Idi Amin
The self-proclaimed "President for life" ruled Uganda for far less time than he hoped, but the eight years of his tenure were filled with gross human-rights violations, ethnic persecution — tens of thousands of Ugandans of Indian origin were forced out of the country — killings and unbridled corruption. After alienating many of his supporters during a period of increasingly erratic behavior in the late 1970s, Amin found himself nearly alone at the top. A group of his troops turned against him and, bolstered by a Tanzanian military force and Ugandan exiles, brought him down. He fled to Libya, where his supporter Muammar Gaddafi awaited him. There Amin remained for several years before relocating to Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003, remorseless and angry at his country's betrayal.