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13. One of the Modern Era’s Oddest Rulers
Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada (circa 1925 – 2003) was a military officer who seized power in a 1971 coup, and ruled the country until 1979. He had been commander of the Ugandan army when he got wind that he was about to be arrested for theft, so he overthrew the government and declared himself president. Amin’s regime was known for repression, ethnic persecutions, human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, corruption, and nepotism. But what sets him apart from other brutal and incompetent kleptocrats, and earns him a place on this list, was his unpredictable and often macabre behavior, and sheer bizarreness.
Amin’s governance was odd from the start and grew increasingly more erratic and unpredictable with time. He started off as a conservative and was initially supported by the West and Israel. Then he turned around and became an ardent supporter of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi and the PLO. He ordered the expulsion of Uganda’s ethnically Asian citizens and residents, and seized their and European residents’ businesses and enterprises, which formed the economy’s backbone. He then handed them to relatives and supporters, who promptly drove them into the ground.