As the Thai prime minister learned last week, when foreign leaders go overseas, they sometimes get overthrown.
A few examples:
LEADER
1. Thailand’s Thaksin Shinawatra
Sept. 19, 2006
SUCCESSOR
Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin
WHY LEADER WAS AWAY
To attend United Nations session in New York
DETAIL
Thaksin canceled his planned UN speech and stated the obvious: “I didn’t expect this incident would happen.”
LEADER
2. Mauritania’s Maaoya Sid’Ahmed Taya
Aug. 3, 2005
SUCCESSOR
Military junta
WHY LEADER WAS AWAY
In Saudi Arabia for the funeral of King Fahd
DETAIL
There has “never been as crazy and dramatic a coup in Africa,” Taya declared, somewhat improbably, according to Agence France-Presse.
LEADER
3. Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah
July 17, 1973
SUCCESSOR
Mohammad Daoud, the king’s cousin
WHY LEADER WAS AWAY
Vacationing on the island of Ischia in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Naples, Italy
DETAIL
While his 40-year reign was ending, the king was undergoing “mineral water digestive treatments” and mud baths.
LEADER
4. Ugandan President Milton Obote
Jan. 25, 1971
SUCCESSOR
Maj. Gen. Idi Amin
WHY LEADER WAS AWAY
Attending a Commonwealth conference in Singapore
DETAIL
On radio, Amin’s spokesmen told other countries to “keep noses out of Uganda’s internal affairs.”
LEADER
5. Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk
March 18, 1970
SUCCESSOR
Gen. Lon Nol, backed by U.S.
WHY LEADER WAS AWAY
Visiting Soviet leaders in Moscow
DETAIL
The news was broken to him by Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin.
LEADER
6. Libyan King Idris I
Sept. 1, 1969
SUCCESSOR
Moammar Gadhafi
WHY LEADER WAS AWAY
In Turkey for medical treatment and a vacation
DETAIL
Idris was traveling with 32 attendants, five cars and 235 pieces of luggage.
LEADER
7.Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah
Feb. 24, 1966
SUCCESSOR
Military junta
WHY LEADER WAS AWAY
Traveling to China
DETAIL
After arriving in Beijing and learning of the coup, Nkrumah attended the dinner in his honor anyway, but reportedly arrived 75 minutes late looking “tense and grim.”
Here’s the flip side — someone who pulled off a coup while he was out of his own country: On Oct. 12, 1999, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif fired army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf while the military leader was on a visit to Sri Lanka. While Musharraf was flying back to Pakistan, his supporters overthrew Sharif and took power for him.
