Is there retribution? We are talking about seven rulers of totalitarian regimes who went on an "honorable retirement".
The deaths of about a million of their fellow citizens are associated with their names. How did these odious individuals meet their old age?
Go Amin Dada (Uganda)
Lived: 1928-2003
Reign: 1971-1979
Number of victims: 300,000 to 500,000 (some historians say 1 million)
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"The Last King of Scotland" * combined such a collection of vices that he became the symbol of the dictator whose life Hollywood made a film about. Idi Amin is known for extravagant decisions like the expulsion of all Hindus from the country, because his mother worked for them at one time, or the declaration of war on the United States. He wanted to move the UN capital to Kampala and took over the infamous Air France Flight 139, hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1976. (Read about other high-profile air accidents in our article "12 high-profile air crimes of the XX century"). Amin confessed to cannibalism and kept the head of one of his ideological opponents in the refrigerator. During his reign, there were no prisons in the country - according to Amin, they were not needed when there are so many crocodiles in the country.
The outbreak of war with neighboring Tanzania filled the cup of international patience. On April 11, 1979, the ruler of Uganda boarded a private jet and fled the country. He found salvation in Libya, and by December 1979 he was gladly received by the King of Saudi Arabia Khalid. Amin settled in a mansion donated to him in Jeddah, where he lived with his wives for 24 years. The punishment for the field marshal was renal failure, which overpowered him at the age of 76. Amin is buried in Jeddah - Uganda refused to accept the body.
“We are very sorry that Amin was never brought to justice for his crimes,” said Reed Brodie, Cases Officer at Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization that investigates human rights abuses in more than 70 countries.. ed.).
* "The Last King of Scotland" is a Hollywood historical drama, released in 2006. Idi Amin did indeed claim the title of King of Scotland. - Ed.
Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia)
Born in 1937 (1941)
Years of government: 1977-1991
Number of victims: 200,000 to 3 million (including those killed by hunger)
On May 21, 1991, Mariam left the country, and the construction of socialism was completed in Ethiopia.
Mengistu fought the opponents of the new regime in simple but effective ways. A description of the executions used by the soldiers cannot be sustained by any paper. The bodies were simply thrown into the streets of cities. The nickname "butcher from Ethiopia" only slightly opens the eyes to this person.
And so in 1991, Ethiopia became the poorest state on the planet. It's time for Mengist Haile Mariam to embark on the "dictator's journey." With the participation of the United States, the exile landed in Zimbabwe, where the president-record holder (37 years in power) Robert Mugabe accommodated a dear guest in a government villa. High walls and the best special forces soldiers are still guarding a man who destroyed opponents with the speed of an angry cheetah.
On January 11, 2007, the Ethiopian Supreme Court sentenced Mengistu Haile Mariam to life in absentia. However, the Ethiopian Attorney General's Office appealed the court's decision, and on May 26, 2008, the Ethiopian Supreme Court overturned the original verdict, sentencing Mariam and 18 of his associates to death by hanging.
Alfredo Stroessner Mathiauda (Paraguay)
Lived: 1912-2006
Reign: 1954-1989
Number of victims: 200,000 Guaraní Indians; the number of political assassinations has not been established
Longer than Stroessner, only Fidel Castro ruled in Latin America. Portraits of the country's leader were everywhere: from the walls of the country's main airport to the square of the most remote village. The reason lay not so much in love for their leader as in the fact that the absence of a poster with the image of Stroessner was considered "intellectual terrorism" and was punished as a criminal offense.
For 35 years in power, the dictator's family has enriched by $ 900 million. In 1989, Stroessner was overthrown by his own son-in-law. With such money baggage, Brazil gladly accepted him. The country's government refused to numerous requests for extradition. He lived out his last years all alone in a country villa. All of his family members died, and Alfredo only followed them in 2006.
Charles MacArthur Gankay Taylor (Liberia)
Born in 1948
Years of government: 1997-2003
Casualties: 200,000 (First Civil War in Liberia) and 300,000 (Second)
This hero, a true soldier and respected field commander of West Africa, became one of the tools that the CIA used to work on the Black Continent. It was he who gave diamonds to Naomi Campbell in the hope of conquering the supermodel. And it was Charles Taylor who fueled civil wars between countries in the Liberia-Guinea-Sierra Leone region. Arms and diamonds trade, slave trade and executions were actively developing under the accompaniment of explosions. In 2003, Taylor received asylum in Nigeria and left the country with a frightening statement: "God willing, I'll come back."
War is over. Taylor was no longer needed by his patrons, and the International Court of Justice for Sierra Leone in 2006 still managed to extradite the ex-president, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison on May 30, 2012.
Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines)
Lived: 1917-1989
Reign: 1965-1986
Number of victims: tens of thousands of opposition and trade union leaders
If the great schemer Ostap Bender became president, then his reign would look exactly like the leadership of Ferdinand Marcos. This man has turned 20 years of his presidency into a never-ending enrichment. He introduced new taxes, monopolized the sugar industry, took away companies. International loans were used to replenish the family's car fleet and purchase new real estate. Every year he opened new accounts around the world, accumulating wealth (the fortune of the presidential family is estimated at $ 5-10 billion).
On February 25, 1986, it was time to leave. The C-130 waited on the runway while the attendants loaded 23 boxes with unknown contents, 12 huge bags, several hundred boxes in which Marcos took out what could not be transferred to accounts. The state of the president at the time of his expulsion is still unknown. The Americans sheltered the fugitive in Guam, and soon sent him to Hawaii. Here the "soldier" yearned for his homeland and suffered from kidney disease until his death.
Jean-Bedel Bokassa (Central African Republic)
Lived: 1921-1996
Reign: 1966-1979
Number of victims: unknown
Bokassa is a style icon for dictators. After spending ten years as president of the country, on December 4, 1977, he declared himself emperor and carried out his coronation in full accordance with the coronation of Napoleon. Wearing the most expensive shoes in history, adorned his head with a crown of 2,000 diamonds (representing 25% of the country's annual exports), he marched under a French orchestra to the two-ton golden throne. On the same days, hundreds of people were dying in the country due to the lack of doctors and total poverty and hunger.
Bokassa, who had exhausted his people, had to be removed. As a result of the "last colonial expedition of France", David Daco was re-installed as president of the CAR (it was he who was overthrown in 1966 by Bokassa). Jean-Bedel himself was at that time in Libya on an official visit. Soon, in transit through Côte d'Ivoire, he landed in the suburbs of Paris, where he lived for some time in the castle of Ardicours. However, the criminal was drawn to his homeland. In 1986, he returned to the CAR, expecting to be re-enthroned, but former subjects instead condemned him (for murder, cannibalism, rape, embezzlement of public funds - only 13 crimes) and sentenced to death. In 1988, however, he was pardoned and sentenced to life imprisonment. And five years later, the dictator was amnesty.
Mobutu Sese Seko (Congo - Zaire)
Lived: 1930-1997
Reign: 1965-1997
Number of victims: unknown
During his rule in the Congo, the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko accumulated multimillion-dollar capital, which migrated to his personal pocket from the state treasury. The country plunged into total poverty, which led to riots, wars and mass starvation. Authoritarian power cannot exist without a personality cult. Mobutu brought it to the highest level: renaming the country (from Congo to Zaire), renaming Lake Albert in honor of the president, drawing a portrait of a "demigod" on any materials and surfaces.
He ran out of patience when he hosted 2 million Hutu refugees who slaughtered 70% of the Tutsi people in his native Rwanda. Mobutu fled to Togo in May 1997. The expulsion did not last long - the old leader died in Morocco on September 7, 1997. His punishment was prostate cancer.
Dmitry Shevko