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Terror Under Amin
Terror Under Amin
Terror Under Amin
Bureau.
On January 25, 1971, Maj Gen Idi Amin Dada, hitherto the army
commander, came to power in a bloodless coup.
Initially, when it was started, with the help of Israelis, it was called
the State Research Centre (SRC). This is partly because it was
established as centre for collecting and sieving intelligence from
informers. Later, the name was changed to SRB in 1972 after Amin
had expelled Israelis and brought in the Russians to help him
rebuild it.
Maj Amin Ibrahim Onzi from Arua, West Nile region, was the SRC
founding director in 1971. Not much is known about Maj Onzi’s
military and education background. But in June 1987, President
Museveni appointed Maj Onzi deputy minister of Works in his
“broad-based” government. Maj Onzi had been the vice president of
the Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF), one of the rebel
movements that operated in West Nile region against Obote II
government.
Amin was well aware that he had internal and foreign political and
military enemies. In order to keep ahead of them, there was need for
good intelligence on them. Amin the soldier knew the advantage of
having effective intelligence machinery, especially if you have hostile
neighbours like Tanzania and Sudan were at the time.
Bob Astles, a British national, who was Amin’s friend at the time,
was the overseer of the Uganda counter-intelligence department,
while the mainstream unit was headed by Lt Col Francis Itabuka,
who hailed from Busoga, eastern region.
While Tutsi girls and young men donning “Kaunda suits”, bellow-
bottom pants and dark glasses became the brand face of SRB, the
informers remained under cover. Bell-bottoms (or flares) were a
style of trousers that become wider from the knees downward,
forming a bell-like shape of the trouser leg).
Change of mandate
“In 1976, I was arrested and held at the notorious Nakasero State
Research Bureau detention Centre on the orders of Ali Toweli
allegedly because I had refused to repair his wife’s Mercedes-Benz
car.
When the matter reached Amin, he put Toweli on forced leave, while
Odria was retired in what records from the Defence Council termed
as “in public interest pending investigations into divisions and
misunderstandings in the PSU operations”.
In mid June 1976, Amin directed Toweli to resume work and later
elevated him from director training and operations to head the PSU.