Feb 4 (Reuters) - When Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak worried that his country, besieged by mass demonstrations, would dissolve into chaos without him, one could almost hear the voices of similarly threatened leaders, past and present.
Following are quotes from world leaders about their grip on power.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
- "I am fed up. After 62 years in public service, I have had enough. I want to go," he said in an interview with ABC's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
"If I resign now there will be chaos."
King of France Louis XV (1710-1774)
- "Apres moi, le deluge," he is believed to have said as he lay dying. As it turned out the French Revolution did not come for another 15 years. The literal translation is "after me, the flood." But the comment was believed to have meant something along the lines of: after my reign let the destruction come.
General Augusto Pinochet of Chile
- "When I finish they can kill me as I expect. I'm a soldier and I'm ready to go," Pinochet said on Aug. 16, 1984, facing mass protests against his rule. He was defeated in a referendum in 1988 and handed over power peacefully to an elected civilian government in 1990 in what was seen as a model transition from dictatorship to democracy in Latin America.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro
- "I have just one reason to be here at my age -- the sense of responsibility," he said on Oct. 28, 1998, a decade before he retired. "The beneficiary (from retirement) would be me. But while I still have physical and mental energy to be useful, and they ask it of me, I will be there."
Saddam Hussein of Iraq
- "I am president of Iraq by the will of the Iraqi people," he said defiantly on May 16, 2006, at a court hearing during his trial after being captured by U.S.-led forces. He was executed by hanging on Dec. 30, 2006.
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia
- "I understand the Tunisians, I understand their demands. I am sad about what is happening now after 50 years of service to the country, military service, all the different posts, 23 years of the presidency," he said on Jan. 13 in a televised address promising not to seek a new term in 2014.
"I said in 1987 no presidencies for life. I repeat now no presidencies for life. I refuse to touch the constitution, I will not change the age in the constitution."
The next day he stepped down after more than two decades in power. (Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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