Fate of Ruthless Dictators: How they met their end?

Live by the sword, die by the sword? For brutal dictators, the adage is more often true. In fact, dictators and warlords who indulge in genocides are more likely to die at the hands of an enraged populace or stealth assassin. The concept of dictatorship as well as the use of force and systemic persecution of political opponents to stay in power dates back to the ancient Roman civilization. However, it was the modern history dictators who made it virtually a synonym for gross human rights violations and brutality. Sadly, some of the most brutal dictators in modern history held power not so long ago.

Dictators of the World

There may be ultimate justice for the wicked, but the deaths of dictators do provide some pretty interesting tales. Here's how 9 of the world's most notorious modern dictators kicked the bucket.

1. Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

This evil man who rose to power in the 1930s was responsible for the greatest atrocities in human history. He ordered systematic racially based genocide of about 11 million of people of which 6 million were Jews, while his foreign policy provoked World War II which claimed 50 to 70 million lives. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, to avoid being captured by the Soviet Red Army that was advancing in Berlin.  Hitler's lieutenants followed his wishes and burned the corpses, though the burning was not thorough. The Russian army discovered the remains, identified the bodies, and then destroyed what was left to prevent Hitler's grave from becoming a shrine.

2. Joseph Stalin (1978-1953)

The Georgian-born Soviet leader rose to power after Lenin’s death in 1924. The future ally of the United States and Britain against the Nazi Germany was a paranoid man who brutally suppressed his political enemies as well as suspected opponents. The number of casualties of the Stalinist regime vary but about 14 to 20 million of people are estimated to have died in the penalty labor camps known as the gulags or were executed during the Great Purge in the 1930s. Stalin himself lived to the ripe old age of 73. He was found on the floor of his bedroom, soaked in urine, having suffered a major stroke, but still alive. Of his last moments, his daughter Svetlana wrote, "At the last moment he suddenly opened his eyes. It was a horrible look — either mad, or angry and full of fear of death. … Suddenly he raised his left hand and sort of either pointed up somewhere, or shook his finger at us all. … The next moment his soul, after one last effort, broke away from his body."

3. Idi Amin (1928 - 2003)

The 3rd President of Uganda was responsible for about 250,000 deaths which were a result of his regime of terror marked by torture, extra-judicial executions, corruption and ethnic persecution. He held power from 1972 to 1979 when he fled the country due to the defeat against Tanzania which he attacked one year earlier. He found refuge in Libya and then in Saudi Arabia where he died in 2003. Amin went into a coma caused by kidney failure in July 2003 and died in early August, his fifth wife by his side. News reports at the time blamed his weight, which may have ballooned to as high as 485 pounds by the time of his death. 

4. Pol Pot (1925 - 1998)

The leader of the Khmer Rouge and dictator of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 was directly responsible for one of the severest genocides in modern history. During the four years he held power in Cambodia, about 1 million people died as a result of starvation, imprisonment, forced labor and murder. He was ousted in 1979 by the Vietnamese but together with his Red Khmer followers he continued to operate in the countryside from Thailand. Pol Pot died on 15 April 1998, while under house arrest by the Ta Mok faction of the Khmer Rouge. Khmer Rouge had agreed to turn him over to an international tribunal and Pol Pot committed suicide by taking an overdose of the medication.

5. Muammar Gaddafi (1942 - 2011)

Muammar Gaddafi came to power in 1969 and kept an iron grip on Libya until 2011, when he fled Tripoli as it fell to rebels in the Libian Civil War. Gadhafi hid in a roadside drainage pipe, where Libyan forces found him. Cellphone videos reveal Gadhafi alive and bloodied in captivity, being dragged, beaten and poked with a bayonet or knife. At some point, he was shot in the head. His body was put on display in a freezer in the city of Misrata for several days.

6. Ayatollah Komeini (1902 - 1989)

Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini was a Shia Muslim religious leader of 1979 Iranian Revolution that saw the overthrow of the 2500 years of Persian monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader, a position he created and held until his death. In the 1988, Khomeini issued an order to judicial officials to judge every Iranian political prisoner and kill those judged to be apostates from Islam (mortad) or "waging war on God" (moharebeh). Almost all of those interrogated were killed, estimates of their number vary from 1,400 to 30,000. Khomeini's health declined several years prior to his death. After spending eleven days in Jamaran hospital, Ruhollah Khomeini died on 3 June 1989 after suffering five heart attacks in just ten days, at the age of 86 just before midnight.

7. Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984)

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and central figure of the Indian National Congress party. Indira Gandhi belonged to the Nehru-Gandhi political family. She served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. Indira Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness. She was convicted of electoral corruption by the High Court of Allahabad and prohibited from running in another election for six years. Instead of resigning as expected, she responded by declaring a state of emergency on June 25, whereby citizens’ civil liberties were suspended, the press was acutely censored and the majority of her opposition was detained without trial.

Indira Gandhi

In 1984, the holy Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab became the center of Sikh rebellion seeking equal rights for minority Sikhs and an autonomous state within India. In response, Gandhi sent Indian troops to storm the temple by force. In Indian Army attack code named "Operation Bluestar", over 5 thousand Sikhs were killed, a vast majority of them innocent pilgrims who had gathered there for a sacred holiday. The ruthless actions of Indian Army ignited an uprising within the Sikh community.

Operation Bluestar at Golden Temple Complex

On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated outside her home by two of her Sikh bodyguards, seeking retribution for the attack on the temple.

8. Rajiv Gandhi (1944 - 1991)

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the 6th Prime Minister of India, serving from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. On the morning of 31 October 1984, as his mother's bullet ridden body rotted in hospital, organised mobs led by his party leaders rioted against the minority Sikh community, resulting in a Genocide in Delhi. Its estimated that over 10,000 Sikhs were brutally killed in Delhi and Congress-ruled states. Later that December, an almost nationwide sympathy vote for the Congress party helped it win the largest parliamentary majority, 411 seats out of 542.

Rajiv Gandhi

During his reign, Indian Police were given extra-judicial powers under the guise of a draconian law called TADA to eliminate Sikh insurgency in Punjab between 1984 and 1995. During this time, Punjab police officials reported “encounters” to local newspapers. The victim was typically Sikh youth between the ages of 15-35; proof of alleged militant involvement was rarely given. Ultimately, the practice became so common that “encounter” became synonymous with extrajudicial execution. It is alleged that police typically take a suspected militant into custody without filing an arrest report. If the suspect dies during interrogation, security forces would deny ever taking the person into custody and instead claim that he was killed during an armed encounter, placing weapons on or near the body to suggest the police acted in self-defense.

Police Encounter of a Sikh Youth in Punjab

Jaswant Singh Khalra was a Sikh human rights activist who exposed truth about mysterious disappearance of as many as 25,000 Sikh youths and how they were cremated by Punjab police in different cremation grounds of the state after killing them in Police custody. Khalra was threatened by the Indian Police. He was picked up by Punjab Police in plain clothes, tortured, and killed. His body was never found.

During Gandhi's rule, Sri Lankan Civil War broke out with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) demanding an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka. The insurgency was supported by Indian government politically, financially, and militarily. In 1987, Gandhi sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) against the Tamil Tigers who were initially trained by the Indian Army. This infuriated the Tamil population in Srilanka and In Indian state of Tamilnadu.  Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while campaigning for the Sriperumbudur, Tamilnadu. At 10:10 pm, a woman identified as Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, approached Gandhi in public and greeted him. She then bent down to touch his feet and detonated a belt laden with 1.5 lb of RDX explosives tucked under her dress.

The last moments of Rajiv Gandhi

The explosion killed Gandhi and at least 25 other people. Gandhi's mutilated body was airlifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for post-mortem, reconstruction and embalming.

9. Saddam Hussein (1937 - 2006)

The Iraqi dictator who came to power in 1979 is estimated to be responsible for about 500,000 to 1 million deaths of which the Kurds account for about 70,000 to 300,000. Hussein was ousted after the invasion of the US and UK led coalition in 2003. In 2006, he was found guilty for 148 Shi’ite deaths in the early 1980 and sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging on December 30, 2006. Leaked cellphone video reveals that Hussein was vocal as he went to his death, talking back to hecklers, defending himself as a savior of Iraq and calling for Iraqis to fight off the Americans. Hussein's body was buried in his hometown of Al-Awja.

Last Words

Guru Nanak condemned Mughal invader Babur for his cruelty against the citizens of India:

Bringing the marriage party of sin, Babar has invaded from Kaabul, demanding our land as his wedding gift, O Lalo. Modesty and righteousness both have vanished, and falsehood struts around like a leader, O Lalo. The Qazis and the Brahmins have lost their roles, and Satan now conducts the marriage rites, O Lalo. The Muslim women read the Koran, and in their misery, they call upon God, O Lalo. The Hindu women of high social status, and others of lowly status as well, are put into the same category, O Lalo. The wedding songs of murder are sung, O Nanak, and blood is sprinkled instead of saffron, O Lalo. Nanak sings the Glorious Praises of the Lord and Master in the city of corpses, and voices this account. The One who created, and attached the mortals to pleasures, sits alone, and watches this. The Lord and Master is True, and True is His justice. He issues His Commands according to His judgment. (SGGS 722-723)

In this shabad, the Guru is referring to "cruel-minded rulers":

These cruel-minded rulers who oppress the people, O Nanak, shall suffer in pain for a very long time. (SGGS-1356)