Nasur gave the example of accusations leveled against him that he forced people who roamed the capital city in slpppers to eat the rubber sandals. Nasur says competent international bodies who carried out independent investigations found the claims baseless. SoftPower News had by press time not been able to independently verify this.
Nasur was one of the several aged veterans who spoke at the funeral of their fallen comrade, Brig Gen Ali Fadhul, a close confidant of President Idi Amin. Fadhul died this week aged 81 after succumbing to diabetes and kidney failure and was laid to rest on Thursday evening in a Muslim ceremony at his home at Bulumagi village in Njeru Municipality, Buikwe district.
Several senior military officers of the 1970s said they need “to set the record straight” because they have been “maligned for too long and a lot of lies repeatedly said about them.”
Since the announcement of his death on Wednesday morning, people started flocking Fadhul’s home to pay their last respects. The fallen soldier who was forced into the King’s African Rifles (KAR) in 1953 at the age of 13, later served his country in various capacities not limited to; commandant Simba Battalion at Mbarara, Magamaga Barracks, governor Northern Province and minister for Provincial Administration in 1974 before it was changed to ministry of Local Government.
Abdul Magid Alule, Fadhul’s son and the family official spokesperson said their father championed the operation of sharing and ensuring the smooth running of properties and businesses that had mostly belonged to Indians, among Ugandans after they had been expelled from the country.
According to him, after President Amin made up his mind on the move, his father championed the process which saw many Ugandans repossess power to trade from foreigners. Fadhul was arrested in 1986 after Museveni -led NRA took charge of the country, and he was charged with the murder of the former administrative secretary of Ankole, Xavier Tibayungwa in 1972.
“The army surrounded our home at around 5 pm in 1986, handcuffed our father, and took him to an unknown place before they later charged him,” Alule recalls.
Fadhul was sentenced to life imprisonment until 2009 when he was released following pardon by President Museveni.
He was charged with Tibayungwa’s murder on two separate occasions, which he always kept arguing was a breach of the double jeopardy principle which prohibits trying a person twice for the same crime based on the same set of facts.
Both trials took place at the High court in Mbarara. In the first trial, he was found innocent by justice Seth Manyindo but later was taken back to Mbarara where the same witnesses and same evidence were presented and he was found guilty.
Lt Col Francis Itabuka, the intelligence chief during Amin’s reign, noted that people like Gen Fadhul should have been given special recognition and care before their last days by this government but they have been completely disregarded.
“Regardless of the regimes they served, they remain soldiers who protected their country during that time,” he said.
“As soldiers who served during Amin’s time, we have been the most disciplined and not involved in any offense during Museveni’s rule.”
Written by News Day