The World's 10 Worst Dictators.

[Philadelphia Eagle]

Today in the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspaper David Wallechinsky publishes his annual list of the world's 10 worst dictators. It makes for compelling reading. In addition to their names it goes on to itemize their individual methods of operation and illustrates in graphic detail the devistating effect they have had on the unfortunate citizens of their particular countries.

His article starts by defining a dictator as follows:

"A 'dictator' is a head of state who exercises arbitary authority over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means. The worst commit terrible human-rights abuses. The present list draws in part on reports by global human-rights organizations,including Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International. While the 3 worst from 2005 have retained their places, two on last year's list (Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan) have slipped out of the Top 10 - not because their conduct has improved but because other dictators have gotten worse".

I thought it might be of interest to members to post the names and details of their regimes and would propose doing this over the next few days. Today I'll start with number 1.

"#1. Omar al-Bashir - Sudan - Age 62 - In power since 1989. Last year's rank - #1.

Since Feb 2003, Bashir's campaign of ethnic and religious persecution has killed at least 180,000 civilians in Darfur in western Sudan and driven 2 million people from their homes. The good news is that Bashir's army and the Janjaweed militia that he supports have all but stopped burning down villages in Darfur. The bad news is why they've stopped: there are few villages left to burn. The attacks now are aimed at refugee camps. While the media have called these actions "a humanitarian tragedy", Bashir himself has escaped major condemnation. In 2005 Bashir signed a peace agreement with the largest rebel group in non-Islamic southern Sudan and allowed its leader, John Garang, to become the nation's vice president. But Garang died in July in a helicopter crash, and Bashir's troops still occupy the south."

Tomorrow # 2 and # 3 - Kim Jong-Il of North Korea and Than Shwe of Burma.

[Accountable]

Reading with interest.

[Uncle Kram]

The difference between Saddam Hussein and my old boss, is that one was a dictator who ruled his people with a rod of iron in a punative regime, the other is the former President of Iraq