Of the 10 Worst Living Dictators, five terrorize Africa according to David Wallechinsky writing for Parade Magazine.
Number four is the thug and criminal for whom I have burned some electrons within these pages, Robert Mugabe.
According to Human Rights Forum, Mugabe's government has killed or tortured and displaced more than 70,000. While allowing elections, he has restricted opponents' ability to campaign and shut down media that don't support him. When opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 42% of the vote anyway, Mugabe had him arrested and charged with treason. As his support has slipped, Mugabe has played the race card, confiscating farms owned by whites and giving them to his supporters.
Number 6 is Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea
U.S. oil companies have poured billions of dollars into the country. Although the per capita income is $4,500 a year, 60% of the people live on less than $1 a day. The bulk of the oil income goes directly into the U.S. bank account of President Obiang, who has declared: "There is no poverty in Guinea." Rather, "The people are used to living in a different way." In July, state radio announced that Obiang "is in permanent contact with the Almighty" and "can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to Hell." There is little public transportation, no daily newspapers, and only 1% of government spending goes to health care.
Number 7 is Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan
Sudan, the largest country in Africa, has been involved in a complex 20-year civil war that has claimed the lives of 2 million people and uprooted 4 million. Al-Bashir seized power in a military coup and immediately suspended the constitution, abolished the legislature and banned political parties and unions....his army has routinely bombed civilians and tortured and massacred non-Muslims, particularly in the oil-producing areas of the south. Sudanese troops also have kidnapped southerners and enslaved them. Al-Bashir has been accused of "engineering famine" in regions that oppose him.
Number 10 is King Mswati III of Swaziland
Though educated in England, Mswati has shown a liking for certain Swazi traditions. In Sept. 2002, he watched thousands of girls and young women dance bare-breasted in the annual Reed Dance, then chose one to be his 10th wife. (His father had 100 wives.) The girl's mother filed a lawsuit charging the king with abducting her daughter. Mswati announced that Swazi courts were forbidden to issue rulings that limited the king's power. To appease world opinion, he approved a new constitution to replace the one his father suspended 30 years earlier. However, the new constitution bans political parties, allows the death penalty for any criminal offense and provides for debtors' prisons.
In Scotland a large unruly group of clowns are marching for the dictators in Africa, asking the leaders of the Western Democracies to relieve the debt burden on these poor countries so that the homicidal and masochistic maniacs that run them can profit some more from their despicable reigns.
But these are no peaceniks:
More than 100 black-clad anarchists smashed car windows, threw rocks and tried to blockade one of the main roads into the Gleneagles resort in Scotland that is hosting the three-day summit of world economic leaders, according to The Associated Press.
Sweet! Robert Mugabe would be proud.
Hey! I have an idea, since giving money to countries that are run by criminals is not going to relieve the terrible economic conditions of the people who live there anyway, why not tie the debt relief and aid to political and economic reform? Great idea, huh?
Oh. What? You mean Bush already thought of that and that is precisely his position?
U.S. President George W. Bush delivered a tough message for African nations hoping for more aid or debt relief, saying on Wednesday they had to abide by the rules of democracy and fight corruption.
"We will give aid and cancel debt, but we want to be assured that governments invest in their people ... and fight corruption," he told a news conference after talks with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Bush said he could not look U.S. taxpayers in the eye if countries which received aid did not meet the right standards of democracy. "We expect good governance," he said.
Who is it that keeps calling Bush a moron?
Oh, that would be the clowns marching for tyrants in Scotland.
Interestingly, the Chief Moron, Britain's George Galloway, could not see the irony of the situation when he protested the possibility of Scotland's police cancelling the demonstration
George Galloway, a politician recently re-elected to the house of commons despite being thrown out of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, said he was still angry that the police had tried to prevent the march.
"When, exactly, did this become a police state?" he said.
"When did the police get ... the power to call off demonstrations here in this free country of ours?"
Mr Galloway, and the clowns, seem blind to the fact that none of the above listed Tyrants of Africa allow such demonstrations at all and the march that is in support of them simply gives these meglomaniacs aid and comfort.
What? You say, I forgot one of the worst living dictators of Africa?
Well that would, of course, be number 5; Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
But somehow I don't think the clowns are marching for that Africa.
It's not like they would ever come out and demand that these countries live in political and economic freedom.
Ever.
