9: 6,789,720 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 440,914
females: 427,382 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$39 million (FY97)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
2.1% (FY97)

Transnational Issues Burma

Disputes - international:
over half of Burma's population consists of diverse ethnic groups
with substantial numbers of kin beyond its borders; despite
continuing border committee talks, significant differences remain
with Thailand over boundary alignment and the handling of ethnic
rebels, refugees, and illegal cross-border activities; ethnic Karens
flee into Thailand to escape fighting between Karen rebels and
Burmese troops, in 2004 Thailand sheltered about 118,000 Burmese
refugees; Karens also protest Thai support for a Burmese
hydroelectric dam on the Salween River near the border;
environmentalists in Burma and Thailand continue to voice concern
over China's construction of hydroelectric dams upstream on the
Nujiang/Salween River in Yunnan Province; India seeks cooperation
from Burma to keep Indian Nagaland separatists from hiding in remote
Burmese uplands

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 600,000 - 1,000,000 (government offensives against ethnic
insurgent groups near borders; most IDPs are ethnic Karen, Karenni,
Shan, and Mon) (2004)

Illicit drugs:
remains world's second largest producer of illicit opium (estimated
production in 2004 - 292 metric tons, down 40% from 2003 due to
eradication efforts and drought; cultivation in 2004 - 30,900
hectares, a 34% decline from 2003); lack of government will and
ability to take on major narcotrafficking groups and lack of serious
commitment against money laundering continues to hinder the overall
antidrug effort; major source of methamphetamine and heroin for
regional consumption; currently under Financial Action Task Force
countermeasures due to continued failure to address its inadequate
money-laundering controls (2005)

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

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@Burundi

Introduction Burundi

Background:
Burundi's first democratically elected president was assassinated
in October 1993 after only one hundred days in office. Since then,
some 200,000 Burundians have perished in widespread, often intense
ethnic violen