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Registered: 08-2006
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Amin son says film insults the mad dictator


Amin son says film insults the mad dictator

By Euan Denholm in Kampala and Paul Willis
Last Updated: 1:38am GMT 30/10/2006

As a brutal dictator who styled himself "Lord of all beasts of the Earth", Idi Amin's larger-than-life character has always been tailor-made for the big screen.

But despite his dramatic portrayal in the highly acclaimed new film The Last King of Scotland, it is not an image of the man that everyone recognises.

For Taban Amin, the eldest of the late Ugandan leader's 43 children, the film is a slur on the family name over which he is now threatening to sue.
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"It is wrong to show him like that," he told The Sunday Telegraph from his home in the Ugandan capital Kampala last week. "It degrades our father and it abuses the reputation of a former head of state of Uganda. We will be taking action against those behind this."

The film, which had its British première at the London Film Festival last week, is the fictional story of a Scottish doctor who finds himself appointed as Amin's personal physician after he seizes power in 1971.

The American actor Forest Whitaker, who plays Amin, has already been tipped for an Oscar for his depiction of how the Ugandan president gradually descends into madness and paranoia. Whitaker reportedly met members of Amin's family and learned Swahili as he researched the part.

But the actor's scrupulous groundwork for the role, has not convinced Amin's offspring. Mr Amin, 51, who is now a major general in the country's state security services, said that while the film had not yet been screened in Kampala, his numerous siblings living in America had already seen it and were furious.

"I can tell you that any time now we will be announcing this legal action," he vowed. "My representatives are preparing it now. We will be taking action in the US because it is where the companies and the actors come from. So we will take it to them in their homeland."

He also claims the family was not consulted over the use of their father's name and image. The claims are denied by the film's producers, Fox Searchlight.

Mr Amin's threat of litigation is unlikely to find much support in Uganda, where his father's regime is still blamed for the deaths of 400,000 Ugandans during eight bloody years in power from 1971.

Idi Amin, who married five times and liked to be addressed as "Big Daddy", died in exile in Saudi Arabia in August 2003, having been warned he would face war crimes charges if he ever returned home.

During his rule he was renowned for his eccentric behaviour, which included awarding himself a fraudulent Victoria Cross and inviting the Queen to "come over and meet a real man" via telegrams addressed simply to "Liz".

He also spoke of raising an army to fight for Scottish independence, a boast that inspired the title of the film.

His penchant for playing the clown, however, masked a sadistic cruelty that would turn him into one of the most brutal dictators Africa has ever seen. He expelled the country's entire Asian population, fed corpses to crocodiles, and was reputed to keep severed heads in his freezer.

There were also persistent rumours that he indulged in cannibalism — gossip he fuelled by stating that he found human flesh tasted too salty.

Unlike most of Amin's offspring, Taban was not content to live out his days in exile after the tyrant and his family were ousted from Uganda in 1979.

Until 2003, he was the leader of the West Nile Bank Front, a 6,000-strong militia led by ex-Ugandan army officers intent on returning the Amin name to power.

He returned home two years ago after he was offered an amnesty by the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni.

A boisterous and heavy-set man, he shares his father's huge physique and booming laugh, although that, he claims, is where the similarity ends.

Despite wanting to protect his father's reputation, he is keen to distance himself from the more gruesome aspects of the Amin legacy.

"Amin's name is so tough in Uganda that some people are scared, but that which Amin did is not what I will do: I'm his son but I am not his heart," he told The Sunday Telegraph earlier this year.

The film is based on the bestseller by Giles Foden, and co-stars Gillian Anderson and the British actor James -McAvoy, who plays the fictional character of Dr Nicholas Garrigan.

Dr Garrigan is thought to be loosely based on Amin's British-born spokesman, "Major" Bob Astles. It is due for release in Britain in the new year.

A spokesman for Fox Searchlight said the company had yet to receive any notice of legal action from Mr Amin. She refused to comment further on his concerns.

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Life is simple, we make it difficult.


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