USA, August 12 (IPS) – When world political leaders, mainly presidents and prime ministers, are ousted from power following military coups or street protests, they flee to “safe havens” to avoid imprisonment, execution by shooting or hanging. public.
Perhaps one of the “safe havens” – and a popular “political retirement home” – is Saudi Arabia, a traditional dictatorship that has provided shelter to the wealthy. leaders from Uganda, Tunisia, Pakistan, Yemen and Qatar.
A caricature in a British newspaper summed it up when it jokingly depicts the “ARRIVAL” terminal in a Saudi airport with a fast checkout line for travelers – supermarket style – with a sign that reads: “ONLY FOR THE REMEMBER OF THE WORLD LEADERS”
Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and coordinator of Middle East Studies at the University of San Francisco, told IPS “It should come as no surprise that one of the most authoritarian countries in the world would be a haven for politicians other authoritarian leaders.”
And, given that Saudi Arabia has strong backing from the United States, they have even less to worry about — about pressure to extradite (asylum seekers), he claimed.
In recent memory, several political leaders have sought asylum in Saudi Arabia including Idi Amin of Uganda (2003), Zine El Abdine Ben Ali of Tunisia (2019), Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi of Yemen ( 2015), Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan (2007) and Khalifa bin Hamad Al-Thani, Emir of Qatar (2004).
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was ousted from power by an angry mob last month, and whose government – and extended family – are accused of large-scale corruption and mismanagement, have is probably a potential candidate for Saudi asylum, after he stopped in the Maldives, Singapore and Thailand. While traveling around Asia, Rajapaksa has been belittled as a former president looking for a country.
But there are still ousted leaders from Iran, Afghanistan and Liberia who are jailed, hanged or executed.
Eliminating political exiles in Saudi Arabia, Middle East Eye, an online news site based in London, quotes Andrew Hammond, a historian at Oxford University and author of a book on Saudi Arabia, said: “On the one hand, it means that there cannot be political parties, protests, petitions, and other modern phenomena associated with electoral politics. face.
“But on the other hand, it means the country can be open and welcoming to people of many races and backgrounds, as long as they stay away from politics or act in a government-approved way.”
As William Dobson, Slate’s political and foreign affairs editor, points out in his book “The Dictator’s Learning Curve”: “What dictators and autocrats fear most are their own people. “
Erica Frantz, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University, writes in her book, Authoritarianism, that “about 40% of the world’s people live under some form of government.” authoritarian regimes and dictatorships rule about a third of the world’s nations.”
In the 1960s, Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who was sacked after a coup by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British intelligence, was sentenced to death and imprisoned in a prison. military for three years.
According to the British and the Americans, he made the supreme mistake of nationalizing the vast amount of British oil in Iran. Mossadegh died in March 1967 while he was under house arrest, and he was succeeded by one of America’s most loyal allies: the Shah of Iran.
Meanwhile, the story of ousted political leaders continues.
When the Taliban recaptured power in 1996, one of its first political acts was to hang Afghan President Mohammed Najibullah at Ariana Square in Kabul.
On August 15 of last year, the Taliban, in power once again, this time toppled the US-backed government of Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official who was equipped with a doctorate in anthropology from one of the most prestigious Ivy League educational institutions in the United States: Columbia University.
In a Facebook post, Ghani said he had fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to seek safe haven because he was “about to be hanged by the Taliban”.
If that happens, the Taliban will have the stark distinction of being the only government in the world to hang two presidents. But fortunately, it didn’t.
Ghani, however, denied that he had run away from the presidential palace carrying some suitcases with millions of dollars stolen from the country’s coffers.
In another famous case, the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr of the Philippines, was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1986. Described as a lawyer, dictator, kleptocrat and a A strong American ally, Marcos died in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii, in September 1989, after seeking asylum in the US.
However, Liberia’s political leaders were not so lucky.
On April 12, 1980, Samuel Doe led a military coup, killing President William R. Tolbert, Jr., in the Executive Mansion in Liberia, a West African country founded by the freed African-American slaves, with its capital named after the fifth President of the United States James Monroe.
The entire Cabinet, publicly paraded naked, lined up on a beach in the capital Monrovia – and was shot dead.
According to a BBC report in April 1980, “13 top government officials ousted in Liberia were publicly executed by order of the new military regime.”
Those killed included several former cabinet ministers and brother of William Tolbert, the West African nation’s assassinated president. They were tied to poles on the beach next to the military barracks in the capital Monrovia and shot, the BBC reported.
“Journalists who were brought to the barracks to watch the executions said they were cruel and messy.”
Report of the United Nations Office IPS
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