The Queen's 'good friend'... Idi Amin: Extraordinary personal sign-off to brutal Ugandan dictator revealed
- The Queen signed off a letter to Idi Amin with the line 'Your Good Friend'
- Letter was sent weeks before Ugandan dictator's atrocities were revealed
- Amin invited the Queen to independence day celebrations in African nation
- She declined, saying other 'commitments' prevented her attendance
- Amin murdered an estimated 500,000 people during his nine-year rule
He was a brutal tyrant whose regime of terror horrified the world. But when the Queen wrote to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin – just weeks before his atrocities began to be exposed – she signed off her letter with the line ‘Your Good Friend’.
The extraordinary letter is revealed for the first time in previously unpublished papers from the National Archives.
They also reveal how the Queen quickly changed her view of Amin, but maintained the semblance of diplomatic decorum because of fears for the lives of British citizens in the African country.
Amin, a former British Colonial Army officer who seized power in a 1971 coup, was left giddy with excitement after receiving a Christmas card from the Foreign Office.
He sent a gushing letter in January 1972 inviting the Queen to the tenth anniversary of Ugandan independence that October, writing: ‘It would do my government a great honour if Your Majesty could grace these celebrations with your presence in the company of your husband and the rest of your family.’
The Queen politely declined, stating: ‘I am most disappointed that my commitments at that time will prevent my accepting your invitation.’
