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Albania-The Rise of Albanian Nationalism

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Albania Index

The 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War dealt a decisive blow to Ottoman power in the Balkan Peninsula, leaving the empire with only a precarious hold on Macedonia and the Albanian-populated lands. The Albanians' fear that the lands they inhabited would be partitioned among Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece fueled the rise of Albanian nationalism. The first postwar treaty, the abortive Treaty of San Stefano (see Glossary) signed on March 3, 1878, assigned Albanian-populated lands to Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary and Britain blocked the arrangement because it awarded Russia a predominant position in the Balkans and thereby upset the European balance of power. A peace conference to settle the dispute was held later in the year in Berlin.

The Treaty of San Stefano triggered profound anxiety among the Albanians meanwhile, and it spurred their leaders to organize a defense of the lands they inhabited. In the spring of 1878, influential Albanians in Constantinople--including Abdyl Frasheri, the Albanian national movement's leading figure during its early years--organized a secret committee to direct the Albanians' resistance. In May the group called for a general meeting of representatives from all the Albanian-populated lands. On June 10, 1878, about eighty delegates, mostly Muslim religious leaders, clan chiefs, and other influential people from the four Albanian-populated Ottoman vilayets, met in the Kosovo town of Prizren. The delegates set up a standing organization, the Prizren League, under the direction of a central committee that had the power to impose taxes and raise an army. The Prizren League worked to gain autonomy for the Albanians and to thwart implementation of the Treaty of San Stefano, but not to create an independent Albania.

At first the Ottoman authorities supported the Prizren League, but the Sublime Porte pressed the delegates to declare themselves to be first and foremost Ottomans rather than Albanians. Some delegates supported this position and advocated emphasizing Muslim solidarity and the defense of Muslim lands, including present-day Bosnia and Hercegovina. Other representatives, under Frasheri's leadership, focused on working toward Albanian autonomy and creating a sense of Albanian identity that would cut across religious and tribal lines. Because conservative Muslims constituted a majority of the representatives, the Prizren League supported maintenance of Ottoman suzerainty.

In July 1878, the league sent a memorandum to the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin, which was called to settle the unresolved problems of Turkish War, demanding that all Albanians be united in a single Ottoman province that would be governed from Bitola by a Turkish governor who would be advised by an Albanian committee elected by universal suffrage.

The Congress of Berlin ignored the league's memorandum, and Germany's Otto von Bismarck even proclaimed that an Albanian nation did not exist. The congress ceded to Montenegro the cities of Bar and Podgorica and areas around the mountain villages of Gusinje and Plav, which Albanian leaders considered Albanian territory. Serbia also won Albanian-inhabited lands. The Albanians, the vast majority loyal to the empire, vehemently opposed the territorial losses. Albanians also feared the possible loss of Epirus to Greece. The Prizren League organized armed resistance efforts in Gusinje, Plav, Shkodër, Prizren, Prevesa, and Janina. A border tribesman at the time described the frontier as "floating on blood."

In August 1878, the Congress of Berlin ordered a commission to trace a border between the Ottoman Empire and Montenegro. The congress also directed Greece and the Ottoman Empire to negotiate a solution to their border dispute. The Great Powers expected the Ottomans to ensure that the Albanians would respect the new borders, ignoring that the sultan's military forces were too weak to enforce any settlement and that the Ottomans could only benefit by the Albanians' resistance. The Sublime Porte, in fact, armed the Albanians and allowed them to levy taxes, and when the Ottoman army withdrew from areas awarded to Montenegro under the Treaty of Berlin, Roman Catholic Albanian tribesmen simply took control. The Albanians' successful resistance to the treaty forced the Great Powers to alter the border, returning Gusinje and Plav to the Ottoman Empire and granting Montenegro the mostly Muslim Albanian-populated coastal town of Ulcinj. But the Albanians there refused to surrender as well. Finally, the Great Powers blockaded Ulcinj by sea and pressured the Ottoman authorities to bring the Albanians under control. The Great Powers decided in 1881 to cede Greece only Thessaly and the small Albanian-populated district of Arta.

Faced with growing international pressure "to pacify" the refractory Albanians, the sultan dispatched a large army under Dervish Turgut Pasha to suppress the Prizren League and deliver Ulcinj to Montenegro. Albanians loyal to the empire supported the Sublime Porte's military intervention. In April 1881, Dervish Pasha's 10,000 men captured Prizren and later crushed the resistance at Ulcinj. The Prizren League's leaders and their families were arrested and deported. Frasheri, who originally received a death sentence, was imprisoned until 1885 and exiled until his death seven years later. In the three years it survived, the Prizren League effectively made the Great Powers aware of the Albanian people and their national interests. Montenegro and Greece received much less Albanian-populated territory than they would have won without the league's resistance.

Formidable barriers frustrated Albanian leaders' efforts to instill in their people an Albanian rather than an Ottoman identity. Divided into four vilayets, Albanians had no common geographical or political nerve center. The Albanians' religious differences forced nationalist leaders to give the national movement a purely secular character that alienated religious leaders. The most significant factor uniting the Albanians, their spoken language, lacked a standard literary form and even a standard alphabet. Each of the three available choices, the Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic scripts, implied different political and religious orientations opposed by one or another element of the population. In 1878 there were no Albanian-language schools in the most developed of the Albanian-inhabited areas-- Gjirokastër, Berat, and Vlorë--where schools conducted classes either in Turkish or in Greek (see Education: Pre-Communist Era, ch. 2).

Albanian intellectuals in the late nineteenth century began devising a single, standard Albanian literary language and making demands that it be used in schools. In Constantinople in 1879, Sami Frasheri founded a cultural and educational organization, the Society for the Printing of Albanian Writings, whose membership comprised Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox Albanians. Naim Frasheri, the most-renowned Albanian poet, joined the society and wrote and edited textbooks. Albanian émigrés in Bulgaria, Egypt, Italy, Romania, and the United States supported the society's work. The Greeks, who dominated the education of Orthodox Albanians, joined the Turks in suppressing the Albanians' culture, especially Albanian-language education. In 1886 the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople threatened to excommunicate anyone found reading or writing Albanian, and priests taught that God would not understand prayers uttered in Albanian.

The Ottoman Empire continued to crumble after the Congress of Berlin. The empire's financial troubles prevented Sultan Abdül Hamid II from reforming his military, and he resorted to repression to maintain order. The authorities strove without success to control the political situation in the empire's Albanian-populated lands, arresting suspected nationalist activists. When the sultan refused Albanian demands for unification of the four Albanian-populated vilayets, Albanian leaders reorganized the Prizren League and incited uprisings that brought the Albanian lands, especially Kosovo, to near anarchy. The imperial authorities again disbanded the Prizren League in 1897, executed its president in 1902, and banned Albanian- language books and correspondence. In Macedonia, where Bulgarian-, Greek-, and Serbian-backed terrorists were fighting Ottoman authorities and one another for control, Muslim Albanians suffered attacks, and Albanian guerrilla groups retaliated. In 1906 Albanian leaders meeting in Bitola established the secret Committee for the Liberation of Albania. A year later, Albanian guerrillas assassinated Korçë's Greek Orthodox metropolitan.

In 1906 opposition groups in the Ottoman Empire emerged, one of which evolved into the Committee of Union and Progress, more commonly known as the Young Turks, which proposed restoring constitutional government in Constantinople, by revolution if necessary. In July 1908, a month after a Young Turk rebellion in Macedonia supported by an Albanian uprising in Kosovo and Macedonia escalated into widespread insurrection and mutiny within the imperial army, Sultan Abdül Hamid II agreed to demands by the Young Turks to restore constitutional rule. Many Albanians participated in the Young Turks uprising, hoping that it would gain their people autonomy within the empire. The Young Turks lifted the Ottoman ban on Albanian-language schools and on writing the Albanian language. As a consequence, Albanian intellectuals meeting in Bitola in 1908 chose the Latin alphabet as a standard script. The Young Turks, however, were set on maintaining the empire and not interested in making concessions to the myriad nationalist groups within its borders. After securing the abdication of Abdül Hamid II in April 1909, the new authorities levied taxes, outlawed guerrilla groups and nationalist societies, and attempted to extend Constantinople's control over the northern Albanian mountainmen. In addition, the Young Turks legalized the bastinado, or beating with a stick, even for misdemeanors, banned carrying rifles, and denied the existence of an Albanian nationality. The new government also appealed for Islamic solidarity to break the Albanians' unity and used the Muslim clergy to try to impose the Arabic alphabet.

The Albanians refused to submit to the Young Turks' campaign to "Ottomanize" them by force. New Albanian uprisings began in Kosovo and the northern mountains in early April 1910. Ottoman forces quashed these rebellions after three months, outlawed Albanian organizations, disarmed entire regions, and closed down schools and publications. Montenegro, preparing to grab Albanian-populated lands for itself, supported a 1911 uprising by the mountain tribes against the Young Turks regime that grew into a widespread revolt. Unable to control the Albanians by force, the Ottoman government granted concessions on schools, military recruitment, and taxation and sanctioned the use of the Latin script for the Albanian language. The government refused, however, to unite the four Albanian-inhabited vilayets.

Data as of April 1992

Background		Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, but was conquered by Italy in 1939. Communist partisans took over the country in 1944. Albania allied itself first with the USSR (until 1960), and then with China (to 1978). In the early 1990s, Albania ended 46 years of xenophobic Communist rule and established a multiparty democracy. The transition has proven challenging as successive governments have tried to deal with high unemployment, widespread corruption, a dilapidated physical infrastructure, powerful organized crime networks, and combative political opponents. Albania has made progress in its democratic development since first holding multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain. International observers judged elections to be largely free and fair since the restoration of political stability following the collapse of pyramid schemes in 1997; however, there have been claims of electoral fraud in every one of Albania's post-communist elections. In the 2005 general elections, the Democratic Party and its allies won a decisive victory on pledges to reduce crime and corruption, promote economic growth, and decrease the size of government. The election, and particularly the orderly transition of power, was considered an important step forward. Albania joined NATO in April 2009 and is a potential candidate for EU accession. Although Albania's economy continues to grow, the country is still one of the poorest in Europe, hampered by a large informal economy and an inadequate energy and transportation infrastructure.
Location		Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea, between Greece in the south and Montenegro and Kosovo to the north
Area(sq km)		total: 28,748 sq km land: 27,398 sq km water: 1,350 sq km
Geographic coordinates		41 00 N, 20 00 E
Land boundaries(km)		total: 717 km border countries: Greece 282 km, Macedonia 151 km, Montenegro 172 km, Kosovo 112 km
Coastline(km)		362 km
Climate		mild temperate; cool, cloudy, wet winters; hot, clear, dry summers; interior is cooler and wetter
Elevation extremes(m)		lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m highest point: Maja e Korabit (Golem Korab) 2,764 m
Natural resources		petroleum, natural gas, coal, bauxite, chromite, copper, iron ore, nickel, salt, timber, hydropower
Land use(%)		arable land: 20.1% permanent crops: 4.21% other: 75.69% (2005)
Irrigated land(sq km)		3,530 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources(cu km)		41.7 cu km (2001)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)		total: 1.71 cu km/yr (27%/11%/62%) per capita: 546 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards		destructive earthquakes; tsunamis occur along southwestern coast; floods; drought
Environment - current issues		deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution from industrial and domestic effluents
Environment - international agreements		party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note		strategic location along Strait of Otranto (links Adriatic Sea to Ionian Sea and Mediterranean Sea)
Population		3,639,453 (July 2009 est.)
Age structure(%)		0-14 years: 23.1% (male 440,528/female 400,816) 15-64 years: 67.1% (male 1,251,001/female 1,190,841) 65 years and over: 9.8% (male 165,557/female 190,710) (2009 est.)
Median age(years)		total: 29.9 years male: 29.3 years female: 30.6 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate(%)		0.546% (2009 est.)
Birth rate(births/1,000 population)		15.29 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate(deaths/1,000 population)		5.55 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population)		-4.28 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Urbanization(%)		urban population: 47% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 1.9% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
Sex ratio(male(s)/female)		at birth: 1.1 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.1 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births)		total: 18.62 deaths/1,000 live births male: 19.05 deaths/1,000 live births female: 18.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth(years)		total population: 77.96 years male: 75.28 years female: 80.89 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate(children born/woman)		2.01 children born/woman (2009 est.)
Nationality		noun: Albanian(s) adjective: Albanian
Ethnic groups(%)		Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlach, Roma (Gypsy), Serb, Macedonian, Bulgarian) (1989 est.) note: in 1989, other estimates of the Greek population ranged from 1% (official Albanian statistics) to 12% (from a Greek organization)
Religions(%)		Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10% note: percentages are estimates; there are no available current statistics on religious affiliation; all mosques and churches were closed in 1967 and religious observances prohibited; in November 1990, Albania began allowing private religious practice
Languages(%)		Albanian (official - derived from Tosk dialect), Greek, Vlach, Romani, Slavic dialects
Country name		conventional long form: Republic of Albania conventional short form: Albania local long form: Republika e Shqiperise local short form: Shqiperia former: People's Socialist Republic of Albania
Government type		emerging democracy
Capital		name: Tirana (Tirane) geographic coordinates: 41 19 N, 19 49 E time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October
Administrative divisions		12 counties (qarqe, singular - qark); Berat, Diber, Durres, Elbasan, Fier, Gjirokaster, Korce, Kukes, Lezhe, Shkoder, Tirane, Vlore
Constitution		approved by parliament on 21 October 1998; adopted by popular referendum on 22 November 1998; promulgated 28 November 1998
Legal system		has a civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; has accepted jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for its citizens
Suffrage		18 years of age; universal
Executive branch		chief of state: President of the Republic Bamir TOPI (since 24 July 2007) head of government: Prime Minister Sali BERISHA (since 10 September 2005) cabinet: Council of Ministers proposed by the prime minister, nominated by the president, and approved by parliament elections: president elected by the Assembly for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); four election rounds held between 8 and 20 July 2007 (next election to be held in 2012); prime minister appointed by the president election results: Bamir TOPI elected president; Assembly vote, fourth round (three-fifths majority (84 votes) required): Bamir TOPI 85 votes, Neritan CEKA 5 votes
Legislative branch		unicameral Assembly or Kuvendi (140 seats; 100 members elected by direct popular vote and 40 by proportional vote to serve four-year terms) elections: last held 28 June 2009 (next to be held in 2013) election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PD 68, PS 64, LSI 4, other 4 note: Parliament in November 2008 approved an electoral reform package that transformed the electoral system from a majority system to a regional proportional system; the code also established an electoral threshold limiting smaller party representation
Judicial branch		Constitutional Court, Supreme Court (chairman is elected by the People's Assembly for a four-year term) and multiple appeals and district courts
Political pressure groups and leaders		Citizens Advocacy Office [Kreshnik SPAHIU]; Confederation of Trade Unions of Albania or KSSH [Kastriot MUCO]; Front for Albanian National Unification or FBKSH [Gafur ADILI]; Mjaft Movement; Omonia [Jani JANI]; Union of Independent Trade Unions of Albania or BSPSH [Gezim KALAJA]
International organization participation		BSEC, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, NATO, OIC, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Flag description		red with a black two-headed eagle in the center; the design is claimed to be that of 15th-century hero George Castriota SKANDERBERG, who led a successful uprising against the Turks that resulted in a short-lived independence for some Albanian regions (1443-1478)
Economy - overview		Lagging behind its Balkan neighbors, Albania is making the difficult transition to a more modern open-market economy. Macroeconomic growth has averaged around 5% over the last five years and inflation is low and stable. The government has taken measures to curb violent crime, and recently adopted a fiscal reform package aimed at reducing the large gray economy and attracting foreign investment. The economy is bolstered by annual remittances from abroad representing about 15% of GDP, mostly from Albanians residing in Greece and Italy; this helps offset the towering trade deficit. The agricultural sector, which accounts for over half of employment but only about one-fifth of GDP, is limited primarily to small family operations and subsistence farming because of lack of modern equipment, unclear property rights, and the prevalence of small, inefficient plots of land. Energy shortages because of a reliance on hydropower, and antiquated and inadequate infrastructure contribute to Albania's poor business environment and lack of success in attracting new foreign investment. The completion of a new thermal power plant near Vlore has helped diversify generation capacity, and plans to upgrade transmission lines between Albania and Montenegro and Kosovo would help relieve the energy shortages. Also, with help from EU funds, the government is taking steps to improve the poor national road and rail network, a long-standing barrier to sustained economic growth.
GDP (purchasing power parity)		$21.86 billion (2008 est.) $20.61 billion (2007 est.) $19.44 billion (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars Albania has an informal, and unreported, sector that may be as large as 50% of official GDP
GDP (official exchange rate)		$12.96 billion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate(%)		6.1% (2008 est.) 6% (2007 est.) 5.5% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP)		$6,000 (2008 est.) $5,700 (2007 est.) $5,400 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector(%)		agriculture: 20.5% industry: 19.8% services: 59.7% (2008 est.)
Labor force		1.103 million (not including 352,000 emigrant workers) (2007 est.)
Labor force - by occupation(%)		agriculture: 58% industry: 15% services: 27% (September 2006 est.)
Unemployment rate(%)		12.5% (2008 est.) 13.2% (2007 est.) note: these are official rates, but actual rates may exceed 30% due to preponderance of near-subsistence farming
Population below poverty line(%)		25% (2004 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share(%)		lowest 10%: 3.2% highest 10%: 25.9% (2005)
Distribution of family income - Gini index		26.7 (2005)
Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP)		23.1% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget		revenues: $3.458 billion expenditures: $4.175 billion (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%)		3.4% (2008 est.) 2.9% (2007 est.)
Stock of money		$3.028 billion (31 December 2008) $2.707 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money		$6.251 billion (31 December 2008) $6.433 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit		$8.176 billion (31 December 2008) $7.247 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares		$NA
Economic aid - recipient		ODA: $318.7 million note: top donors were Italy, EU, Germany (2005 est.)
Public debt(% of GDP)		51.9% of GDP (2008 est.) 51.4% of GDP (2007 est.)
Agriculture - products		wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, sugar beets, grapes; meat, dairy products
Industries		food processing, textiles and clothing; lumber, oil, cement, chemicals, mining, basic metals, hydropower
Industrial production growth rate(%)		3% (2008 est.)
Current account balance		-$1.906 billion (2008 est.) -$1.202 billion (2007 est.)
Exports		$1.345 billion (2008 est.) $1.076 billion (2007 est.)
Exports - commodities(%)		textiles and footwear; asphalt, metals and metallic ores, crude oil; vegetables, fruits, tobacco
Exports - partners(%)		Italy 55.9%, Greece 11.6%, China 7.2% (2008)
Imports		$4.898 billion (2008 est.) $3.999 billion (2007 est.)
Imports - commodities(%)		machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, textiles, chemicals
Imports - partners(%)		Italy 32.2%, Greece 13.1%, Turkey 7.2%, Germany 6.6%, China 4.5%, Russia 4.4% (2008)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold		$2.364 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $2.162 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Debt - external		$1.55 billion (2004)
Exchange rates		leke (ALL) per US dollar - 79.546 (2008 est.), 92.668 (2007), 98.384 (2006), 102.649 (2005), 102.78 (2004)
Currency (code)		lek (ALL) note: the plural of lek is leke
Telephones - main lines in use		316,400 (2008)
Telephones - mobile cellular		3.141 million (2008)
Telephone system		general assessment: despite new investment in fixed lines, the density of main lines remains low with roughly 10 lines per 100 people; cellular telephone use is widespread and generally effective; combined fixed line and mobile telephone density is approaching 100 telephones per 100 persons domestic: offsetting the shortage of fixed line capacity, mobile phone service has been available since 1996; by 2003, two companies were providing mobile services at a greater density than some of Albania's neighbors; Internet broadband services initiated in 2005; Internet cafes are popular in Tirana and have started to spread outside the capital international: country code - 355; submarine cable provides connectivity to Italy, Croatia, and Greece; the Trans-Balkan Line, a combination submarine cable and land fiber-optic system, provides additional connectivity to Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Turkey; international traffic carried by fiber-optic cable and, when necessary, by microwave radio relay from the Tirana exchange to Italy and Greece (2008)
Internet country code		.al
Internet users		471,000 (2008)
Airports		5 (2009)
Pipelines(km)		gas 339 km; oil 207 km (2008)
Roadways(km)		total: 18,000 km paved: 7,020 km unpaved: 10,980 km (2002)
Ports and terminals		Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore
Military branches		Joint Force Command (includes Land, Naval, and Aviation Brigade Commands), Joint Support Command (includes Logistic Command), Training and Doctrine Command (2009)
Military service age and obligation(years of age)		19 years of age (2004)
Manpower available for military service		males age 16-49: 944,592 females age 16-49: 908,527 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service		males age 16-49: 800,665 females age 16-49: 768,536 (2009 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually		male: 34,778 female: 31,673 (2009 est.)
Military expenditures(% of GDP)		1.49% of GDP (2005 est.)
Disputes - international		the Albanian Government calls for the protection of the rights of ethnic Albanians in neighboring countries, and the peaceful resolution of interethnic disputes; some ethnic Albanian groups in neighboring countries advocate for a "greater Albania," but the idea has little appeal among Albanian nationals; the mass emigration of unemployed Albanians remains a problem for developed countries, chiefly Greece and Italy
Trafficking in persons		current situation: Albania is a source country for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; it is no longer considered a major country of transit; Albanian victims are trafficked to Greece, Italy, Macedonia, and Kosovo, with many trafficked onward to Western European countries; children were also trafficked to Greece for begging and other forms of child labor; approximately half of all Albanian trafficking victims are under age 18; internal sex trafficking of women and children is on the rise tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Albania is on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons in 2007, particularly in the area of victim protection; the government did not appropriately identify trafficking victims during 2007, and has not demonstrated that it is vigorously investigating or prosecuting complicit officials (2008)
Electricity - production(kWh)		2.888 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - production by source(%)		fossil fuel: 2.9% hydro: 97.1% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2001)
Electricity - consumption(kWh)		3.603 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - exports(kWh)		0 kWh (2008 est.)
Electricity - imports(kWh)		2.475 billion kWh (2008 est.)
Oil - production(bbl/day)		5,985 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - consumption(bbl/day)		34,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - exports(bbl/day)		748.9 bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil - imports(bbl/day)		24,080 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - proved reserves(bbl)		199.1 million bbl (1 January 2009 est.)
Natural gas - production(cu m)		30 million cu m (2008 est.)
Natural gas - consumption(cu m)		30 million cu m (2008 est.)
Natural gas - exports(cu m)		0 cu m (2008)
Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m)		849.5 million cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%)		NA
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS		NA
HIV/AIDS - deaths		NA
Literacy(%)		definition: age 9 and over can read and write total population: 98.7% male: 99.2% female: 98.3% (2001 census)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)(years)		total: 11 years male: 11 years female: 11 years (2004)
Education expenditures(% of GDP)		2.9% of GDP (2002)