Disputes - international:
in 2004, China and Russia divided up the islands in the Amur,
Ussuri, and Argun Rivers, ending a century-old border dispute; the
sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri,
Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as the "Northern
Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kurils," occupied by the
Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, and claimed by
Japan, remains the primary sticking point to signing a peace treaty
formally ending World War II hostilities; Russia and Georgia agree
on delimiting 80% of their common border, leaving certain small,
strategic segments and the maritime boundary unresolved; OSCE
observers monitor volatile areas such as the Pankisi Gorge in the
Akhmeti region and the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia; equidistant seabed
treaties were signed and ratified with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in
the Caspian Sea but no consensus exists on dividing the water column
among 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;
various groups in Finland advocate restoration of Karelia and other
areas ceded to the Soviet Union following the Second World War but
the Finnish Government asserts no territorial demands; in 1996, the
Estonia-Russia technical border agreement was initialed but both
have been hesitant to sign and ratify it, with Russia asserting that
Estonia needs to better assimilate Russian-speakers and Estonian
groups advocating realignment of the boundary based more closely on
the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty that would bring the now divided ethnic
Setu people and parts of the Narva region within Estonia; the
Latvian-Russian boundary treaty of 1997 remains unsigned and
unratified with Russia linking it to better Latvian treatment of
ethnic Russians and Latvian politicians demanding Russian agreement
to a declaration that admits Soviet aggression during the Second
World War and other issues; in 2003, the Lithuania-Russia land and
maritime boundary treaty was ratified and a transit regime
established through Lithuania linking Russia and its Kaliningrad
coastal exclave, leaving only improvements to the border demarcation
in 2005; delimitation of land boundary with Ukraine is complete, but
states have agreed to defer demarcation; Russia and Ukraine continue
talks but still dispute the alignment of a maritime boundary through
the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov; Kazakhstan and Russia continue
demarcation of their long border; Russian Duma has not yet ratified
1990 Maritime Boundary Agreement with the US in the Bering Sea
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 368,000 (displacement from Chechnya and North Ossetia) (2004)
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 20 October, 2005
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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
(RPF), 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 the former Zaire. Since then, most of
the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but about 10,000 that remain
in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo have formed an
extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried
in 1990. Despite substantial international assistance and political
reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in March 1999 and
its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in
August and September 2003, respectively - the country continues to
struggle to boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic
reconciliation is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi
political dominance. Kigali's increasing centralization and
intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across
the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in
the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder
Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy.
Geography Rwanda
Location:
Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo