Assassinations From 2000 to the Present:

Brigadier Stephen Saunders, June 8, 2000: British Military Attaché in Athens, shot four times in the chest in motorcycle ambush by members of the Revolutionary Organisation 17 November (N17).

Georgiy Ruslanovich Gongadze, September ?, 2000: Ukrainian journalist, kidnapped and murdered. His headless corpse, which had been soaked in acid, was found in November 2000. His death became the focus of national protests leading to the Orange Revolution and the election of Victor Yushchenko.

Marco Biagi, March 19, 2002: Italian professor of labour law and industrial relations at the University of Modena. Assassinated by the Red Brigade outside his home.

Dr Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, aka Pim Fortuyn, May 6, 2002: controversial, openly gay, charismatic Dutch politician. He was assassinated during the 2002 national elections by a white-collar left-wing environmentalist.

Zoran Djindjic, March 12, 2003: Prime Minister of Serbia, gunned down on the stairway of Serbia’s main Serbian government building. He was scheduled to have a meeting with Anna Lindh (see below) later the same day. A Serbian militant is currently being tried for his murder.

Uday and Qusay Hussein, July 22, 2003: Sons of the former ruler of Iraq Saddam Hussein were tracked down by the US 101^st Airborne and US Special Forces. Over 200 troops supported by Apache helicopters surrounded their house and opened fire. Qusay’s 14-year-old son, Mustapha, was the last one to die in the ensuing battle.

Ishii Koki, October 25, 2003: Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) member and anti-corruption politician. Murdered outside his Setagaya, Tokyo home on his way to work.

Ylva Anna Maria Lindh, September 11, 2003: Swedish Minster for Foreign Affairs from 1998 until her assassination in 2003. She was stabbed in the arms, stomach and chest while shopping in a department store. The assasssin, Mijailo Mijailović, was suffering from mental illness.

Akhmat Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov, May 9, 2004: President of the Chechen Republic, killed by a bomb placed under the VIP stand at Grozny stadium while he was watching a WWII memorial military parade.

Paul Klebnikov, July 9, 2004: American journalist of Russian descent and editor of Forbes Magazine in Russia. Shot to death on a Moscow Street by two assailants.

Munir Said Thalib, Septmber 9, 2004: Indonesia’s most famous Human Rights Activist. Munir was poisoned with arsenic as he flew to Utrecht Univeristy to study for a Master’s Degree in international law.

Theo van Gogh, November 2, 2004: The controversial film maker was shot eight times while cycling down a street in Amsterdam. His throat was slit and he was then stabbed twice in the chest. The assassin, a radical Islamist angered by van Gogh’s film about violence against women in Islamic cultures was jailed for life. Van Gogh had been working on a film about Pym Fortuyn.

Danilo Anderson, November 18, 2004: Venezuelan state prosecutor assassinated by a remote-controlled car-bomb as he drove home from the college where he was attending a post-graduate course.

Dorothy Stang, February 12, 2005: American nun and naturalised Brazillian who was an outspoken supporter on behalf of the poor and the environment. She was shot dead in the Amazon Rainforest after receiving threats from criminal gangs.

Elmar Huseynov, March 2, 2005: An award-winning Azerbaijanian journalist, editor and publisher of Monitor Magazine as well as many others. He was shot seven times outside his home.

Aslan Maskhadov, March 8, 2005: Leader of the separatist movement in Chechnya. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear but it is thought that Russian forces accidentally killed him shortly after his capture.

Bayaman Erkinbayev, September 22, 2005: Parliamentary deputy of Kyrgystan and one of the richest businessmen in his country who played a vital role in the overthrow of the previous government. He was shot in the neck and chest by unknown assailants.

Magomed Omarov, February 2, 2005: Deputy Interior Minister for the republic of Dagestan shot dead one month afte his government reportedly prevented a terrorist attack similar to the Beslan school massacre.

Rafik Bahaa Edine Hariri, February 14, 2005: Lebanese billionaire, twice PM of Lebanon from 1992-1998 and from 2000-2004. About massive explosion destroyed his motorcade as it drove through the streets of Beirut. A UN report has laid the blame with Syrian officials and members of the Lebanese Security Services.

Viktor Ivanovich Dorkin, March 31, 2006: Mayor of the Dzerzhinsky region of Moscow was attacked as he walked home close to midnight after speaking on, live television. He was shot ten times in the head and four times in the chest. His body was found in a children’s playground.

Raatbek Sanatbayev, January 8, 2006: a Greco-Roman wrestler, one of Kyrgyzstan’s most successful athletes and a contender to head the National Olympic Committee was shot in the head as he and his brother were climbing out of a car in the capital.

Denis Donaldson, April 4, 2006: Former member of the IRA who was exposed as an MI5 informer in December 2005. He was blasted with a shotgun through his front door in Donegal before he was shot in the body and head.