Disputes - international:
China continues to seek a mutually acceptable solution to the
disputed alluvial islands at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri
rivers and a small island on the Argun River as part of the 2001
Treaty of Good Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation; the
islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai group
identified by the Russians as the "Southern Kurils" and by Japan as
the "Northern Territories" occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now
administered by Russia, claimed by Japan; boundary with Georgia has
been largely delimited but not demarcated with several small,
strategic segments remaining in dispute and OSCE observers
monitoring volatile areas such as the Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti
region and the Argun Gorge in Abkhazia; equidistant seabed treaties
have been signed with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in the Caspian Sea
but no resolution on dividing the water column among any of the
littoral states; Russia and Norway dispute their maritime limits in
the Barents Sea and Russia's fishing rights beyond Svalbard's
territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty zone; Russia continues
to reject signing and ratifying the joint 1996 technical border
agreement with Estonia; the Russian Parliament refuses to consider
ratification of the boundary treaties with Estonia and Latvia, but
in May 2003, ratified land and maritime boundary treaty with
Lithuania, which ratified the 1997 treaty in 1999, legalizing limits
of former Soviet republic borders; discussions are still ongoing
among Russia, Lithuania and the EU concerning a simplified transit
document for residents of the Kaliningrad coastal exclave to transit
through Lithuania to Russia; land delimitation with Ukraine is
ratified, but maritime regime of the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait is
unresolved; delimitation with Kazakhstan is scheduled for completion
in 2003; Russian Duma has not yet ratified 1990 Maritime Boundary
Agreement with the US in the Bering Sea
Illicit drugs:
limited cultivation of illicit cannabis and opium poppy and
producer of methamphetamine, mostly for domestic consumption;
government has active illicit crop eradication program; used as
transshipment point for Asian opiates, cannabis, and Latin American
cocaine bound for growing domestic markets, to a lesser extent
Western and Central Europe, and occasionally to the US; major source
of heroin precursor chemicals; corruption and organized crime are
key concerns; heroin increasingly popular in domestic market
This page was last updated on 18 December, 2003
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@Rwanda
Introduction Rwanda
Background:
In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority
ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the
next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some
150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of
these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic
Front, and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several
political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions,
culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis
and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and
ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu
refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring
Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire. Since then, most of the
refugees have returned to Rwanda. Despite substantial international
assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first local
elections in March 1999 - the country continues to struggle to boost
investment and agricultural output and to foster reconciliation. A
series of massive population displacements, a nagging Hutu extremist
insurgency, and Rwandan involvement in two wars over the past four
years in the neighboring DROC continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts.
Geography Rwanda
Location:
Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo
Geographic coordinates:
2 00 S, 30 00 E