By Anne Mugisa
and Chris Ochowun
The gloom the people wore matched the dark skies amid a heavy downpour as hundreds on Saturday converged at the late Idi Amin’s home in Arua.
The storm was followed by a drizzle that persisted until dawn, but over 200 mourners braved the cold and camped at the compound of former President, who died and was buried in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
The mourners, mostly Moslims, were by yesterday erecting sheds in the compound on the outskirts of Arua town to prepare for Idi Amin’s funeral.
They mourned a man many people hated.
But for the first time since former president Idi Amin was deposed, someone has come up to apologise to Ugandans for the atrocities committed during his eight year rule.
A Councillor in Arua District, George Ambe, who said he spoke on behalf of people from Arua and Koboko, Amin’s birth place, said sorry to all Ugandans for “what might have happened to them during Amin’s regime.”
“We the people of Arua and Koboko in particular, would like to thank the Saudi Arabian government for giving our son a good burial, but to the people of Uganda, we are asking for forgiveness,” Ambe, a former soldier in Amin’s defunct Uganda Army said.
Ambe, who had been in a meeting of all Koboko LC3 chairmen, Amin’s former soldiers and others, said, “We are reaching out to all those who might have been affected during the rule of Amin, we are asking for total forgiveness,” he said.
A family source said Amin’s relatives living in Saudi Arabia were expected home in Arua for the funeral rites.
Ends