s against civilians and
large swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence.
Paramilitary groups challenge the insurgents for control of
territory and the drug trade. Most paramilitary members have
demobilized since 2002 in an ongoing peace process, although their
commitment to ceasing illicit activity is unclear. The Colombian
Government has stepped up efforts to reassert government control
throughout the country, and now has a presence in every one of its
municipalities. However, neighboring countries worry about the
violence spilling over their borders.

Comoros
Comoros has endured 19 coups or attempted coups since
gaining independence from France in 1975. In 1997, the islands of
Anjouan and Moheli declared independence from Comoros. In 1999,
military chief Col. AZALI seized power. He pledged to resolve the
secessionist crisis through a confederal arrangement named the 2000
Fomboni Accord. In December 2001, voters approved a new constitution
and presidential elections took place in the spring of 2002. Each
island in the archipelago elected its own president and a new union
president took office in May 2002.

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Established as a Belgian colony in
1908, the Republic of the Congo gained its independence in 1960, but
its early years were marred by political and social instability.
Col. Joseph MOBUTU seized power and declared himself president in a
November 1965 coup. He subsequently changed his name - to MOBUTU
Sese Seko - as well as that of the country - to Zaire. MOBUTU
retained his position for 32 years through several subsequent sham
elections, as well as through the use of brutal force. Ethnic strife
and civil war, touched off by a massive inflow of refugees in 1994
from fighting in Rwanda and Burundi, led in May 1997 to the toppling
of the MOBUTU regime by a rebellion led by Laurent KABILA. He
renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but
in August 1998 his regime was itself challenged by an insurrection
backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Troops from Angola, Chad, Namibia,
Sudan, and Zimbabwe intervened to support the Kinshasa regime. A
cease-fire was signed in July 1999 by the DRC, Congolese armed rebel
groups, Angola, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe but sporadic
fighting continued. Laurent KABILA was assassinated in January 2001
and his son, Joseph KABILA, was named head of