Uganda 50: How three families fled Idi Amin's terror for the UK, settling in Leicester
It's almost 50 years since Ugandan President Idi Amin ordered 70,000 Asians to leave the country within three months.
President Idi Amin accused them of corruption and not doing enough to integrate - claims strongly denied by those who lived there.
The announcement led to widespread violence and fear, and many families came to Britain.
Many witnessed horrific scenes of violence and say they'll never forget what they experienced.
Some had to leave their homes in the middle of the night to avoid being killed by Idi Amin's death squads.
One man who knew him well and was an outspoken critic of Amin was Manzoor Moghal, who now lives in Leicester.
He was the Deputy Mayor of the town of Masaka and a popular community leader.Mr Moghal says he disagreed with the dictator on a number of important number of issues.He described how one night, he discovered he was on a hit list and quickly fled the country when he realised his life was under threat.
He says:
"I fled the country with my family in the middle of the night. Later on when I was in England, I came to know that my friend in Masaka had been brutally murdered in a fashion that I cannot describe".
Nirmalaben Raichura left Uganda six months before Idi Amin announced that Asians had 90 days to leave. Her husband Pravinbhai made arrangements for his wife and two daughters to flee as quickly as possible. But when Mrs Raichura arrived in the UK and moved to Leicester, she heard about the unrest and bloodshed, and began to worry.Her worst fears came true when soldiers kidnapped her husband. He was the manager of a successful firm in the town of Jinja. They demanded money and held him at ransom at the army barracks.
The situation in Uganda deteriorated very quickly after Amin’s decree forcing Asians out of the country.The exodus, the mass movement of people, frightened for their safety, got underway.Properties were seized. They were only allowed to leave with a small amount of cash and jewellery.Kalaben Pattni’s family ran a jewellery shop in the capital Kampala.
She says they came up with a unique way of making it possible for Asian women to take back more gold than they were allowed.