278
females: 70,088 (2002 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $27 million (FY96)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.2% (FY96)

Transnational Issues Benin

Disputes - international: Benin and Niger have refered to the ICJ the
dispute over l'Ete and 14 smaller disputed islands in the Niger River,
which has never been delimited; with Nigeria, several villages are in
dispute along the Okpara River and only 35 km of the 436 km boundary
are demarcated; the Benin-Niger-Nigeria tripoint remains undemarcated;
Benin accuses Togo of moving boundary markers and stationing troops in
its territory; two villages are in dispute with Burkina Faso

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for narcotics associated with Nigerian
trafficking organizations and most commonly destined for Western Europe
and the US

This page was last updated on 1 January 2002

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Belarus

Introduction

Belarus

Background: After seven decades as a constituent republic of the
USSR, Belarus attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer
political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet
republics. Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union on
8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic integration;
Belarus has agreed on the framework for implementation of the accord.

Geography Belarus

Location: Eastern Europe, east of Poland

Geographic coordinates: 53 00 N, 28 00 E

Map references: Europe

Area: total: 207,600 sq km water: 0 sq km land: 207,600 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Kansas

Land boundaries: total: 2,900 km border countries: Latvia 141 km,
Lithuania 502 km, Poland 407 km, Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km

Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims: none (landlocked)

Climate: cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between
continental and maritime

Terrain: generally flat and contains much marshland

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Nyoman River 90 m highest point:
Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m

Natural resources: forests, peat deposits, small quantities of oil and
natural gas, granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, clay

Land use: arable land: 30% permanent crops: 1% other: 69% (1998 est.)

Irrigated land: 1,150 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards: NA

Environment - current issues: soil pollution from