ing 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)
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