The World's 10 Worst Dictators (contd.)

[Philadelphia Eagle]

#2. Kim Jong-Il - North Korea. Age 63. In power since 1994. Last year's rank # 2.

"While the outside world focuses on Kin Jong-Il's neuclear weapons program, domestically he runs the world's most tightly controlled society. North Korea continues to rank last in the index of press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders and for the 34th straight year it earned the worst possible score on political rights and civil liberties from Freedom House. An estimated 250,000 people are confined in 'reeducation camps.' Malnourishment is wide-spread.

According to the United Nations World Health Program, the average 7-year-old boy in North Korea is almost 8 inches shorter than a South Korean boy the same age and more than 20 pounds lighter.



# 3 Than Shwe - Burma (Myanmar) - Age 72. In power since 1992. Last year's rank # 3.

"In November 2005, without warning, Than Shwe moved his entire government from Rangoon (Yangon), the capital for the last 120 years to Pyinmana, a remote area 245 miles away. Civil servants were given two days' notice and are forbidden from resigning. Burma leads the world in the use of children as soldiers, and the regime is notorious for using forced labor on construction projects and as porters for the army in war zones. The long-standing house arrest of Aung San Suu Kwi, the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and Than Shwe's most feared opponent, recently was extended for six months. Just to drive near her heavily guarded home is to risk arrest."



# 4. Robert Mugabe - Zimbabwe - Age 81. In power since 1980. Last year' rank # 9.

"Life in Zimbabwe has gone from bad to worse. It has the world's highest inflation rate, 80% unemployment and an HIV/AIDS rate of more than 20%.

Life expectancy has declined since 1988 from 62 to 38 years. Farming has collapsed since 2000, when Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms, giving most of them to political allies with no background in azgriculture.

In 2005 Muigabe launched Operation Murambatsvina (Clean the Filth), the forcible eviction of some 700,000 people from their homes or businesses - 'to restore order and sanity,' says the government. But locals say the reason was to fore-stall demonstrations as the economy deteriorates."



More soon - Eagle.