National Security Online Resource Center

After traveling to Swaziland in October, Equatorial Guinea in November, and Myanmar in December, the Dictator of the Month now moves to Europe to profile the only remaining official dictator in Europe, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.

Profiled by BBC in 2007, Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, three years after the Soviet Union collapsed. He makes no secret of his authoritarian nature. This article mentions that Lukashenko had supported the coup attempt against Soviet leader Gorbachev in 1991, and that he disbanded parliament in 1996 when threatened with impeachment.

Since then, he has won elections with little opposition and also overturned a constitutional term-limit, just as Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez did recently. When facing the prospect of opposition to his rule, he described how be would handle his opponents: “We will wring their necks, as one might a duck”. Undoubtedly, the KGB (the former Soviet agency has not changed its name in Belarus) carries out his will.

At this point, we have no reason to believe that Lukashenko will be removed from office any time soon, barring an assassination or an act of God. This report indicates that his hold on power is very strong compared to that deposed leaders in Georgia, who could not defeat resistance leaders.

Congratulations to Tedoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, November’s Dictator of the Month! Inspired by this website that is unfortunately no longer updated, I am profiling one current dictator each month (last month was Mswati III of Swaziland).

Obiang gained control of Equatorial Guinea in 1979 after staging a successful military coup against his uncle. Ironically, his military career blossomed because he suppressed a coup against his uncle earlier that decade, when he received a series of promotions up to that of Vice Minister of the Armed Forces and Lieutenant Colonel. In a similar fashion to other military dictators, Obiang was promoted to “Colonel” after his coup.

Obiang is a tyrant. Consistently re-elected with 97% of the vote in clearly-rigged elections, he has been accused of causing countless human rights abuses. These accusations range from suppressing dissent and controlling the media to torturing prisoners, conducting political assassinations, and even staging coups against himself that he can destroy in an efforr to scare anyone who would dare oppose him (if this is true, Obiang has read Machiavelli, who promoted such actions). Equatorial Guinea does have a major source of wealth that Obiang can use to his advantage: plentiful oil and natural gas reserves.

Because few people can even locate Equatorial Guinea on a map, and its oil and natural gas reserves are one of only a few reasons other countries would take any interest in her affairs, we can see why few people have heard of Obiang. Just remember that the next time you fill up your tank, the proceeds could line his pockets.

In the interest of full disclosure, I got the idea for this feature from this website that stopped updating in 2007. I will now feature a current dictator from time-to-time on NSORC.

This Month’s Winner? King Mswati II of Swaziland. As a son of the royal family of Swaziland, a small former British colony located on the border of South Africa and Mozambique, he became ruler of Swaziland at age eighteen. His rule sheds light on the methods that this nation uses to choose its leader. An independent council will decide which of Mswati’s wives will be the “she-elephant.” If she only has one son who is in good character, he will become the next king. For more details, read this publication from a Swazi website.

While Swaziland appears to be relatively stable under Mswati’s rule, he has been criticized for his wealth, which is estimated to be between 100 million-10 billion dollars, depending on whether his late father’s trust fund is counted. He has also been criticized for his failure to respond to the African AIDS crisis, as he had proposed that children under 18 be forced into chastity.

Mswati appears to be a relatively benign dictator in comparison to others that I have highlighted on this blog, and little evidence exists that his rule will end any time in the near future. Hopefully he will respect the human rights of his citizens despite his status as an absolute monarch.