Taskforce on Ugandan Security, 1973
Welcome to the Committee Page for the Taskforce on Ugandan Security! Here, you can find details on the committee and the students who are chairing it, download the background guide, and learn about suggested primary source reading for the committee. Check the page regularly for committee updates.
Committee Dais
Chair: Rhonda ShafeiVice Chair: Saubirah Hack
Crisis Director: Colin Felsman
Contact Email: uganda@cmunce.org
Recent Updates
[December 6, 2008]: Additional resources added. Please view the new readings at the bottom of the page.
[November 26, 2008]: Recommended reading resources added.
[November 15, 2008]: The Background guide has been posted.
[May 2008]: Welcome to the Taskforce on Ugandan Security webpage. Keep your eyes peeled to this site in the coming month for updates.
Committee Description
"It has been eighteen months since Amin's coup. Eighteen months ago, Amin, the self-proclaimed caretaker of our Ugandan Republic, declared a bright future for our children. He professed of a Uganda free of Obote's corruption and torture, of an internationally recognized and respected Uganda. And now, eighteen months after all the truths and false promises, the true Idi Amin Dada is appearing for Uganda and the world to see."
-an anonymous citizen from the Acholi ethnic group of northern Uganda on August 4, 1972
On August 4th 1972, an edict was delivered calling for the expulsion of more than 60,000 Asians from the Republic of Uganda. President Idi Amin Dada gave non-Ugandan Asians 90 days to vacate the country claiming the Asians, mainly of Indian nationality, were sabotaging the Ugandan economy. On January 15th 1973, we will convene twenty representatives and specialists from Uganda and abroad to resolve the impending economic, cultural, and social crises in the Ugandan Republic. Amin has been accused by Human Rights Organizations of persecuting members of the northern Acholi and Langi ethnicities, handing once Asian-owned businesses to members of his own ethnic group, the Kakwa, and torturing all of his dissidents. As members of the 1973 Taskforce on Ugandan Security, you will be expected to resolve the Asian expulsion of '72 and debate the complex state of Uganda under Amin's rule.
Background Guide
Recommended Resources and Documents
Ambiguous Amin by Peter Woodward
Amin's Uganda by Philip Short
Amin's Death Roll: An Short List of Assassination Victims
Religious Strangers in Uganda: From Emin Pasha to Amin Dada by Ali A. Mazrui
Asians in Uganda, 1880-1972: Inequality and Expulsion by Vali Jamal
Ugandan Asians, Britain, India and the Commonwealth by Anirudha Gupta