Tip-toeing across countries you won't find on a map

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Interestingly educational info.

 

 

Tip-toeing across countries you won't find on a map

 

 

Simon Reeve

 

August 20, 2005

news@newstoday.com.sg

 

The detention cells in the KGB secret police headquarters in Transniestria, a country between Moldova and Ukraine, are not the ideal place to spend a Saturday night. Perhaps I have seen too many Cold War thrillers, but after being detained by the Transniestrian KGB for spying last autumn, I had visions of being held for years in a dark cell and having to write escape plans in blood using my toenails for nibs.

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Fortunately the KGB dispelled these fears by offering me a tasty salad, giving me a KGB cap-badge as a souvenir of my incarceration, and eventually setting me free. It was a strange experience. But then Trans-niestria is a fairly strange country. Stuck in a Soviet time warp, it is not actually a "real" country at all. According to the international community and most maps of the region, Transniestria does not even exist.

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There are almost 200 official countries in the world, but there are dozens more independent breakaway states like Transniestria. They have parliaments, armies and passports, but are not recognised as countries by the rest of the world. So in a bid to find out more about these obscure countries, a BBC film-crew and I spent many months travelling to a group of countries that don't officially exist.

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Somaliland

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Although rarely found on maps, Somaliland sits next to Djibouti. It used to be "British Somaliland", but locals think Whitehall has long since forgotten they exist. After joining with Somalia in the 1960s to form one country, Somaliland had to fight a bitter war for independence against the Somali dictator in the 80s during which thousands died.

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On the way there we stopped in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, perhaps the most dangerous city in the world. Twelve gunmen provided protection and I bought a Somali diplomatic passport from a man called Mr Big Beard.

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Somalia has no real government, but is recognised as a proper country. Somaliland, by contrast, has a government, president, lively parliament and traffic lights, but is not recognised as a proper country by any nation in the world. Lack of recognition means Somaliland has trouble getting foreign aid to help with a terrible drought.

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Tens of thousands of people were at risk of starvation.

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The Somaliland President said he runs the country on just a few million pounds a year, or "whatever we can get". Edna Ismail, his dynamic Foreign Minister, also doubles as head of the maternity hospital.

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Because no country recognises their government it cannot get loans, which at least means Somaliland is not burdened by foreign debt repayments.

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Transniestria

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After the Soviet Union collapsed two-thirds of Moldova wanted closer ties with Romania and neighbours to the west. But the area of the country to the east of the Dniestr river wanted to stay close to Ukraine and Russia. War broke out, and the east split to form Transniestria, a country which remains unrecognised by the world.

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Soviet statues still stand in Transniestria, and a mysterious firm called Sheriff — headed by former Red Army officers — runs much of the economy.

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Independence Day was being celebrated when we visited. The Soviet-era army goose-stepped along the main road, and small children in uniforms sang "our army is the best army" with evident pride.

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At least we ate heartily on the day they celebrated. The rest of the time, Transniestrian cafes were the slowest on earth, and I regularly waited hours for food to be served. Sadly that gave time for repeated karaoke rehearsals of the uplifting Transniestrian anthem.

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As the Europen Union expands, Transniestria will soon be on the eastern edge of Europe. It is a haven for smuggling and has a Wild West feel.

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Rumours suggest it is a major producer of illegal arms, and guns from Transniestria have turned-up in conflicts around the world.

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International investigators claim they are unsure what is going on in Transniestria. Hardly surprising when there are no foreign embassies and few foreigners visit this extraordinary little nation.

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Taiwan

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Lack of international recognition is not limited to poor countries. Taiwan has one of the most powerful economies in the world, but it has no seat at the UN and no major state recognises it as a proper country.

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When Mao's Communists defeated their Nationalist rivals, they fled to Taiwan and took over. Taiwan has since become a stable democracy. But Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province, and wants it back.

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Taiwanese cities feel like locations in (sci-fi film) Blade Runner. Neon signs light skyscrapers and night-markets, where stalls serve snake blood and girls from the Chinese mainland sit outside obvious brothels.

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We went to see a Taiwanese boy band, who sang of their pride at being Taiwanese, not ethnic Chinese like their parents. The Taiwanese President flew us to see a fireworks concert, but refused to speak to us, and then dumped us in a muddy field.

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Guides took us to a Taiwanese island just off the Chinese coast, from where the Taiwanese bombarded the mainland with propaganda from the world's loudest and largest loudspeakers. Taiwanese soldiers on the island also fought a 20-year artillery duel with the Chinese, but eventually both sides came to a gentleman's agreement to bombard each other on alternate days. Times have changed and local shops now melt old artillery shells into kitchen knives for Chinese tourists.

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South Ossetia, Ajaria and Abkhazia

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Three parts of Georgia all declared their own independence when the Soviet Union collapsed. In the ensuing conflicts thousands were killed and the whole region has suffered ever since.

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In South Ossetia — which has had its own government and army for 12 years, Ossetes told me they speak a different language to Georgians. Tensions were high and the Ossetes were suspicious of foreigners, partly because my government guide kept telling people I was from London, America.

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After explaining I had nothing to do with George Bush locals warmed-up, and young soldiers shared drunken birthday toasts. They all vowed to fight again rather than rejoin Georgia.

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Ajaria and Abkhazia are on Georgia's western Black Sea coast. The former is a Soviet-era holiday destination which has now rejoined Georgia. The new governor kindly took us to a restaurant which was cleared of other customers as we arrived by extras from the Sopranos.

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Abkhazia may well be a lovely place to visit, but the government kicked us out before we could explore.

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Elsewhere in Georgia we found a former secret Soviet military base containing thousands of tonnes of unguarded high-explosives, and scores of powerful missiles capable of destroying skyscrapers. A local scientist trying to dismantle the explosives had rung the US embassy to warn them, but nobody returned his call.

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Nagorno-Karabkh

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Historically this breakaway mountainous area of Azerbaijan was mainly Armenian Christian. War erupted when it wanted independence after the Soviet collapse, and Armenian troops helped the Karabkh army push-out the local Muslim Azeris.

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Azerbaijan is still officially at war with Armenia over Karabakh, and our journey started in Azerbaijan on the frontline.

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In might be 2005 in the rest of the world, but on the border between Karabakh and Azerbaijan young soldiers are still manning trenches. We had to sprint across open ground to avoid sniper fire.

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Thousands of Azeri refugees from the war still live in appalling conditions. Children and the elderly survive in rusty train carriages. Everyone mentions the war, even the country's top pop star — a crackshot with an AK-47.

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The border between Azerbaijan and Karabkh is closed, so to get there we took a massive detour across the border into Georgia, over stunning snowy mountains into Armenia, then south over icy mountain passes into Karabakh.

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Inside the breakaway state we were welcomed with organic mulberry vodka, but found bombed-out Azeri villages and abandoned buildings. British-based mine-clearance charity The Halo Trust is trying to improve lives. But in one village, locals shrugged and walked through a minefield in front of me.

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Despite mines and war, the people of Karabakh claim they would have the world's highest rate of longevity, if only they were recognised as an independent country.

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About Simon Reeve

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Simon Reeve is the author of the New York Times bestseller The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism, and the writer and presenter of Places That Don't Exist, a five-part series which starts on BBC World on Saturday (StarHub Cable TV Channel 13, 10.10pm). More information at www.shootandscribble.com.

 

Simon Reeve

news@newstoday.com.sg