50 Years On: The Death Sentence, the Dictator, and the Cardiff Pool

ITV News

20 hours ago

It's 50 years since one of the more surreal moments in British diplomatic history: a tense international standoff that brought together a British lecturer, an infamous dictator, and a swimming pool in Cardiff.
It was July 1975.Back then, Uganda was ruled by one of the most feared tyrants of the 20th century: Idi Amin.
A former British colonial soldier, Amin had seized power in a military coup and declared himself president. His rule quickly descended into brutality. Known for his erratic behaviour and self styling as the 'Last King of Scotland,' Amin turned Uganda into a police state marked by mass killings, disappearances, and persecution.
Living in Uganda at the time was Denis Hills, a British academic and writer. Hills had written a book in which he criticised Amin. Furious, the dictator had Hills arrested and charged with espionage. He was sentenced to death by firing squad, and suddenly found himself the centre of an international diplomatic crisis.
Enter the third figure in this extraordinary story: Jim Callaghan, then Foreign Secretary and Cardiff MP.
Initial diplomatic approaches had failed. Amin, ever theatrical, issued a chilling ultimatum at a press conference:'If the Foreign Secretary is not here ten days from tomorrow, we will then consider when to execute Hills by the firing squad.'
Callaghan later said he 'risked his reputation' by agreeing to go. Prime Minister Harold Wilson warned him that he was moving too fast, acting without enough caution. But Callaghan went.
What happened next - nobody could be sure.Into the room came the huge figure of Idi Amin, there to meet him, the man dubbed as 'farmer Jim'.Amin walked up to the Foreign Secretary and immediately gave him a bear hug. His first words?'When I knew you came from Cardiff, I decided I was going to release Hills to you.'
A transcript of that meeting, rediscovered 50 years on, reveals the dictator's peculiar fondness for Wales. Amin reminisces about visiting Cardiff during his time as a soldier in the British Army.Amin: "You come from Wales?"
Callaghan: "Yes"
Amin: "I like it very much, very green. When I was in England, I spent my weekends there.."
Callaghan: "Did you really?"
Amin: "Yes, I like it very much. Cardiff I've been there."
Callaghan: "Very glad to hear it"
Amin: "You have a swimming pool there"
Callaghan: "Did you ever try it?"
Amin: "I swam there in 1964, August."
The conversation, surreal in tone given the life or death stakes, drifts into talk of Wales. Amin affirms his love of Wales, saying he would spend his weekends in the country, admiring how green it is and the friendliness of the people. Asked by Callaghan if it reminds him of Uganda, Amin says it does.
Later, posing for photographers with his son, Amin points at him saying to Callaghan:'He will come to Wales.'Callaghan smiles: 'I will teach him Welsh.'
With that Hills and Callaghan would leave for the UK.The three men would have very different fates.
Jim Callaghan would go on to become Prime Minister.
Idi Amin was overthrown in 1979 and fled into exile. He died in Saudi Arabia in 2003 - unrepentant of his rule in Uganda.
As for Denis Hills, he returned to Britain a reluctant celebrity. He continued to write and lecture, though he largely retreated from the spotlight. He died in 2004, aged 90.
His story, and the bizarre twist of history that tied Uganda to Wales, remains one of the strangest episodes in British diplomacy. A moment where a swimming pool in Cardiff may have helped save a man's life, all because a dictator used to swim there.