President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka amid widespread chaos, as it tackles the worst economic crisis. A brief history of leaders who made hasty exits in times of crisis
Sri Lanka’s Gotabaya Rajapaksa with his wife and two bodyguards fled Sri Lanka in the dead of night and made their way to Maldives. AFP
Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa just made it to the list of leaders who have fled their countries in the face of widespread upheaval.
On Wednesday, Rajapaksa and his wife along with two bodyguards landed in Male, the capital of Maldives. He managed to escape from Sri Lanka hours before he was due to step down from his post after protests against the country’s crippling economy intensified in the city of Colombo.
According to CNN, the Rajapaksas were blocked from departing the country at least twice on Monday. However, on Wednesday, the Sri Lankan air force finally provided an AN32 troop transport plane for them to fly out.
The Rajapaksas’ travel to Maldives wasn’t particularly smooth either as the Maldivian air traffic control did not permit the plane to land until an intervention was made by the Speaker of Maldivian Parliament and Maldives’ former president Mohamed Nasheed. A spokesperson for Nasheed did not comment on the intervention, CNN reports.
This isn’t the first time a leader has managed to escape from a country in the midst of popular unrest. From Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani to Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos, the world has seen many leaders in the past who have made a break for it.
Here’s a list of some such leaders.
Ashraf Ghani
On 15 August 2021, as the Taliban took over Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani flew with his family from Kabul to Uzbekistan, according to Al Jazeera.
It was claimed that he left with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and was “spotted everywhere from Tajikistan to Oman to Abu Dhabi”, as per a Hindustan Times Report.
Soon after leaving, Ghani made an appearance on Facebook where he posted that he left Afghanistan to “avoid bloodshed”. However, many believed that his escape only gave more power to the Taliban to seize the capital, an event that could have been stalled if not completely deterred if Ghani had chosen to stay.
In fact, the former head of Afghan National Reconciliation Council Abdullah Abdullah said, “The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation. God should hold him accountable,” he was quoted as saying in an Al Jazeera report.
Currently, Ashraf Ghani is in UAE.
Soon after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani flew with his family from Kabul to Uzbekistan. AFP
Victor Yanukovych
Ukraine’s former president Victor Yanukovych fled from the country’s capital Kyiv in 2014 following months-long protests by pro-Europe protestors who demanded the signing of an association agreement with the European Union.
His escape came as a surprise because on 24 February 2014, he had reached an agreement with the protestors, which would have put an end to the unrest.
Editor in Chief of Carnegie Russia, Alexander Baunove said, “He might have decided to flee right at that time because the Russian representative failed to put his signature next to the European ones. He may have interpreted Russia’s failure to sign the agreement as a signal that Russia didn’t believe the agreement would work out”.
It was later revealed that Russia helped Yanukovych to flee from Ukraine in February, according to a BBC report.
As per Fortune, Victor Yanukovych is currently living in exile in Russia.
Idi Amin
Idi Amin was the president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. His rule was initially welcomed but he soon started to engage in corruption and brutality. He was called the ‘Butcher of Uganda’ for ruthlessly killing those who opposed him. According to a Business Standard report, Amin was responsible for the deaths of over 3,00,000 people in Uganda.
All of this culminated to widespread anger among Ugandan population against Amin. Things came to a head when he ordered his troops to invade Tanzania in 1978. But the invasion failed which forced him to flee to Libya.
In 1980, he shifted to Saudi Arabia where he stayed until his death in 2003.
Idi Amin’s rule was initially welcomed but he soon started to engage in corruption and brutality. AFP
Ferdinand Marcos
Marcos was both the prime minister and president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was democratically elected as the prime minister in 1965 and by 1972 he imposed martial law in the country which brought him under heavy criticism.
In 1981, he ended martial law but was elected as the president of the country in the same year. Things reached an edge in 1983 when he was accused of the murder of opposition leader Benigno Aquino, according to a Business Standard report. But in 1986 he won the election against Aquino’s widow who claimed that the results were rigged. Finally, in the same year he decided to flee from the country and move to Hawaii where he stayed until his death in 1986.
His son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr recently became Philippines’ president.
Mohammad Raza Pahlavi
Pahlavi was the Shah of Iran between 1941 to 1979. As a pro-west, he collaborated with USA to undertake many developmental projects for the country.
However, he was also criticised by the Shia clergy and students. In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini–a Shia clergy–launched the Iranian Revolution. As a result of this revolution, Pahlavi fled the country and first moved to Egypt and later to Morocco. He then went to Bahamas, Mexico and US before returning to Egypt where he died at the age of 60.
With inputs from agencies
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