Part 804

TAJIKISTAN

Introduction

Current issues: Tajikistan has experienced three changes of government since it gained independence in September 1991. The current president, Emomali RAHMONOV, was elected in November 1994, yet has been in power since 1992. The country is suffering through its fourth year of a civil conflict, with no clear end in sight. Underlying the conflict are deeply rooted regional and clan-based animosities that pit a government consisting of people primarily from the Kulob (Kulyab), Khujand (Leninabad), and Hisor (Hissar) regions against a secular and Islamic-led opposition from the Gharm, Gorno-Badakhshan, and Qurghonteppa (Kurgan-Tyube) regions. Government and opposition representatives have held periodic rounds of UN-mediated peace talks and agreed in September 1994 to a cease-fire which has been periodically extended. Russian-led peacekeeping troops are deployed throughout the country, and Russian-commanded border guards are stationed along the Tajikistani-Afghan border.

@Tajikistan:Geography

Location: Central Asia, west of China

Geographic coordinates: 39 00 N, 71 00 E

Map references: Commonwealth of Independent States

Area: total : 143,100 sq km land: 142,700 sq km water: 400 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Wisconsin

Land boundaries: total: 3,651 km border countries: Afghanistan 1,206 km, China 414 km, Kyrgyzstan 870 km, Uzbekistan 1,161 km

Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims: none (landlocked)

Climate: midlatitude continental, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid to polar in Pamir Mountains

Terrain: Pamirs and Alay Mountains dominate landscape; western Fergana Valley in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Syrdariya 300 m highest point: Qullai Kommunizm 7,495 m

Natural resources: significant hydropower potential, some petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown coal, lead, zinc, antimony, tungsten

Land use: arable land : 6% permanent crops: 0% permanent pastures: 25% forests and woodland: 4% other: 65% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 6,390 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: NA

Environment - current issues: inadequate sanitation facilities; increasing levels of soil salinity; industrial pollution; excessive pesticides; part of the basin of the shrinking Aral Sea suffers from severe overutilization of available water for irrigation and associated pollution

Environment - international agreements: party to: none of the selected agreements signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note: landlocked

@Tajikistan:People

Population: 5,945,903 (July 1997 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 42% (male 1,263,725; female 1,234,730) 15-64 years : 53% (male 1,578,940; female 1,599,458) 65 years and over: 5% (male 114,118; female 154,932) (July 1997 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.18% (1997 est.)

Birth rate: 27.93 births/1,000 population (1997 est.)

Death rate: 7.74 deaths/1,000 population (1997 est.)