Mugabe is a 'modern-day Hitler?

Africa has and continues to have its share of dangerous and sometimes crazy dictators. A good example is Idi Amin Dada, a former British army lieutenant who subsequently styled himself as.. “His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”.

Then there was also Mobutu of Congo, who forced all television news channels to precede the evening news by an image of him descending through clouds from the heavens. Central African Republic boasted the "emperor" Jean Bedel Bokassa, who it’s rumored ate the human flesh of his victims, Al Bashir of Sudan who has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million of his people,

But perhaps, the scariest of them all are the African leaders and the ANC that still support Robert Mugabe and the new breed of dictators.


AFRICA'S WORST DICTATORS

1. Mengistu Haile Mariam (1937 - )



Mengistu assumed the presidency of Ethiopia in a military coup which ousted Haile Selassie in 1974. His links with the Russians and his ruthless nature earned him the tag ‘the red terror’. Using so-called ‘neighbourhood commitees’, Mengistu had as many as 1.5 Million of his own people executed in just four years between 1975 and 1979. This ranks among the top ten genocides of the twentieth century. Those that survived the genocide had a good chance of starving, since Mengistu’s regime stole international food aid during Ethiopia’s famine during the mid 1980’s and distributed it among themselves. Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe, where he now has permanent residence, after being ousted in 1991. The Ethiopean government has been unsuccessfully trying for years to get Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe to extradite Mengistu so he can be tried for crimes against humanity.

2. Omar Al-bashir (1947 - Now)



Al Bashir seized power in Sudan in a military coup against a democratically elected government in 1989. Since his ascendancy, Amnesty International claims some 1 million people have been killed in the Sudanese civil war, whilst another 9 million have either fled the country or been subjected to ‘internal exile’, which basically means ’stay inside or be shot’. Al Bashir has also dissolved Sudan’s parliament, banned political parties and closed down all independent media outlets. He has imposed a strict version of Islamic law (shariah) and used it to brutally repress the predominantly non-muslim people of Southern Sudan.

3. Idi Amin Dada (1925 - )



Idi Amin was president of Uganda from 1971 until 1979. A former boxer, Amin rose through the ranks of the Army in the 1960’s, and seized power in a military coup against Uganda’s first president, Milton Obote. His reign was marked by brutal repression, torture and other violence. ‘Bodies were found with genitals, noses, livers, and eyes missing. Prison camps began filling up with common citizens, where prisoners forced to bludgeon each other to death with sledgehammers’. Most sources suggest that around 300,000 people were killed by Amin’s forces. Another 60,000 Kenyans of Asian descent were expelled from the country. In 1976, Amin declared himself president for life.

Amin’s Uganda was highly militarized, with ‘Military tribunals placed above the system of civil law, soldiers appointed to top government posts, and civilian cabinet ministers informed that they will be subject to military discipline’. Citing ‘ancient tribal ownership, Amin invaded Tanzania in 1978, in an apparent attempt to deflect world attention away from Uganda’s impending economic collapse. This move failed, since Amins troops were routed by the Tanzanians, who forced him to flee to Saudi Arabia, where he still lives today, reportedly with the aid of a monthly payment of US $1,400 per month from Saudi officials. Amin left Uganda with an estimated debt of US $250 Million. Amin has been proclaimed as ‘Africa’s Adolph Hitler’.

4. Charles Taylor (1931 - )



Taylor was actually elected as president by the people of Liberia in 1997. Amnesty International says that Taylor’s military forces regularly use rape and torture as instruments of terror and suggest that he is using his civilians as virtual slave labour. Estimates suggest that Taylor’s personal fortune is greater than Liberia’s Gross National Product. This fortune has been amassed by looting Liberia’s natural resources, including gold, diamonds, rubber and timber. According to Hybrid Culture Magazine, ‘rape and mutilation are standard tactics of intimidation’. UN sanctions and an arms embargo are in place against Taylor’s regime. Taylor has actively supported rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone by helping them to smuggle illegal ‘blood diamonds’ in order to finance their ongoing civil war against the Sierra Leone government.

5. Robert Mugabe (1924 - )



Robert Mugabe became Zimbabwe’s first president after the establishment of majority rule and the official granting of independence from Britain in 1980. He still holds that position today. Mugabe was a hero in the struggle for majority rule in the former British colony of Rhodesia, however over time he has lost popularity as his regime has become increasingly dictatorial. The controversial land redistribution program has seen mobs of Mugabe loyalists, referred to as ‘war veterans’ physically removing white farmers from their land. Homosexuals have also been a particular target of Mugabe’s repressive regime. British authorities believe Mugabe has stashed large amounts of money in foreign bank accounts.

The legacy of famine that Mugabe has introduced, coupled with the complete collapse of the economy and infrastructure will still cause the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans, so he is bound to move up the list. Thanks Thabo


6. Issayas Afeworki (1945 - )



Afewerki became president of Eritrea upon that country’s achievement of independence from Ethiopia in 1991. In recent times his ruling party has split and Afewerki’s faction has begun to brutally repress its opponents. In 2001, Afewerki shut down all of Eritrea’s free media and arrested eleven former high ranking officials from his own government. According to one web site, Afewerki has cracked down on dissidents at Eritrea’s only university by arresting the student union leader, who has since ‘disappeared’. Over 2000 other students have had their compulsory national army service ‘commuted’ to service in ‘community work camps’, where conditions are terrible and deaths are not uncommon. According to Reporters Sans Frontiers, Eritrea is the only country in Africa without any private media.

7. Siad Barre (1919-1995)



Barre seized power in Somalia in a military coup in 1969 and remained its leader until 1991. Barre played Somalia’s clans off against each other in a ‘divide and rule ‘ campaign and in particular he singled out the Majerteen tribe. Mohamoud M. Afrah claims that Barres forces killed thousands of innocent civilians and their livestock and poisoned their water supplies. Africa watch suggest that between 50,000 and 60,000 people were killed in the years between 1988 and 1990 alone. After his overthrow in 1991, Barre fled to Nigeria. The fact that Barre was unable to consolidate central authority in the face of constant civil war makes him a second rate despot.

8. Muammar Al-Gaddafi (1942 - )



Gaddafi came to power in Libya in a coup against that country’s monarchy in 1969. His ‘anti-western’ attitudes have brought him into regular conflict with the US since he has been regularly accused of being associated with terrorist organizations, including the former Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Gaddafi controls all media in Libya and criticism of him is not tolerated. In the 1980’s, Gaddafi ordered hit squads to assassinate Libyan dissidents living overseas. Political trials in Gaddafi’s Libya are held in private and offenders are regularly tortured. Some sources suggest that Gaddafi has become more moderate in recent times.

9. Laurent Kabila (1939-2001)



Kabila became president of the Democratic Republic of Congo when he led forces that overthrew Joseph Mobutu in 1997. Although he does not rank in the same league as Mobutu as a dictator, Kabila’s four year rule coincided with the deaths of around 3.3 Million people in the DRC. When he came to power Kabila promised institute political reforms and ‘intra-Congolese dialogue’, but he actually ended up removing ministers from his initial cabinet who were from different tribes than his own, and placed other political opponents into internal exile. Kabila was shot by one of his own bodyguards in 2001. Despite early promises to the contrary, Kabila never faced his people in any kind of popular election during his four year rule.

10. Hissene Habre



Habre was president of Chad from 1982 until 1990. According to the Human Rights Watch group, there was widespread genocide against ethnic minorities during Habre’s rule. His personally directed secret political police are also believed to have assassinated tens of thousands of political opponents. Systematic use of torture was also common during Habre’a reign. Habre is now in exile in Senegal where he faces deportation to Belgium to face charges of crimes against humanity

11. Jean-Bedel Bokassa (1921-1996)



Jean-Bedel Bokassa was president of the Central African Republic from 1966 until 1979. Bokassa had served in the colonial French army and helped establish the new army of the independent C.A.R. He seized power in a military coup against president David Dracko in 1966 and almost immediately abolished the country’s constitution. In 1972 he declared himself president for life, and in 1976 he adopted the title of ‘emperor’ after a US $30 Million coronation ceremony. Whilst enriching himself to the tune of US $125 Million, Bokassa brutalised and exploited his people with apparent flair. His ‘hands on’ approach led Bokassa to be personally involved in atrocities including torture, executions and even cannibalism. Bokassa was ousted by a French backed coup in 1979, but arrogantly returned in 1986, only to be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and yet Bokassa was released in 1993. As if he wasn’t busy enough, Bokassa apparently found time to have seventeen wives and around fifty children! He died of a heart attack in 1996.

12. Sekou Toure (1922-1984)



Toure was considered a hero in Guinea for defying French colonial rule. According to Rubin, when Guinea became independent in 1958 Toure said that ‘the Guinean people preferred poverty in freedom to riches in slavery’, but upon becoming its first president ‘Toure gave them both poverty and slavery’. Gulag style death camps were established by Toure in the early 1960’s and continued to operate for the whole of his twenty year rule. Many of Toure’s own elite class ended up being tortured and shot in these camps, such was Toure’s paranoia and his determination to maintain ‘a high level of internal repression’. Around one million Guineans fled the country during Toure’s rule, for both political and economic reasons. When he wasn’t terrorising people, Toure liked to write poetry! He died during surgery in America in 1984.

Mugabe is a 'modern-day Hitler' Source

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe should be seen as a "21st Century Hitler", a senior South African Anglican bishop has said. Bishop of Pretoria Joe Seoka called on churches to pray for his removal, South African Press Association reports. His comments came as the US ambassador to Zimbabwe warned that the country was turning into a "failed state".

On Thursday, Mr Mugabe said a deadly cholera outbreak had been stopped, as aid workers warned it was worsening. He said Western powers were plotting to use cholera as an excuse to invade and overthrow him. The World Health Organization says the outbreak has not been contained and the death toll has increased to 792 people, reports the AFP news agency. The UK minister for Africa Lord Mark Malloch-Brown said he did not know which world Mr Mugabe was living in. However, Mr Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba said the president's comments had been "sarcasm".

The WHO has warned that the total number of cases could reach 60,000 unless the epidemic was stopped. US ambassador James McGee blamed the outbreak on Zimbabwe's political crisis and the failed economic policies of its government. He told reporters in Washington that hospitals in Harare remained closed, there was no rubbish collection and people were drinking from sewers.

Why would one compare this African dictator to Hitler and not one of the oh... so many African dictators?

Why not compare him to Al Bashir? Oh yes, I forgot, South Africa supports him unconditionally as they do Mugabe.

July 29, 2008 (PRETORIA) — Egypt and South Africa said in favour of the suspension of indictment of Sudanese Omer al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki expressed during a joint news conference held in Pretoria on 29 July their rejection of issuing an arrest warrant against the Sudanese president as requested by the ICC’s prosecutor. Source