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KAMPALA, UGANDA, August 17, 2003: Thirty-one years ago, Idi Amin started a campaign to remove Asians from this country. He expropriated their homes and businesses. As they trooped to the airport and highways, his soldiers robbed them along the way. Now, with Mr. Amin’s reign of terror long over, there are strong signs of an Asian revival here. Many of the Asians that Mr. Amin expelled have picked up their lives in Uganda again. Although they represent less than one percent of the country’s population, Asians own Ugandan banks, hotels and foreign exchange bureaus. They manufacture bicycles, jewelry and tissue paper, run pharmacies, sell insurance, and dominate the sugar industry. There are an estimates 15,000 Asians living in Uganda today, far fewer than the 80,000 or so, mostly Indians and Pakistanis, during Mr. Amin’s time. But estimates put the amount of investment that they have made in Uganda over the past decade at somewhere close to $1 billion. The current government has been pro-business, urging investment from people of any ancestry. Giving confiscated property back to the ousted Asians was the government’s first step in soothing relations. Many of the Asians forced out of Uganda have not taken up President Yoweri Museveni’s call to return, disgusted by the country that uprooted them. But thousands have opted to give Uganda a second chance.

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