JEDDAH, 19 August 2003 — While reactions to the death of Uganda’s former dictator Idi Amin were mixed in Uganda, residents of the Al-Safa district here responded with sadness to the passing of a popular neighbor whom they remember as a good man.

Amin, who died in Jeddah where he sought exile after his government was ousted in 1979, was perhaps the most famous resident of the neighborhood.

Saad Al-Harthy had been living next door to the former strongman for the last five years. “He was a very good person,” he told Arab News on Sunday night.

“I moved to the Al-Safa district and was told by another neighbor that the former Ugandan president was living next door to us. I tried to get to know him, but he was very quiet and stayed in his house most of the time,” he recalled. “However, I met him once and introduced myself to him, and he was very kind and polite,” he added.

Al-Harthy regularly saw Amin pray at the nearby Al-Shakreen Mosque.

Abdulraheem Al-Yamani, another neighbor, also highlighted Amin’s piety and regular attendance at the mosque.

“I used to see him at every prayer at the mosque, including the Fajr prayer. He seemed to be a very dedicated Muslim.

“He was a real presence at the mosque because of his height and enormous girth,” Al-Yamani said.

Basheer Akbar, a Pakistani clerk at the grocery store near Al-Shakreen Mosque, said Amin, who used to buy newspapers from his store on his way back from the mosque, often seemed melancholy.

“A month ago, we noticed that he stopped coming to the mosque and were told that he was on life support and critically ill in the hospital.

“I never knew he was Idi Amin, it was only when he became ill that I discovered that he was the former Ugandan president,” he said.

“He seemed sad most of the time, but he brightened up whenever he came out of the mosque, you could tell from his smile,” he added.

Neighbor Nasir Hamdan found it hard to square reports of Amin’s reign of terror in Uganda with the man he knew. “He was described as a ruthless dictator, one of Africa’s bloodiest despots and other bad things, but what we saw here in our neighborhood was a completely different person. What I saw in him was a very kind person, very quiet, and above all very devout in his religion. He dedicated most of his time to praying and reciting the Qur’an at the mosque.

“I really hope Allah will forgive him for his mistakes,” he said.

On Sunday night, Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, neighbors and friends paid a courtesy call to the Amin residence and offered their condolences to his family.