DOCTORS GIVE UP ON IDI AMIN

The New Vision (Kampala, Uganda) ^ | August 4th, 2003 | Alfred Wasike

[HAL9000]

DOCTORS have finally given ailing former President Idi Amin the status of “do not resuscitate”.

This is the first time that Amin’s hitherto tight-lipped doctors have come out explicitly about his failing health.

Medical sources at King Faisal Specialist Hospital, a top Saudi medical centre in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, told Reuters and Sky News yesterday that “should he encounter further life threatening problems, resuscitation will not be attempted.”

Amin, in his late 70s and liable for the murders of tens of thousands of Ugandans in the 1970s, has now been declared by doctors at the posh hospital to be in “near-death condition”.

“He is alive but remains in a near-death condition in a coma,” the medical sources told news agencies, adding that Amin was on a ventilator.

Amin has been in exile, chiefly in Saudi Arabia, since being ousted from from Uganda in 1979.

Under his despotic 1971-79 rule, estimates blame the deaths of more than 400,000 on him.

A large and imposing figure, who enjoyed publicity, Amin came to power in 1971 after overthrowing President Milton Obote in a coup. His rule was characterised by eccentric behaviour and violent purges. Driven from Uganda by Tanzanian forces and Ugandan exiles, Amin, a Muslim, was given sanctuary by Saudi Arabia in the name of Islamic charity.

His health deteriorated for some time but he came out of a coma last week although was still said to be in serious condition. The medical source said the former leader suffered from kidney, liver and respiratory failure.

“The last and probably fatal system failure would be cardiac arrest, after which there is effectively no hope,” the source said. A former boxing champion who once expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, Amin has lived quietly in Jeddah on a government stipend with his four wives.

President Yoweri Museveni recently warned that he would arrest Amin for crimes against humanity should he try to return home alive but said that his relatives were free to return his body for burial in Uganda.

Amnesty commission chairperson Justice Peter Onega last week said Amin does not qualify for amnesty but Joseph Kony, whose Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorising northern and north-eastern Uganda qualifies for forgiveness if he gave up rebellion and applied for amnesty.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Bury Amin in Saudi Arabia, says Mubajje
By Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda
August 4, 2003

Muslim leaders want former President Id Amin buried in Saudi Arabia should he die there.
Mufti Shaban Mubajje, Makerere University Imam Ahmed Ssentongo and former Chief Kadhi Obed Kamulegeya told The Monitor in separate interviews yesterday that it is not Islamic to move bodies over long distances.

Reports from Saudi Arabia indicate that Amin is in “near-death” at a hospital in Jeddah.
“He is alive but remains in a near-death condition in a coma,” a hospital source told Reuters news agency, adding that Amin was on a ventilator.

Doctors have given Amin, 80, the status of “do not resuscitate,” Reuters reported. “This means that should he encounter further life threatening problems, resuscitation will not be attempted.”

Mufti Mubajje dismissed reports that the Muslim leadership was organising to bury the former president at the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) headquarters at Old Kampala.

It was Amin who donated the Old Kampala land to Muslims during his reign (1971-1979).
Sources said that some members of the two UMSC top organs – General Assembly and Executive Committee – had proposed that Amin be honoured and buried at Old Kampala.
Both Mufti Mubajje and the Makerere imam cited a teaching of Prophet Muhammad, which recommends that three things must be hastened in Islam.

The three things are performing the daily prayers on time, hasten to bury dead people and hasten to marry off girls as soon as they attain puberty and there are people willing to take them.

Besides, the Muslim leaders said that the two holiest places in Islam – Mecca and Medina – are found in Saudi Arabia.

They argued that it would be better for Amin to be buried there than transporting his body back to Uganda.

Imam Ssentongo said that even if Amin were to return to Uganda when he is still alive, it would still be “un-Islamic” to bury him at the mosque compound.

He said that Muslims are discouraged from burying their dead at places of worship because the next generation might worship their graves.

He said that Amin is the most patriotic leader Uganda ever had, adding that the country might never produce his equal again.

Mufti Mubajje said that if he were to be in charge of Amin’s family, he would have preferred to bury him in Saudi Arabia.

He said that due to the construction of buildings going on at Old Kampala there is even limited space for such arrangements.

Amin’s health has been deteriorating since July 18. Amin is suffering from kidney, liver and respiratory failure.

“The last and probably fatal system failure would be cardiac arrest, after which there is effectively no hope,” said a Reuters report quoting hospital sources.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

get ready....

[T. P. Pole]

So, is he really dead, this time?

[mass55th]

I thought he was dead...twice!

[Enterprise]

"DOCTORS GIVE UP ON IDI AMIN"

So what's the problem here. Someone fire up the shredding machine.

[BunnySlippers]

Still alive, huh?

[zarf]

Where's the cannibal alert?

[DoughtyOne]

Hey you guys, is Generalisimo Franco still dead?

[DoughtyOne]

I think he was 'dead' but that pseudonym was already taken.

[StatesEnemy]

The devil is marinating his @ss before plopping it on the barby...

[StatesEnemy]

Hey you guys, is Generalisimo Franco still dead?

Don't know... but Chevy's career is.

[TAP ONLINE]

Oh please don't give up. An injection of pigs blood will cure him.

[DoughtyOne]

LOL

[TexanAmerican]

Hey you guys, is Generalisimo Franco still dead?
Don't know... but Chevy's career is.


\\\

I thought that was Garret Morris.

[BluH2o]

I thought he was dead...twice!

Yeah ... I've run out of things to say about his demise ... isn't this murdering piece of scum dead yet?

[StatesEnemy]

Ohh I dunno... I clearly remember Chev delivering those lines...

But I think the ever-changing SNL crew used that as a 'running joke'

[HAL9000]

I thought that was Garret Morris.

No, he did the news for the hard-of-hearing.

[TexanAmerican]

I thought that was Garret Morris.
No, he did the news for the hard-of-hearing.
\\\\

That's right, Chevy read it then Morris shouted it.

[FlJoePa]

OMG was that some funny stuff. They'd have a little oval cutout imposed on the screen, then Garret Morris would literally scream-repeat the lead story.

While Chevy's career is indeed in the toilet (rightfully so), that ensemble provided plenty of laughs for me and many others back in the day.

I laugh out loud just thinking about some of the stuff they did.