Not the first, or last
Thu, 27 Dec 2007
Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was the latest high-ranking
politician to fall victim to assassination around the world. Here are other
prominent attacks in the past 20 years:
* December 27, 2007: Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is
assassinated in a shooting and suicide bomb attack, just two months after the
former premier returned from exile for a political comeback.
* February 14, 2005: Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri is killed
along with 22 others in a massive explosion on the Beirut seafront. The UN
opens an investigation to probe the murder.
* March 12, 2003: Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is shot by a
sniper in Belgrade in an assassination thought to have been commissioned by
organised criminals.
* January 16, 2001: Democratic Republic of Congo President
Laurent-Desire Kabila is shot in Kinshasa by one of his bodyguards.
* Oct 27, 1999: Armenian prime minister Vazgen Sarkisyan is killed
with seven other politicians during an armed raid on parliament.
* April 9, 1999: Niger President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara is
assassinated during a coup d’etat.
* November 4, 1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is shot by a
Jewish extremist, Yigal Amir, after a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
* April 6, 1994: Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his
Burundian counterpart President Cyprian Ntaryamira are killed in an attack on the
plane bringing them to Kigali.
* October 21, 1993: Burundi’s President Melchior Ndadaye is killed
during a failed military putsch.
* May 1, 1993: Sri Lanka’s President Ranasinghe Premadasa is killed in
a bomb attack.
* September 10, 1990: Liberian President Samuel Doe is executed by
rebels.
* November 22, 1989: Lebanese President Rene Moawad is killed in a
bomb attack in Beirut.
* February 28, 1986: Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is gunned down
by a lone attacker, shortly after leaving a Stockholm cinema to walk home
with his wife Lisbet. The murder remains unsolved.
AFP