28 December 2006
As Saddam awaits execution, how other dictators perished
By Sara Wallis
The Mirror (UK)
SADDAM Hussein's final appeal against his death sentence has failed and he is now certain to hang.
This week an Iraqi court upheld his conviction for crimes against humanity in the killing of 148 Shias and the death sentence could be carried out any day - he must be dead within a month.
As Saddam prepares to face the penalty decided by the courts he once controlled, we look at other dictators and how they came to their often grisly deaths.
ADOLF HITLER
LEADER of Germany from 1934 until 1945 and the leader of the Nazi Party, Hitler cheated justice by taking his own life.
With policies that culminated in a genocide of around 11million people - including about six million Jews - Hitler did not wait to be taken alive by the Allies.
Surrounded by the Soviet army in the final days of the war, the Nazi leader committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin with his new wife Eva Braun. He shot himself in the head and may have simultaneously bitten into a vial of cyanide. Eva took poison.
Their bodies were partially burned by aides and hastily buried in the Chancellory garden. To avoid creation of a shrine the remains were repeatedly moved before being cremated and thrown in a river.
BENITO MUSSOLINI
ON April 27, 1945, two years after being overthrown, the Italian dictator and ally of Hitler was captured near Lake Como by communist resistance units.
A day later he and his entourage, including mistress Clara Petacci, were shot in the northern village of Giulinodi Mezzegra.
On April 29, the bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were found hung upside down on meat hooks in a square in Milan, along with those of other fascists.
Mussolini's body was eventually taken down and later buried in an unmarked grave in a Milan cemetery until the 1950s, when his body was moved back to his home town Predappio. It was stolen in the late 1950s by neo-fascists, but shortly recovered and reburied.
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
THE Butcher of the Balkans was another dictator to escape justice, dying aged 64 in a prison cell awaiting the final outcome of his four-year trial for war crimes.
As President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000, he orchestrated ethnic cleansing campaigns in which Bosnian Serbs systematically killed and raped Bosnian Muslims. In May 1999 he was indicted for crimes against humanity. Less than a year later he stood trial in The Hague but on March 11, 2006, he was found dead in his cell in the UN war crimes tribunal detention centre.
It is believed Milosevic, who suffered from chronic heart ailments and diabetes, died of a heart attack, but some of his supporters believe he was murdered in prison. He was denied a state funeral.
NICOLAE CEAUSESCU
THE leader of Communist Romania from 1965 until 1989, he took the titles Leader and "Genius of the Carpathians" and even had a kinglike sceptre made for himself.
While the country was starving, Ceausescu was shown on state TV entering stores filled with food and praising the "high living standard" under his rule.
Deposed by a coup in December 1989, Ceausescu and his wife Elena fled the capital by helicopter and were captured by police in the countryside. On Christmas Day 1989, a kangaroo court condemned them to death.
Before they were shot in Targoviste with a sub-machine gun, Ceausescu sang part of the Internationale as his wife screamed at everyone to go to hell. The trial and pictures of the corpses were shown on Romanian television.
POL POT
SALOTH Sar, known as Pol Pot, was leader of the Khmer Rouge and Prime Minister of Cambodia from 1976 to 1979. In "purifying" Cambodia ready for communism, Pol Pot exterminated intellectuals, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and ethnic Vietnamese.
Left in mass graves - the Killing Fields - victims were often executed using sharpened bamboo to save on ammunition.
Responsible for the deaths of up to three million out of a population of seven million, he was put on trial in 1997 for the death of Son Sen, his right-hand man.
After hearing on the radio that he was to be turned over to an international court, he died in his bed, his wife and military chiefs claiming his death was due to heart failure.
"PAPA DOC" DUVALIER
PRESIDENT of Haiti from 1957, Dr Franois Duvalier used assassins and armed gangs to sweep to power, claiming to be a houngan, or voodoo priest.
A trained doctor, he had been head of the national health service. But after an attempted coup in mid-1958, he formed a militia known as the Tonton Macoutes.
In 1961, he staged a sham election and in 1964 declared himself President for Life, claiming to be the physical embodiment of the nation. He is believed responsible for up to 30,000 deaths.
In 1986, 15 years after his death, a mob exhumed his body, intending to ritually beat it to ensure he could not rise again on Judgment Day. However, finding it had been moved they exhumed one of his supporters instead.
JOSEPH STALIN
GENERAL Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party from 1922 until 1953, Stalin was responsible for the deaths of up to 40 million people.
His crimes included orchestrating a massive famine in the Ukraine during which an estimated five million died.
On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner, Stalin collapsed in his room from a stroke. He was not discovered until that evening and died four days later, at the age of 74.
His daughter Svetlana recalled his dying moments: "He suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room.
"It was a terrible glance. Then he suddenly lifted his left hand as though he were bringing down a curse upon all of us."
This week an Iraqi court upheld his conviction for crimes against humanity in the killing of 148 Shias and the death sentence could be carried out any day - he must be dead within a month.
As Saddam prepares to face the penalty decided by the courts he once controlled, we look at other dictators and how they came to their often grisly deaths.
ADOLF HITLER
LEADER of Germany from 1934 until 1945 and the leader of the Nazi Party, Hitler cheated justice by taking his own life.
With policies that culminated in a genocide of around 11million people - including about six million Jews - Hitler did not wait to be taken alive by the Allies.
Surrounded by the Soviet army in the final days of the war, the Nazi leader committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin with his new wife Eva Braun. He shot himself in the head and may have simultaneously bitten into a vial of cyanide. Eva took poison.
Their bodies were partially burned by aides and hastily buried in the Chancellory garden. To avoid creation of a shrine the remains were repeatedly moved before being cremated and thrown in a river.
BENITO MUSSOLINI
ON April 27, 1945, two years after being overthrown, the Italian dictator and ally of Hitler was captured near Lake Como by communist resistance units.
A day later he and his entourage, including mistress Clara Petacci, were shot in the northern village of Giulinodi Mezzegra.
On April 29, the bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were found hung upside down on meat hooks in a square in Milan, along with those of other fascists.
Mussolini's body was eventually taken down and later buried in an unmarked grave in a Milan cemetery until the 1950s, when his body was moved back to his home town Predappio. It was stolen in the late 1950s by neo-fascists, but shortly recovered and reburied.
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
THE Butcher of the Balkans was another dictator to escape justice, dying aged 64 in a prison cell awaiting the final outcome of his four-year trial for war crimes.
As President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000, he orchestrated ethnic cleansing campaigns in which Bosnian Serbs systematically killed and raped Bosnian Muslims. In May 1999 he was indicted for crimes against humanity. Less than a year later he stood trial in The Hague but on March 11, 2006, he was found dead in his cell in the UN war crimes tribunal detention centre.
It is believed Milosevic, who suffered from chronic heart ailments and diabetes, died of a heart attack, but some of his supporters believe he was murdered in prison. He was denied a state funeral.
NICOLAE CEAUSESCU
THE leader of Communist Romania from 1965 until 1989, he took the titles Leader and "Genius of the Carpathians" and even had a kinglike sceptre made for himself.
While the country was starving, Ceausescu was shown on state TV entering stores filled with food and praising the "high living standard" under his rule.
Deposed by a coup in December 1989, Ceausescu and his wife Elena fled the capital by helicopter and were captured by police in the countryside. On Christmas Day 1989, a kangaroo court condemned them to death.
Before they were shot in Targoviste with a sub-machine gun, Ceausescu sang part of the Internationale as his wife screamed at everyone to go to hell. The trial and pictures of the corpses were shown on Romanian television.
POL POT
SALOTH Sar, known as Pol Pot, was leader of the Khmer Rouge and Prime Minister of Cambodia from 1976 to 1979. In "purifying" Cambodia ready for communism, Pol Pot exterminated intellectuals, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and ethnic Vietnamese.
Left in mass graves - the Killing Fields - victims were often executed using sharpened bamboo to save on ammunition.
Responsible for the deaths of up to three million out of a population of seven million, he was put on trial in 1997 for the death of Son Sen, his right-hand man.
After hearing on the radio that he was to be turned over to an international court, he died in his bed, his wife and military chiefs claiming his death was due to heart failure.
"PAPA DOC" DUVALIER
PRESIDENT of Haiti from 1957, Dr Franois Duvalier used assassins and armed gangs to sweep to power, claiming to be a houngan, or voodoo priest.
A trained doctor, he had been head of the national health service. But after an attempted coup in mid-1958, he formed a militia known as the Tonton Macoutes.
In 1961, he staged a sham election and in 1964 declared himself President for Life, claiming to be the physical embodiment of the nation. He is believed responsible for up to 30,000 deaths.
In 1986, 15 years after his death, a mob exhumed his body, intending to ritually beat it to ensure he could not rise again on Judgment Day. However, finding it had been moved they exhumed one of his supporters instead.
JOSEPH STALIN
GENERAL Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party from 1922 until 1953, Stalin was responsible for the deaths of up to 40 million people.
His crimes included orchestrating a massive famine in the Ukraine during which an estimated five million died.
On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner, Stalin collapsed in his room from a stroke. He was not discovered until that evening and died four days later, at the age of 74.
His daughter Svetlana recalled his dying moments: "He suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room.
"It was a terrible glance. Then he suddenly lifted his left hand as though he were bringing down a curse upon all of us."
5 comments:
Cambodian government ministers must open their eyes to see Iraqi court. Saddam has killed only 147 people, and he has condemned by Iraqi Court to hang him. This prove that Iraqi people is very matured. They value human lives as very important. In Cambodia, Sihanouk has ordered his troops to killed all National armies who were still supported Lon Nol Regime. But he is still being called Heroism King!! What a bloody idiot King!!! He should be hang like Saddam. Khiev Saphann, Nuon Chea and all other Khmer Rouge like Keat Chhon, Hor nam Hong who have killed three millions people. They are still free. That mean, Cambodian leaders and Cambodian jusdges are very immatured they cannot provide justice to their citizen. They should felt shame to be leaders and judges.
These killers are not a real man. They are will to face up with their action. Come on pussy cats!
These killers are not real men. They are not willing to face up with their action. Come on pussy cats!
Is it possible that Hun Sen will be gone one day? He is so proud of himself as he is becoming the longest serving priminister in the history of Cambodia. No one believed Pol Pot's government could be demolished, and the Khmers were freed from his regime. Kadafi of Libya changed his policy 180 degrees after the allies forces invaded Iraq and Captured Sadam Hussien alive. He was afraid the United States would go after him. HUN SEN MUST PLAY A SMART GAME IF HE WANTS TO GET AWAY FROM DEATH LIKE THOSE DICTATORS BEFORE HIM.
Dumb will be dumb. We like you to stay just the way you are. Oh you're so cute big boy! tell me when you are ready for a gillotine.
See that big razor blad before you? Chop! Chop! gone ! gone!
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