Flight of the Asians

Uganda last week was a country increasingly gripped by hate--and fear of what might happen next. The nation's Asian community was broken apart as 50,000 of its members who hold British passports prepared to depart in a mass expulsion ordered by Uganda's dictator. President Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin. He in turn was becoming increasingly frenetic, creating nine new provinces on one day, firing 29 of the country's top police officers on another. Most of the army remained under control, but drunken soldiers went on rampages in the provinces. About a dozen European and American tourists were beaten, and Pierre Shostal, the newly appointed U.S. deputy chief of mission in Rwanda, and his wife were roughed up and threatened as they crossed the border on their way to their new post.

Amin himself was more than usually unpredictable. He declared that tiny Rwanda was harboring thousands of Israeli agents bent on sabotaging his regime; Rwanda nervously asked Belgium for help in case it was invaded by Uganda. At home, Amin ordered a ban on teenagers' dances and announced that men should bow to him before stating their business, and that women should kneel.

Uganda's Asians meantime made preparations for what had become a flight as much as an expulsion. In talks with TIME Correspondent John Blashill, several of the Asians described their dilemma. "There is nothing left for us here," declared an Asian doctor--one of those exempt from Amin's expulsion order. Said a millionaire businessman: "Money is not our concern. What is money? It is sand flowing through the fingers. If we lose everything, we can start again somewhere else, on another beach." An Asian schoolteacher agreed. "My classes are 95% African," he said. "They are being told to hate the Asians. How can I stand up in front of them in the classroom? It is a question of respect." The Asians' fears deepened as reports reached Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya, that Ugandan soldiers had shot 16 Sikhs near the border two weeks ago.

Outside the British High Commission office in Kampala, there were two lines of Asians last week. One was for those with British passports whose applications to go to Britain had been approved, the other for those who thought that they were Ugandans until last month, when their citizenship was denied by the government. Amin had originally promised the country's 23,000 Asians who are Ugandan citizens that they were not affected by the expulsion order; then he declared that they too would be forced to leave "because of acts of sabotage and arson." Later he reversed himself again and said that the citizens could stay on if their papers were in order--a strong hint that many more would be deprived of their citizenship for technical reasons. By last week Amin was suggesting that the country's 11,000 European residents (mostly Britons) would be the next to go.

Welcome Nowhere. Despite the Asians' distress, Amin's decision was obviously popular with the country's 10 million Africans, who generally resent the Asians for their relative--if still modest--wealth, their clannishness and sharp business practices, and their historic stranglehold on the wholesale and retail trades. "The British brought the Asians here to exploit us," cried one African speaker at a demonstration in Kampala. "They keep us in economic slavery." Amin himself accused the Asians of everything from sneaking money out of the country to keeping their account books in Hindi and Gujarati to confuse tax collectors. "If even I associated with Asians," shouted Amin, "I would be rejected in a minute."

Amin's critics have charged that the emotional President is trying to mask his own shortcomings by exploiting his black countrymen's traditional prejudice against the Asians. Since he seized power 18 months ago, for example, Amin has driven Uganda to the verge of bankruptcy, mostly through an excess of military spending (reportedly $90 million last year, v. $20 million in 1968-69). Now his decision to expel the Asians, who pay a large share of the country's taxes and employ tens of thousands of Africans, will cause incalculable disruption to the nation's economy.

The plight of the Asians is worsened by the fact that they are not really welcome anywhere. Since 1968, Britain has maintained a harsh quota system to control the entry of East African Asians, even though they are British subjects; at present the number is limited to 3,500 heads of household annually, plus their dependents. Some are legally entitled to go to India or Pakistan, but few are anxious to do so. "Britain may have a million unemployed," remarked an Asian mechanic in Kampala, "but in India they are dying of hunger."

Despite the quota system, the British government is reconciled to the idea of accepting the majority of the expelled Asians--thereby increasing Britain's Asian population from about 600,000 to as high as 650,000. The decision has already raised the level of domestic racial tension. A crowd of angry protesters swarmed on Whitehall two weeks ago, chanting "Keep Britain white!" and "Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate!" Prime Minister Edward Heath courageously insisted that Britain would live up to its obligations, but he plainly hoped that other countries could be persuaded to take a few of the Asians off Britain's hands. So far, only Canada has volunteered to help, agreeing to take about 5,000 of the displaced Asians.

In the meantime, the British government--which last week finally cut off aid to Uganda, freezing a $24.5 million interest-free loan--arranged for seven British airlines to cooperate in the massive airlift that was to begin in mid-September. But the plan was upset by General Amin's outrageous assertion that the Asians should be carried out of Uganda by East African Airways, which is jointly owned by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The airline, which is far too small to handle such a massive operation on its own, was said to be considering a plan to charge $274 apiece to fly the Asians to Britain--or about $106 per passenger more than the British lines had planned to ask.

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