01 NOVEMBER 1999
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
The first South African Ambassador to be accredited to the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan has presented his credentials to President Emomali Rahmonov in the capital, Dushanbe.
The Ambassador to Turkey based in Ankara, Mr Tom Wheeler, is now also South Africa's non-resident Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan.
Tajikistan, which borders China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, is a country with mountains exceeded in height only by the Himalayas of Nepal and covering 93% of the country.
It has the highest hydro-electric dam in the world (300m) which generates 3000MW of low cost electricity used to process aluminium.
The country also has rich deposits of gold, several of which are being exploited with the assistance of expatriate South African technical and management personnel. Forty other minerals are said to exist in the country. The main agricultural crop is cotton.
The country of over 5,6 million people, with a land area of 143 000 sqkm has been wracked by civil war since the break up of the Soviet Union, but a peace agreement signed in 1997 has led to the establishment of an inclusive government of the secularist majority and the Islamist opposition party. The on-going peace process has bee successful in uniting the previous combatants into one government. A UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) continues to assist a Joint Commission in monitoring the ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities.
Presidential elections are due on 6 November, to be followed by Parliamentary election early next year.
South Africa concluded diplomatic relations with Tajikistan in 1992 shortly after this former Soviet state became independent in September 1991, but decided to appoint its first Ambassador earlier this year after noting the increasing number of South African citizens working and residing in Tajikistan.
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
Pretoria
01 NOVEMBER 1999