Ugandan Asians 40 Years On

All this week, we've featured Asians who were forced to leave Uganda forty years ago. They left behind their personal possessions and in some cases, their loved ones, on the orders of dictator Idi Amin. Many ended up settling in Leicester

Central Tonight's Rajiv Popat has been filming in Uganda - a visit close to his heart because his parents fled the country at the time of the turmoil. In his final report he returns for the first time, to the town where he was born.

Idi Amin enjoyed having his picture taken, according to a photographer who was often by his side snapping away at high profile events.

Manu Kanani spent a lot of time with the man known as the butcher of Africa. He said Amin had a Jekyll and Hyde personality and was capable of inhuman acts against others.

He had a fearsome reputation and was notorious for his brutality. It's believed Idi Amin's regime was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

One man who knew him better than most was Manzoor Moghal, a Moslem community leader in Leicester. He was on Amin's death list and had to escape in the middle of the night.

His regime was violent and murderous. President Idi Amin was notorious for his human rights violations. Forty years ago, he ordered Asians to leave Uganda.

Many of those who were forced to leave ended up in Leicester. Central Tonight's Rajiv Popat has travelled to the East African country to meet those who knew the dictator well, and saw for themselves just how brutal he was.

Sudhir Ruparelia is described as the Richard Branson of Uganda. He left the country at age of the 16 when the dictator Idi Amin ordered Asians to leave. He told Central Tonight's Rajiv Popat that the expulsion deeply affected his family.

Since his return, Mr Ruparelia has varied business interests and employs more than six thousand people.

The expulsion of Asians from Uganda forty years ago was a traumatic time for thousands of people. Many have settled in the Midands and would never dream of going back.

But some decided to accept an offer to return and to reclaim their properties. Central Tonight's Rajiv Popat travelled to Uganda where he met businessmnn who told him they've no regrets.

The Madhvani family settled in Uganda around a 100 years ago. They established a number of businesses and employed thousands of people who worked at their sugar cane plantations.

Like tens of thousands of people, they too were forced to leave the country by Idi Amin.

In the eighties, they returned to reclaim their properties. Today, they are the leading sugar producers of Uganda and employ more than 10,000 people.

Central Tonight's Rajiv Popat has been speaking to Mayur Madhvani about that period and why Uganda is a country worth investing in.

It is incredible to think that forty-years-ago, a local authority placed an advert in a Ugandan newspaper warning Asians not to move to Leicester. It said local services were already stretched.

This happened at a time when Asians in Uganda were being forced to leave the country by the dictator Idi Amin.

But they defied the warnings from the council. And as Rajiv Popat reports, they arrived penniless and overcame intense hostility to make their mark in Britain.