Inside Amin’s State Research Bureau

Skilled: Uganda security forces showcase military might during Amin's reign.

What you need to know:

Part IV. In this third instalment of our series, Idi Amin: A Polarising Legacy, we bring you the changes that Amin made in the security, especially the General Service Unit, an intelligence and security outfit established by Obote after independence.

Part IV. In this third instalment of our series, Idi Amin: A Polarising Legacy, we bring you the changes that Amin made in the security, especially the General Service Unit, an intelligence and security outfit established by Obote after independence.

When President Idi Amin Dada, overthrew Milton Obote in 1971, he made changes in almost every sector but security could have been the most affected sector by these changes.
The security officers, especially those who were considered close to President Obote, were either arrested or fled into exile.
Amin also did not want anything to do with the Uganda Peoples Congress, and wanted to overturn many things that had been done by their predecessors.
In the same year of his takeover, Amin changed the name of General Service Unit, an intelligence and security outfit established by Obote after independence, to Research State Centre with the help of the British and the Israelis.