As stated above, the government of former president Mobutu Sese Seko was toppled by a rebellion led by Laurent Kabila in May 1997, with the support of Rwanda and Uganda.

** In Uganda, Idi Amin deposes Milton Obote in a coup, and becomes president.

In September 1967, a new constitution proclaimed Uganda a republic, gave the president even greater powers, and abolished the traditional kingdoms.

After Amin ' removal, the Uganda National Liberation Front formed an interim government with Yusuf Lule as president and Jeremiah Lucas Opira as the Secretary General of the UNLF.

The traditional leader of the Baganda, Edward Mutesa, became president of Uganda.

* August 16: Idi Amin, former president of Uganda ( 1971 – 1979 )

* Idi Amin, whose eight years as president of Uganda were characterized by bizarre and murderous behavior, died in Saudi Arabia.

During the civil war in Uganda between the UNLA ( which was now the national army ) and Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army, president Milton Obote alienated much of the Acholi-dominated officer corps, including Olara-Okello and General Tito Okello, by appointing his fellow ethnic Lango, Brigadier Smith Opon Acak, as army Chief of Staff.

He subsequently attended Ntare Secondary School, one of the best schools in Uganda, and also the alma mater of future Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni.

The new UPC-KY coalition led Uganda into independence in October 1962, with Obote as prime minister, and the kabaka becoming president a year later.

A political figurehead Yusufu Lule was appointed leader and president of Uganda but had very little political or military power.

In June 1988, the president concluded a peace agreement with Uganda People's Democratic Army ( UPDA ) commander Lieutenant Colonel John Angelo Okello.

Following a widely disputed victory for the Uganda People's Congress ( UPC ) led by former president Milton Obote, many of the UNLF founding members would go on to fight against the now UPC-controlled UNLA.

He was replaced as president by Pierre Buyoya, and went into exile in Uganda and later went to Libya.

There is much erroneous reporting that Garang met and befriended Yoweri Museveni, future president of Uganda, at this time ; while both Garang and Museveni were students at UDSM in the 1960s, they did not attend at the same time.

In 1993 the kingdoms in Uganda were restored by the Traditional Institutions Statute, but president Museveni blocked the restoration of the Ankole kingship, saying that the people of Ankole had to decide.

While there was general unrest in eastern Zaire, the rebellion was unlikely a grassroots movement ; Uganda president Yoweri Museveni, who supported and worked closely with Rwanda in the First Congo War, later recalled that the rebellion was incited by Zairian Tutsi who had been recruited by the Rwandan Patriotic Army ( RPA ).

Uganda provides national elections for a president and a legislature.

* Yusuf Lule, former president of Uganda

Binaisa had joined, and was made vice president of the Uganda Patriotic Movement.

He was the only former president of Uganda being looked after by the state under provisions of the Constitution of Uganda.

The above explanation, about the symbolism of the drum, is a distortion that came about after the bloody 1966 national crisis when the Prime Minister of the day, Milton Obote, made a violent military attack on the king of the Kingdom of Buganda in central Uganda, Edward Mutesa II, who was the ceremonial president of the state at the time.

The following year, 1967, the nation's constitution was abrogated and replaced with a new one which abolished the country's ancient monarchies -- the kingdom's of Buganda, Bunyoro, Ankole, Toro, and the Principality of Busoga, turning Uganda into a republic and making Milton Obote president with unlimited executive powers.

For instance, Idi Amin Dada, who had been a British army lieutenant prior to Uganda's independence from Britain in October 1962, subsequently styled himself as " His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada,,, Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular ".

* 1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.

Sometimes a head of state assumes office as a state becomes legal and political reality, before a formal title for the highest office is determined ; thus in the since 1 January 1960 independent republic Cameroon ( Cameroun, a former French colony ), the first President, Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo, was at first not styled président but ' merely ' known as Chef d ' état ( literal French for ' Head of State ') until 5 May 1960 ; in Uganda, military coup leader since 25 January 1971 Idi Amin was formally styled military head of State till 21 February 1971, only from then on regular ( but unconstitutional, not elected ) President.

Such is the case in many African states ; Idi Amin in Uganda, Adolf Hitler in Germany, Ferdinand Marcos in Philippines, for example.

* 1971 Ugandan coup d ' état-Military coup in Uganda led by Idi Amin.

* Idi Amin, President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, after rising to power in a coup becomes infamous for his brutal dictatorship in Uganda.

* April 11 – Tanzanian troops take Kampala, the capital of Uganda ; Idi Amin flees.

During the summer of 1972, he prepared to resign and changed his mind only because of fears of a renewed wave of immigration from Uganda after the accession of Idi Amin, who had expelled Uganda's Asian residents.

On his orders, the IDF performed a long-range undercover raid to rescue passengers of an airliner hijacked by militants belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's Wadie Haddad faction and the German Revolutionary Cells ( RZ ), and had been brought to Idi Amin's Uganda.

Thus, when human rights were violated, as in Uganda under Idi Amin in the 1970s, the OAU was powerless to stop them.

During the rule of Milton Obote and Idi Amin, who were both from northern Uganda, a significant number of northern Ugandans moved to Kampala from the 1950s until the mid-1980s.

Two northerners, Shaban Opolot and Idi Amin Dada, assumed command positions in the Uganda Rifles and later received promotions to commander in chief and army chief of staff, respectively.

Idi Amin Dada was the military dictator and third President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979.

Radio Uganda then announced his entire title: " His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Alhaji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE ".

Abandoned by his father at a young age, Idi Amin grew up with his mother's family in a rural farming town in northwestern Uganda.

By this time, many people in the CAE and in the rest of the world thought Bokassa was insane, and the Western press, mostly in France, the UK, and USA, often compared his eccentric behavior and egotistical extravagance with that of Africa's other well-known eccentric dictator, Idi Amin of Uganda.

Also, of serious concern were the Vietnamese takeover in Phnom Penh, the China-Vietnam border war, the overthrow of Idi Amin in Uganda, the North-South Yemen dispute, troubles in Pakistan, border clashes between Libya and Egypt, the Sandinista takeover in Nicaragua, and the Soviet movement of combat troops to Cuba during the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II.

Together with his wife, Frances, and their four children, Waite witnessed the Idi Amin coup in Uganda, he and his wife narrowly escaping death on several occasions.

* Idi Amin of Uganda ( 1976 ) – defeated in war 1979, died 2003.

File: Idi Amin. jpg | Idi Amin, President for Life of Uganda ( 1976 – 1979 )