Idi Amin, a former British colonial army sergeant and heavy-weight boxer, seized power from Milton Obote and established dictatorial control in Uganda.

He spent a total of eight years in power and was reported to have been responsible for the deaths of up to half a million Ugandans.

The Dominican Republic suffered under the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo for thirty one years. With support of the United States General Rafael Molino Trujillo took control of the Dominican Republic in 1930 and ruled until his assassination in 1961.

Trujillo amassed a huge fortune at the expense of his people while repressing all opposition.

The Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979, in which approximately 1.7 million people lost their lives (21% of the country's population), was headed by Pol Pot. The Khemer Rouge combined extremist ideology with ethnic animosity and a diabolical disregard for human life to produce repression, misery, and murder on a massive scale.

The GNP of Zaire fell to 1/3 in the years1958-1994 under Mobutu. He printed money when he needed it, causing an inflation rate of over 1000%. He told his people in a speech "Steal! But don't steal too much, because then you will get caught!"

Perhaps Samuel Doe's rule is best summed up by his changing physique. When he came to power in a bloody 1980 coup, he was a lean Master Sergeant in military gear; today, he is a fat self-made General in a suit, living off U.S. aid and corporate kickbacks.

But while Doe and his cronies live in luxury the rest of Liberia dwells in squalor.

Laurent Kabila seemed like a saviour when he and his supporters fought their way across what was then the devastated nation called Zaire in 1996 and 1997.

Adoring crowds saluted him everywhere he went - they believed the little-known Laurent Kabila would set them free from the poverty and corruption of the decades of dictatorship under former President Mobutu Sese Seko.

Bokassa was a leader poured into virtually the same mould as Idi Amin of Uganda. He personally supervised and sometimes participated in the public clubbing to death of prisoners, once ordered the execution of schoolchildren, took over the most important government portfolios, and attempted to wipe out all opposition.

Marcos might not be one of the all-time killers but he is certainly one of the the biggest thieves in the history of the planet. Estimates of his ill-gotten gains range from US$3 to US$35 billion. Some suggest that the true amount is over US$100 billion, perhaps even trillions of dollars.

While these latter sums may he fanciful, the legacy of the Marcos dictatorship is all too real - an economy struggling just to pay the interest on its foreign debt and a seriously compromised democracy seemingly unable to shake off entrenched corruption.

lthough Papa Doc was elected to the Presidential office for a non-renewable six year term, he extended his autocratic tenure for fourteen years. During the time period of 1957-1971, between 20,000 and 50,000 Haitians are said to have been murdered by Duvalier's government. An additional one-fifth of its population lives else-where in political or economic exile. An estimated 80% of Haitians employed in professional fields fled Haiti under this oppressive regime.

Marxist dictator Mohammed Siad Barre's firm grip on power began to falter in the late 1980s. In 1988, determined to wipe out all traces of opposition, the aging president hired white mercenary pilots to carry out indiscriminate bombing raids on Hargeisa from the small airstrip on the outskirts of town. The attacks killed tens of thousands of civilians, laid waste to the town and virtually emptied it of its inhabitants for three years.