Saparmurat Niyazov

Mr. Niyazov graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1966 with a degree in power engineering and began work at the Bezmeinskaya Power Station near Ashgabat.

In 1962 Mr. Niyazov became a member of the Communist Party. In 1985 he was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Turkmenistan and was subsequently elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan, the highest state and party post. On January 13, 1990, Mr. Niyazov became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, the supreme legislative body in the republic.

On October 27, 1990, Mr. Niyazov was elected the first president of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. Under his leadership, on October 27, 1991, Turkmenistan proclaimed its sovereignty from the Soviet Union. In a second presidential election held on June 21, 1991, which was necessitated by the adoption of the new constitution, Mr. Niyazov was elected President of the Republic of Turkmenistan. Mr. Niyazov is also Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Chairman of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan.

Niyazov, perhaps the most eccentric leader on the list, engages in what is known as a "cult of personality" � making his likeness larger than life in every aspect of his country's life. The education system of Turkmenistan is dedicated first and foremost to advocating Niyazov's writing and ideology in the minds of the school children. They are forced to read his "Book of Soul" as if it were a religious text.

Niyazov renamed the months of the year after his relatives and banned opera and ballet because he considered them foreign. But beyond the eccentricity of those kinds of decrees, he has also committed what human rights say are atrocities against his people, such as his order to close down hospitals in every part of the country apart from the capital.