I found this interesting piece on a website known as Warrior… It lists and highlights in details, the ten most evil dictators the world has ever produced, and their various crimes..
“Every time a dictator dies, or an atrocity is perpetrated, or
details of the torture endured by those who lived through one regime or
another escapes to the outside world, invariably the cry goes up that
this must never be allowed to happen again. The unsavory fact is,
however, that it does happen again, over and over, from one continent to
another.”
-Shelley Klein, author of The Most Evil Dictators in History
(WARNING: Some of you may find the details gory, so your discretion is strongly advised)
10. Genghis Khan
Born Temujin, Genghis Khan set out at the age of 20 to unite all
Mongol tribes under his rule with brutal and merciless military
tactics. To avenge his father’s murder by the Tatar Army, Temujin
ordered the killing of ever Tatar male taller than 3 feet. After
defeating the Taichi’ut tribe, the chiefs were boiled alive. By 1206,
Temujin had defeated the powerful Naiman tribe, giving him control of
central and eastern Mongolia. After major victories over other Mongol
tribes, leaders made peace with Temujin, who became Genghis Khan,
meaning “universal ruler.” During later wars the Mongols used enemy
survivors as human shields in the next battle. In a campaign against
the Khwarizm Dynasty, one Governor Inalchuq was captured and executed
by having molten silver poured into his ears and eyes (George R.R.
Martin would be proud); the rest of the population was either
slaughtered or enslaved. Genghis Khan died in 1227. The cause of his
death remains a mystery, though most experts attribute his demise to
illness.
9. Idi Amin
Also known as the “Butcher of Uganda,” Idi Amin’s opponents faced
three prospects—imprisonment, torture, or death (sometimes all three).
Although precise numbers are tricky to get, it’s estimated that between
100,000 and half a million Ugandans were killed and tortured at his
hand. Amin ordered the Asian population out of Uganda, declaring an
“economic war” on them and blaming them for the country’s economic woes.
As Asians left the country, businesses were closed and the economy
worsened. Amin had a particular appetite for killing people in the most
brutal ways, which including cutting off genitals and limbs and letting
the victim bleed to death; flaying humans alive and making them eat
their own flesh; making men line up and then forcing the first man to
lie down, only to have his head smashed by the next one in line with a
hammer and then that man would have to lie down, and so on; victims were
made to sit in an ice bath outside and freeze to death slowly; women
were systematically raped, tortured, and killed. Most bodies were thrown
into the Nile where they were consumed by crocodiles.
8. Shaka Zulu
One of the most influential kings of the Zulu Kingdom, Shaka Zulu is
widely credited with uniting the Nguni people in Africa with brilliant
military tactics using disciplined military regiments. His brutal
reign was not fully realized until after the death of his mother when,
with inconsolable grief, he began slaughtering citizens of his kingdom.
After the funeral of his mother, he ordered his military to go out and
kill anyone who was found not mourning properly. He outlawed the
planting of crops and the use of milk for a year, and all the women
found pregnant were murdered along with their husbands. His brutal reign
came to an end when his half-brothers murdered him in 1828.
7. Vlad the Impaler
The inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula is just as scary as the
blood-drinking monster. Vlad had a particular taste for blood and
torture – and his name offers a clue . To impale his victims, he would
insert a wood or metal pole through the body. Usually, it was inserted
vertically so that the exit wound would be near the victim’s neck,
shoulders, or mouth. In most instances, the pole was not sharp to
prolong suffering and, in most cases, it would take hours or even days
for the person to die. The pole would be raised vertically to showcase
the victim. But impaling his victims wasn’t the only form of killing he
enjoyed. He also drove nails through his victims heads, as well as
burning, beheading, roasting children alive and then feeding them to
their mothers, mutilation, and countless other atrocities. It’s rumored
that he would dip his bread in blood before eating it and often enjoyed
eating feasts with his impaled victims around him (usually still alive
and writhing). It’s estimated that he killed anywhere between 40,000
to 100,000 people. Although a relatively small number compared to other
evil dictators on this list, Vlad the Impaler earns a spot in the top
ten simply for his sadistic pleasure of torturing and killing people.
6. Pol Pot
The Cambodia communist dictator is responsible for torturing and
killing the majority of Cambodians, an estimated 1 to 3 million people,
or 25 to 35 percent of the country. He put the majority of Cambodians
into slave labor, where most died from malnutrition, poor medical care,
starvation, or execution. Many were clubbed to death or buried alive.
Workers who made mistakes were flogged to death or shot. During his
rule, Pol Pot ordered babies torn limb by limb; people were beaten to
death with hammers and impaled with sharpened bamboo sticks. In order to
make a perfectly equal society, he sent city people to work on the
farms and farmers to work in the city, which resulted in widespread
famine.
5.Kim Il Sung
Causing the death of around 3 million people, Kim Il Sung was the
communist dictator of North Korea for 49 years. He killed all of the
officers and rivals that fought alongside him in the Korean War, a war
he started. He also exiled or executed the majority of his generals that
fought in the war and placed around 200,000 political prisoners in
concentration camps. His regime became so bad that when someone
committed a crime, even so much as accidently dropping a picture of Kim
Il Sung, their entire family was killed or sent to camps where they
faced starvation, torture and death. One of the tortures made famous in
his camps was making a prisoner kneel in a box motionless for months
until death. Firing squads were plentiful in the concentration camps, as
well. During his reign, upwards of 3.5 million people are estimated to
have died from famine alone.
4.Saddam Hussein
One of the most well-known leaders of the 21st century, Saddam
Hussein instituted mass genocide against the Kurds, Shabaks, Assyrians,
Madeans, and other ethnic groups that rebelled against his brutal
regime. An estimated 2 million people died at his hand. He used mustard
and nerve gas against the Kurdish town of Halabja, a population of
45,000, killing between 3,200 – 5,000 people. He used more chemical
weapons against the Kurds during a genocidal campaign, killing between
50,000 and 100,000 Kurdish men, women, and children. No one was safe
from imprisonment and torture. He often had the torture of his victims
recorded and then replayed during dinner for his amusement.
3. Adolf Hitler
Any evil dictator list is incomplete without Adolf Hitler, the
leader of the Nazi Party of Germany responsible for the death of 17
million people. Prior to and during World War II, Hitler’s forces
engaged in the systematic extermination of anyone Hitler deemed unfit,
particularly Jews. His concentration camps killed millions of Jews,
Christians, mentally disabled, Gypsies, children, women and anyone who
opposed his rule.
2. Josef Stalin
Responsible for more than 23 million deaths, Stalin is one of the
most evil dictators the world has ever seen. After Lenin’s death in
1924, Stalin became the new Communist leader of the Soviet Union.
Stalin’s Five-Year Economic Plan caused widespread famine as he forced
all peasants to join state-owned farmers co-operatives. This famine hit
the south of the Soviet Union particularly hard, as an estimate 3
million people died from starvation in Ukraine alone. Those who opposed
the state-owned farm initiatives were deported or murdered, and the
state seized their land. Those who survived were shipped to labor
camps, similar to the concentration camps of Nazis, where they were
worked to death or died of exposure, starvation and disease. Managers
of state-operated factories and farms were executed if they didn’t
produce adequate numbers and, as more and more workers were killed,
others had to take on more duties to meet quotas. Taking time off from
work and breaks became a crime. Intellectuals, even those who didn’t
overtly criticize or disagree with Stalin, were sent to gulags as
political prisoners. Stalin’s “Great Purge” was a campaign to kill
anyone opposed to him.
1. Mao Tse-Tung
A Chinese revolutionary and communist leader, Mao tops the list as
the most evil dictator in history by sheer arithmetic: at least 49
million people died as a result of his policies. During the first five
years of his rule (1949-1953), Mao systematically killed between 4 and 6
million people by sentencing them to death or to the labor camps. His
programs, Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, are said to
have caused around 20 million deaths due to starvation. He baited
intellectuals during his reign to critique him but, after doing so, had
them executed. In the end, because of his policies and political
purges, Mao caused the death of as many as 78 million people, making
him the most evil dictator in history.
Funny how most of these guys have that calm and innocent look….. So sad
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