Muammar Qadaffy, Hosni Mubarak,
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... Omar al-Bashir,
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president. Omar's peculiar talent lies in starting conflict. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its imminent secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
Ben Ali or Jean-Claude Duvalier -each of them have amassed a fortune from USD 10 billion to USD 100 billion, apportioned among the banks of Western powers or invested in highly renowned companies. However,
The wishy-washy
However...
recent uprisings in the Arab world and other nationalist movements in demand of democratic freedoms have caused the Western world to take action, not only because of human rights
...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
abuses, but also with regard to the awesome fortunes that have supported dictatorships of more than 40 years old.
Muammar Qadaffy, confident of his power over the people and infatuated by 42 years in office, once said: "Libya is me." This is quite understandable as experts estimate at USD 170 billion the assets managed by the dictator who was awarded the sword of Venezuelan Independence hero Simón BolÃvar. Venezuelan President Hugo Chà vez confessed that he had warned his ideological ally to withdraw the Libyan reserves from "imperialist banks." Nevertheless, outbreaks of protest changed the outlook and sanctions against their assets came swiftly.
The World Bank estimates that every year corrupt dictators and presidents take out of their countries' coffers between 20 billion and 30 billion Euros. It is a large roster, including, in addition to Qadaffy, Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier; Zim-bob-we's Bob
MuggsyMugabe
Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case...
; Teodor Obiang of Equatorial Guinea; Tunisia's Ben Ali; Sudan's Omar al-Bashir; Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, and many others who have stepped down or are dead. Still, their successors and relatives fight for their wealth.
Viewed from a different standpoint
Notwithstanding, grassroots rebellions have brought about behavioral changes in Western powers. While for years they received dictators' investments in their banks, now they are swift to take action on these sums of money. Note the resolution of the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
Security Council and the European Union to freeze all the assets of the Libyan government, encompassing Qadaffy, his family members and senior government officials. Same applied to Mubarak in Egypt.
Earlier, Switzerland, one of the largest financial centers in the Western world, whose system has counted on laws on protection of the bank secret, enforced the "Duvalier Act." Pursuant to this legal instrument, the bank accounts held by current or former dictators may be blocked without the need for a court action from the country of origin. Likewise, the law will enable affected people to recover part of the fortune stripped by ex dictators and corrupt government officials. The Federal Act on the Restitution of Assets of Politically Exposed Persons was drafted following a lawsuit against former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and after freezing his bank accounts from 1986. Now, the ex dictator, back to Haiti, together with his family, should prove that their assets were obtained by legal means.
The law effective since February may apply, not only to dictators, but also to anybody labeled as Politically Exposed Person (PEP). Incidentally, some high-ranking officials of the Venezuelan government who have opened accounts in foreign banks have been labeled in this way. Switzerland has taken action against other dictators. This is the case of Zaire's Mobutu, or the millions returned to the Philippines that were swindled out by Ferdinand Marcos, or the 700 million Euros that returned to Nigeria and previously looted by dictator Sania Abacha.
Swiss sociologist and politician Jean Zigler, the current Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, estimates that "out of 905 billion in foreign monies in Switzerland, 280 billion come from Asian, Latin American and African countries. In 90 percent of the cases, it is money stolen from the poorest peoples on planet," as quoted by analyst Eduardo Febbro. In reference to Switzerland, his motherland, Zigler has stated: "I live in the richest country in the world, the only primary good of which is the money of anyone else."