icking in cross-border region

Illicit drugs: a minor producer of opium, heroin, and marijuana; illicit
transit point for heroin en route to the international drug market from
Burma and Laos; eradication efforts have reduced the area of cannabis
cultivation and shifted some production to neighboring countries; opium
poppy cultivation has been reduced by eradication efforts; also a drug
money-laundering center; minor role in amphetamine production for regional
consumption; increasing indigenous abuse of methamphetamine

This page was last updated on 1 January 2002

========================================================================

Tajikistan

Introduction

Tajikistan

Background: Tajikistan has experienced three changes in government and
a five-year civil war since it gained independence in 1991 from the
USSR. A peace agreement among rival factions was signed in 1997, and
implemented in 2000. The central government's less than total control
over some areas of the country has forced it to compromise and forge
alliances among factions. Open skirmishes in the streets are less of a
problem than they were during the war five years ago. Attention by the
international community in the wake of the war in Afghanistan may bring
increased economic development assistance, which would create jobs and
increase stability in the long term. Tajikistan is in the beginning
stages of seeking World Trade Organization membership and has been
approved to join NATO's Partnership for Peace.

Geography Tajikistan

Location: Central Asia, west of China

Geographic coordinates: 39 00 N, 71 00 E

Map references: Asia

Area: total: 143,100 sq km water: 400 sq km land: 142,700 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: Pamir and Alay Mountains dominate landscape; western Fergana
Valley in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Syr Darya (Sirdaryo) 300 m highest
point: Qullai Ismoili Somoni 7,495 m

Natural resources: hydropower, some petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown
coal, lead, zinc, antimony, tungsten, silver, gold

Land use: arable la