Doctor David Owen, foreign secretary in the Labour Government which left office in 1979 sheds some light on the eventual removal of Idi Amin from power and the topical question of the conflict between protecting human rights and national sovereignity
“We supported Tanzania with money to buy ammunition to launch an invasion of Uganda…the invasion succeeded quickly and Amin was deposed in 1979”
Arming Tanzania was agreed on after Owen’s original plan of assassinating Amin was ” looked on as an outrageous suggesstion”.
In the Sunday Times article Dr Owen explains that the assassination plan raised serious moral dilemmas:
“After all, I’m against the death penalty”
