In the first such incident since Idi Amin's regime, Ugandan-Indians have been targeted by violent mobs in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. Three Indians are reported to have been killed, and countless Indian owned establishments, including a Hindu temple, were ransacked by roving mobs.

Anti-Indian sentiments have been growing in Uganda for a long time, due to the relative prosperity of the Ugandan-Indian community. The "last straw" was the news that the Ugandan government had agreed to sell approximately a third of the Mabira Forest to an Indian businessman named Dipaun Patel. The Mabira forest is an important Ugandan nature reserve, and many Ugandans have taken the transaction as proof that Indians are out to 'suck Uganda dry', with the tacit support of a weak, irresolute government.

These were the same reasons for which Idi Amin, former dictator of Uganda, gave for his infamous decision to expel all Indians from Uganda in 1972. There were virtually no Indians at all left in the country by the end of that year.

However since President Musevani's 1992 offer for the Ugandan Indians to return and reclaim their properties if they so wished, the number of Indians has slowly rose. This has been coupled with the influx of new Indian businessmen and women wishing to do business in Uganda. The gradual rise in the population of Indians in Uganda, and the continuing prosperity of the community has raised tempers in sections of Uganda's population, which culminated in the recent Kampala riots.

Uganda president Yoweri Museveni was quick to appeal for calm. "To attack, insult or damage the property of any Ugandan or guests of Uganda is something the government will not tolerate... Ugandans need 'foreigners' to develop our country. Nobody has a right to use violence against any other Ugandan or visitors to Uganda or their properties."

Investor confidence was only just beginning to pickup in the last few years with the international community being assured of relative calm and stability 20 years after the end of the Amin terror and the chaos of the 1980-85 civil war.

These attacks can have serious consequences on the economic situation of the country already suffering from severe power shortages and endemic corruption. A further large-scale exodus of Indian capital may leave a serious vacuum, which will not be filled very easily or quickly.

Meanwhile, for the average Indian in Uganda, the coming period is full of uncertainty. Unfortunately Indians seem to have become a scapegoat for the common man's problems, and unable to protect themselves.