I Love Amin, Says Bishop Sentamu
SPEAKING from the Norfolk Broads, where he is on summer holiday, the Rt. Rev. Dr John Sentamu, Bishop for Birmingham said:<br>
Speaking from the Norfolk Broads, where he is on summer holiday, the Rt. Rev. Dr John Sentamu, Bishop for Birmingham said:
“I worked as a member of the Ugandan bar and the bench during Amin’s reign of terror and faced considerable challenges upholding the law in the north of the country where Amin murdered many men creating widows and countless orphans.
“One of the cases I tried involved Amin’s cousin, who was accused of the torture and rape of a woman. Amin had told me that I must find the defendant not guilty. I tried the case and sentenced his cousin to five years imprisonment. I was also working with Justice Saeid to keep a record of the properties owned by Ugandan Asians who were being stripped of their possessions and exiled from the country. It was around this time that I was arrested and beaten up by Amin’s hit squad, eventually leading to life-threatening medical complications. I left Uganda in 1974 and came to England.
“When Idi Amin murdered Archbishop Janani Luwum in 1977, Bishop Festo Kivengere also had to flee for his life. His response was to write a book entitled I Love Idi Amin setting out the Christian answer to Amin. My response echoes the sentiment set out in that book. The Christian response to Amin’s death is to follow the injunction of Jesus who said: “love your enemies, pray for your persecutors and you shall be children of your heavenly father who makes the sun to shine on the just and unjust.â€
“The tragedy for Uganda was that it was unable to follow South Africa in its creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission aimed at restorative justice. The result was that a dictator was never brought to justice and given a chance to ask for forgiveness and make reparation.
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“I worked as a member of the Ugandan bar and the bench during Amin’s reign of terror and faced considerable challenges upholding the law in the north of the country where Amin murdered many men creating widows and countless orphans.
“One of the cases I tried involved Amin’s cousin, who was accused of the torture and rape of a woman. Amin had told me that I must find the defendant not guilty. I tried the case and sentenced his cousin to five years imprisonment. I was also working with Justice Saeid to keep a record of the properties owned by Ugandan Asians who were being stripped of their possessions and exiled from the country. It was around this time that I was arrested and beaten up by Amin’s hit squad, eventually leading to life-threatening medical complications. I left Uganda in 1974 and came to England.
“When Idi Amin murdered Archbishop Janani Luwum in 1977, Bishop Festo Kivengere also had to flee for his life. His response was to write a book entitled I Love Idi Amin setting out the Christian answer to Amin. My response echoes the sentiment set out in that book. The Christian response to Amin’s death is to follow the injunction of Jesus who said: “love your enemies, pray for your persecutors and you shall be children of your heavenly father who makes the sun to shine on the just and unjust.â€
“The tragedy for Uganda was that it was unable to follow South Africa in its creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission aimed at restorative justice. The result was that a dictator was never brought to justice and given a chance to ask for forgiveness and make reparation.
Ends