veloped countries; the Lao
People's Armed Forces are small, poorly funded, and ineffectively
resourced; there is little political will to allocate sparse funding
to the military, and the armed forces' gradual degradation is likely
to continue; the massive drug production and trafficking industry
centered in the Golden Triangle makes Laos an important narcotics
transit country, and armed Wa and Chinese smugglers are active on
the Lao-Burma border (2005)

Transnational Issues Laos

Disputes - international:
Southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check
the spread of avian flu; talks continue on completion of demarcation
with Thailand but disputes remain over islands in the Mekong River;
concern among Mekong Commission members that China's construction of
dams on the Mekong River will affect water levels

Trafficking in persons:
current situation: Laos is a source country for men and women
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation;
a significant number are economic migrants who are subjected to
commercial sexual exploitation or conditions of forced or bonded
labor in Thailand; to a lesser extent, Laos is a transit and
destination country for women who are trafficked for sexual
exploitation including a small number of victims from China and
Vietnam trafficked to work as street vendors and for sexual
exploitation in prostitution
tier rating: Tier 3 - Laos does not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
estimated cultivation in 2004 - 10,000 hectares, a 45% decrease
from 2003; estimated potential production in 2004 - 49 metric tons,
a significant decrease from 200 metric tons in 2003 (2005)

This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007

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@Latvia

Introduction Latvia

Background:
After a brief period of independence between the two World Wars,
Latvia was annexed by the USSR in 1940 - an action never recognized
by the US and many other countries. It reestablished its
independence in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Although the last Russian troops left in 1994, the status of the
Russian minority (some 30% of the population) remains of concern to
Moscow. Latvia joined both NATO and the EU in the spr