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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Seychelles
Index
Defense Forces: All services under army; total
forces
of 800 persons in 1994, including 300 in Presidential
Guard. Army
has one infantry battalion and two artillery elements.
Paramilitary forces include national guard of 1,000
persons,
coast guard estimated at 300 members including 100-member
air
wing and eighty marines. Defense budget in 1993 estimated
at
US$15.9 million.
THE REPUBLIC OF SEYCHELLES, one of the world's smallest
nations, comprises 115 islands, including a central
granitic
group and more than seventy widely scattered coral
islands. Most
of the population is a relatively homogeneous mixture of
European
and African descent and lives on the main granitic island
of
Mahé. Before the opening of commercial airline links in
1971,
Seychelles had a plantation economy heavily dependent on
exports
of copra and cinnamon. Tourism has since become the most
important sector of economic life.
Claiming jurisdiction over more than 1 million square
kilometers of productive fishing grounds, Seychelles has
profited
from the fees and commercial activity produced by foreign
fishing
fleets, from the export of fresh and frozen fish of its
domestic
fishing fleet, and from a tuna cannery operated jointly
with
French interests. Although Seychelles is vulnerable to
fluctuations in the world economy, per capita income is
high by
developing country standards. Its citizens benefit from a
modern
social welfare system and free health care and schools.
The nation was a French possession until 1814. In that
year
the British took control, administering it first as a
dependency
of Mauritius and after 1903 as a
crown colony (see Glossary).
Seychelles was granted independence on June 29, 1976. In
June
1977 a coup brought to power a leftist government with
France
Albert René as president and his party, the
socialist-oriented
Seychelles People's (SPUP) as ruling group. From 1977
through
1991, the René government dominated political life and
controlled
all phases of the economy. Dissent was forbidden, and
opposition
figures were forced to flee the country. In 1992 a
multiparty
system was restored, and in July 1993, after a new
constitution
was approved by referendum, the nation held free
elections.
René's Seychelles People's Progressive Front (SPPF--the
new name
of the SPUP following the 1979 constitution) won easily,
defeating the Democratic Party (DP) of former president
James
Mancham and a coalition of smaller opposition parties.
Data as of August 1994
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