China Makes World's 10 Worst Dictators List

Newsmax
Jan. 24, 2006

Despite China’s efforts at economic liberalization, the nation’s ruler, Hu Jintao, has been named to Parade magazine’s annual list of the world’s 10 worst dictators.

Parade, which placed Hu at No. 6 on the list, notes that more than 250,000 political dissidents are held in "reeducation-through-labor” camps in China. Also, there are no privately owned TV or radio stations in China and the government censors mail and monitors phone calls and e-mails.

Not surprisingly, "Axis of Evil" member Kim Jong-Il of North Korea ranks high on the list, at No. 2, but the top spot goes to Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.

Since 2003, al-Bashir's campaign of ethnic and religious persecution has led to the deaths of at least 180,000 civilians in western Sudan and driven 2 million people from their homes.

Than Shwe of Myanmar (Burma), who has been in power since 1992, stands at No. 3. According to Parade, his country leads the world in the enlistment of children as soldiers, and uses forced labor on construction projects. Dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Price, remains under house arrest.
Longtime dictator Fidel Castro still presides over one of the world’s most repressive regimes, but the Cuban leader didn’t make it to the top 10 list, instead placing 15th.

Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi has slipped out of the top 10 list, placing 11th, not because his conduct has improved "but because other dictators have gotten worse,” Parade reports.

Parade’s 10 worst dictators:

1. Omar al-Bashir (Sudan)
2. Kim Jong-Il (North Korea)
3. Than Shwe (Myanmar)
4. Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)
5. Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan)
6. Hu Jintao (China)
7. King Abdullah (Saudi Arabia)
8. Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan)
9. Seyed Ali Khamane’i (Iran)
10. Teodoro Obiang Nguema (Equatorial Guinea)