New Delhi: Early Wednesday morning, an Antonov-32 military aircraft took off from Sri Lanka and landed in Male, the capital of Maldives. The aircraft carried Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife, and a bodyguard, according to reports.
Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives amid mass protests against his government that intensified this week. On Tuesday, the Rajapaksas were reportedly blocked from flying from Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport by local authorities.
Sri Lanka has been on the boil for months now following a deepening economic crisis that has essential items unaffordable.
Gotabaya is not the first leader of a state to go into hiding, reach a military base, and surreptitiously fly to an unknown location during an upheaval. He is the latest in an infamous list of presidents and prime ministers who have fled through the back door.
Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine, and Idi Amin of Uganda were some high-profile leaders who ran away. ThePrint looks at their stories.
Ashraf Ghani left before the fall of Kabul
On 15 August, 2021, President Ashraf Ghani flew from Kabul with his family to Uzbekistan as the Taliban cornered the capital city of Afghanistan. After fleeing the country, Ghani declared he had left the country to “avoid bloodshed”.
However, according to many, Ghani’s fall accelerated the Taliban’s takeover of the capital, which could have been stalled if he had chosen to stay.
Reports initially suggested that Ghani and his aides fled in helicopters with cash worth millions of dollars, along with four cars. However, reports later suggested that these claims were probably incorrect.
Speaking to the BBC in December 2021, Ghani said when he woke up on 15 August, he had “no inkling” it would be his last day in Afghanistan. Ghani added It was only when his plane left Kabul that he realised he was leaving his country.
Ghani is currently in the UAE.
Victor Yanukovych escaped with Russia’s help
In 2014, then President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych fled from the capital Kyiv. This came in the backdrop of months-long protests by pro-Europe protestors who wanted Yanukovych to sign an association agreement with the European Union.
However, on 24 February, 2014, after an apparent agreement was reached with the protestors — which would put an end to the months-long protests — Yanukovych fled from Ukraine.
Vladimir Lukin, the advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was in Kyiv at the time to sign the deal, said there was an atmosphere of complete “panic” at Yanukovych’s palace the day he fled.
Alexander Baunov, Senior Fellow at Carnegie Russia, wrote in 2015, “He (Yanukovych) 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”.
Speaking in October 2013 at the Valdai Club in Sochi, a few months after Yanukovych’s escape, President Putin said, “I will say it openly — he asked to be driven away to Russia, which we did.”
According to reports, he is currently living in exile in Russia.
Idi Amin fled to Saudi Arabia
Dictator Idi Amin, who unleashed a reign of terror during his eight-year rule in Uganda, fled from the capital city of Kampala on 11 April, 1979. According to reports, during his rule, almost 400,000 people were killed, as he expelled the entire Asian population in 1972, blaming them for controlling the country’s economy.
He first fled to Libya, then to Iraq, and finally to Saudi Arabia. He died in the port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in 2003.
Idi Amin fled from Uganda in April 1979, just before an invading coalition of Ugandan rebels and Tanzanian troops stormed the capital. Tanzanian troops were sent by President Julius Nyerere in retaliation to Amin’s attempts to annex Tanzania’s Kagera region in 1978.
Also read: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flies out of country amid raging protests