NEW DELHI: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has hailed the contribution of the South Asian community, especially the Indian diaspora, to the country’s economy despite their sufferings in the 1970s after their mass expulsion by dictator Idi Amin in 1972.
“NAM countries also make mistakes like in Uganda. Then we had a man called Idi Amin. In a very short time, he expelled Asians, especially people from India and Pakistan,” recalled Museveni.
“When we came into power, we gave back the properties of our Asian citizens and non-citizens that Amin had taken from them,” he said.
“Since their return to the country in the 1980s and 1990s, Asians from the Indian subcontinent have once again become a pillar of the country’s economy. I was asking people how many factories have been built by our Indian returnees. They told me about 900 factories have been built since they came back,” said the President.
He said Indian-origin people had invested in sugar, hotels and steel production.
Uganda hosted the 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kampala from January 15 to 20.
Idi Amin was the third President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. President Museveni listed the steps taken by his government to rectify the problems created by Amin.