h rule. This tiny country, composed of a
mainland portion plus five inhabited islands, is one of the smallest
on the African continent. President OBIANG NGUEM MBASOGO has ruled
the country for over two decades since seizing power from his uncle,
then President MACIAS, in a 1979 coup. Although nominally a
constitutional democracy since 1991, the 1996 and 2002 presidential
elections - as well as the 1999 legislative elections - were widely
seen as being flawed. The president controls most opposition parties
through the judicious use of patronage. Despite the country's
economic windfall from oil production resulting in a massive
increase in government revenue in recent years, there have been few
improvements in the country's living standards.

Eritrea
Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a
federation. Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years
later sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991
with Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces; independence was
overwhelmingly approved in a 1993 referendum. A two-and-a-half-year
border war with Ethiopia that erupted in 1998 ended under UN
auspices on 12 December 2000. Eritrea currently hosts a UN
peacekeeping operation that is monitoring a 25 km-wide Temporary
Security Zone on the border with Ethiopia. An international
commission, organized to resolve the border dispute, posted its
findings in 2002 but final demarcation is on hold due to Ethiopian
objections.

Estonia
After centuries of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian
rule, Estonia attained independence in 1918. Forcibly incorporated
into the USSR in 1940, it regained its freedom in 1991, with the
collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the last Russian troops left in
1994, Estonia has been free to promote economic and political ties
with Western Europe. It joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of
2004.

Ethiopia
Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian
monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule, one exception
being the Italian occupation of 1936-41. In 1974 a military junta,
the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who had ruled since 1930)
and established a socialist state. Torn by bloody coups, uprisings,
wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems, the regime was
finally toppled by a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian
People's Revolutionary Democratic Front