Pakistan's Musharraf seventh worst despot

London, Sep 2 (UNI) Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is the seventh worst despot in a survey on world dictators carried out by ''The New Statesman.'' In the ongoing survey, the list is headed currently by Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe who is ahead of even Adolf Hitler.

Former Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet is at third position followed by US President George W Bush. North Korea's Jong-il is at fifth position, while Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin is ahead of Gen Musharraf. The list of ten, which is still open to voting also has President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran and Saparmurat Niyazov (President of Turkmenistan).

Taking a look at 10 current despots in the special issue, the magazine says, ''Dictator'' has not always been a dirty word. In 458 BC, Cincinnatus abandoned his plough to assume absolute power in Rome, briskly saved the city from invasion, and relinquished his position after three months. More recently, the office has fallen into disrepute. Since Stalin, Hitler and Mao it has competed with ''terrorist'' as the west's worst political insult, and as the removal of Saddam Hussein showed, its definition is often ''opportunistic.'' With complete absence of women, the top 10 is a selection of men ''who combine a high level of personal power with repressive practices, ranging from press censorship to rigging elections and, in the case of Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema, allegedly cannibalising political opponents. There is plenty of kitsch excess - bouffant hairstyles, super-sized yachts and a fondness for khaki - and also plenty of suffering despite a global fear of dictators running amok, the only people they tend to harm are their own.'' The report, however says that, ''while North Korea's Kim Jong-il, possibly the world's cruellest autocrat, remains beyond the diplomatic pale, the west has long-standing marriages of convenience with undemocratic rulers such as Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Oil, money and information, as these leaders know, are enough to gloss over human-rights violations - even Turkmenistan's personality cult leader Saparmurat Niyazov has found European friends with the promise of cheap gas. But even without these sweeteners, the anti-dictator tide may be turning.

With the results of democracy in both the Palestinian territories and Iraq proving increasingly unpalatable to western powers, ''friendly'' dictators can safely anticipate a welcome in from the political cold.'' MORE UNI XC SY RK1720