JEDDAH, 18 August 2003 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday sent cables of condolence to the family of Idi Amin, who died at a hospital here on Saturday.
The cables were addressed to Amin’s eldest son Isa, his brothers and the rest of the family who were around Amin when he died at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah.
The cables prayed to God to “have mercy on him, give him forgiveness and send him to Heaven,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The former Ugandan strongman had been living in exile in Saudi Arabia since shortly after his overthrow in 1979, and was buried in Jeddah according to Islamic tradition.
Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, yesterday paid a courtesy call to Amin’s family and extended his condolences to Amin’s sons.
Isa Amin thanked the Saudi leadership for the care given to his father during his exile in Jeddah and his final illness.
Amin was born in 1925 to a peasant family of the small, mainly Muslim Kakwa tribe at Arua in Uganda’s remote West Nile district.
A former boxing champion and British-trained soldier, he rose rapidly to the top of the Ugandan Army after independence in 1962 and seized power in a coup in 1971.
