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Diplomatic efforts to resolve Uganda's conflict with Tanzania fared somewhat better. Amin finally agreed to send Foreign Minister Wanume Kibedi to a Somalia-sponsored peace conference in Mogadishu, where Tanzanian Foreign Minister John Malacela had been waiting. At week's end, the two ministers issued a joint communique saying that an agreement had been reached.
Meantime, TIME Correspondent John Blashill learned in Nairobi last week that Amin has had invasion plans of his own—against Tanzania—and may still be entertaining such notions. Amin's ostensible aim would be to obtain an outlet to the sea for his landlocked country, and the port he has long had in mind is Tanga, near the northern Tanzanian border with Kenya.
According to Israeli Ambassador to Kenya Reuven Dafni, Amin canvassed such a plan in Israel and asked for Phantoms, Skyhawks and speedboats (to transport his army across Lake Victoria) and for Israeli staff officers to draw up detailed invasion plans. The Israelis refused, because they did not wish to get involved and because Amin already owed them a great deal of money. (Amin subsequently kicked all Israeli military advisers and civilians out of Uganda.) A similar request to Britain also proved futile.
There are two indications that suggest Amin may still be planning such an invasion. In a recent speech he attacked Africa's existing national boundaries as unrealistic and unjust legacies of the colonialist powers. He has also reportedly tried to place an order with France for 30 armored cars and have Libya pay for them. An invasion of that kind is both unthinkable and impossible. It would bring down the wrath of Black Africa on his head, and the wrath would be reinforced by troops and arms. Besides, Amin's 12,000-man army is simply not big enough to hold a strip of land 600 miles long.