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 Nauru| Facts & Figures |
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| President: Marcus Stephens (2007) Total area: 8 sq mi (21 sq km) Population (2009 est.): 14,019 (growth
rate: 1.7%); birth rate: 23.9/1000; infant mortality rate: 9.2/1000;
life expectancy: 64.2; density per sq km: 655
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Yaren, 4,900 Monetary unit: Australian dollar More Facts & Figures |
GeographyNauru (pronounced NAH-oo-roo) is an island in
the Pacific just south of the equator, about 2,500 mi (4,023 km) southwest
of Honolulu. Phosphate mining has virtually destroyed the tiny nation's
ecology, turning its tropical vegetation into a barren, rocky
wasteland.
GovernmentRepublic.
HistoryIn 1798, a British navigator became the first
European to visit the island. Germany annexed it in 1888, and by the turn
of the century, phosphate, a lucrative fertilizer, began to be mined. The
island was placed under joint Australian, New Zealand, and British mandate
after World War I. The Japanese occupied the island during World War II
and forced 1,200 Nauruans—roughly two-thirds of the
population—to relocate. In 1947, it became a UN trusteeship
administered by Australia. By 1967, the phosphate mining industry was finally
under the control of the islanders, and on Jan. 31, 1968, Nauru became
one of the world's smallest independent republics. For a period of time,
Nauru's phosphate made the tiny country's per capita income the highest in
the world, after Saudi Arabia.
As its phosphate stores began to run out (by
2006, its reserves will be exhausted), the island was reduced to an
environmental wasteland. Nauru appealed to the International Court of
Justice to compensate for the damage from almost a century of phosphate
strip-mining by foreign companies. In 1993, Australia offered Nauru an
out-of-court settlement of 2.5 million Australian dollars annually for 20
years. New Zealand and the UK additionally agreed to pay a one-time
settlement of $12 million each. Declining phosphate prices, the high cost
of maintaining an international airline, and the government's financial
mismanagement combined to make the economy collapse in the late 1990s. By
the millennium Nauru was virtually bankrupt.
In 2000, the G7 nations put pressure on the
country to review its banking system, which is used by Russian criminals
for money laundering.
Since Sept. 2001, Nauru has accepted three
boatloads of Asian refugees destined for Australia. Australia compensated
the island with $20 million and other financial incentives for taking this
refugee problem off its hands. The detention camps, which held more than
400 asylum seekers in 2003, are said to be extremely bleak and lack
medical care.
Bernard Dowiyogo, elected in 2003 as president
for the seventh time (nonsequentially), died in March 2003, and Ludwig
Scotty, a senior cabinet minister, was elected in May 2003. In August,
Scotty was sacked in a no-confidence vote, and René Harris was
elected. But, typical of Nauru's tumultuous politics, by June 2004 Scotty had
again regained the presidency. Scotty lost another no-confidence vote in
Parliament in Dec. 2007 and was replaced by Marcus Stephens, a former
member of Parliament and minister of finance and education.
See also
Encyclopedia:
Nauru
.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Nauru
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