20 assas-ll sination attempts since com-'; ing to power in 1971. President Amin hash dropped from public view i

periodically, saying later he had been on holiday or a honeymoon with one of his 'wives. He was last out of sight [in September, 1977, when his aides reported him in a . coma on an island in Lake [Victoria. Fifteen men were 'later executed for plotting to overthrow him. ; Uganda charged two days (ago that Tanzanian troops, [backed with tanks and artillery, had driven across the border and were headed up Kampala. Western diplomatic ! sources in Nairobi said on [Tuesday they had information corroborating the Ugandan report, but said on Wednesday they now had no ’clear picture of what was [happening in the border ’zone. Tanzania has repeatedly denied that its troops were in Uganda.