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SURINAME (Continued) Monetary conversion rate: 1 Suriname guilder (S. fl.)=US$0.560

Fiscal year: calendar year

COMMUNICATIONS
Railroads: 166 km total; 86 km meter gauge (1.00 m) (government owned) and 80 km narrow gauge (industrial lines); all single track

Highways: 8,780 km total; 2,210 km paved, 1,990 km gravel, 2,400 km improved earth, 2,180 km unimproved earth

Inland waterways: 4,500 km; most important means of transport; oceangoing vessels with drafts ranging from 4.2 m to 7 m can navigate many of the principal waterways while native canoes navigate upper reaches

Ports: 1 major (Paramaribo), 6 minor

Civil air: 2 major transport aircraft, leased in

Airfields: 29 total, 28 usable; 2 with permanent-surface runways; 1 with runways 2,440-3,659 m, 1 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: international facilities good; domestic radio-relay system; 21,300 telephones (6.1 per 100 popl.); 6 AM, 2 FM, and 6 TV stations; 2 Atlantic satellite stations

DEFENSE FORCES
Military manpower: males 15-49, 63,000; 40,000 fit for military service

 

LAND
17,364 km$2$; most of area suitable for crops or pastureland

Land boundaries: 435 km

PEOPLE
Population: 589,000 (July 1982), average annual growth rate 2.8%

Nationality: noun—Swazi(s); adjective—Swazi

Ethnic divisions: 96% African, 3% European, 1% mulatto

Religion: 43% animist, 57% Christian

Language: English and siSwati are official languages; government business conducted in English

Literacy: about 25%

Labor force: 120,000; about 60,000 engaged in subsistence agriculture; 55,000-60,000 wage earners, many only intermittently, with 31% agriculture, 11% government, 11% manufacturing, 12% mining and forestry, 35% other (1968 est.); 18,114 employed in South African mines (1978)

Organized labor: about 15% of wage earners are unionized

GOVERNMENT
Official name: Kingdom of Swaziland

Type: monarchy, under King Sobhuza II; independent member of Commonwealth since September 1968

Capital: Mbabane (administrative)

Political subdivisions: 4 administrative districts

Legal system: based on South African Roman-Dutch law in statutory courts, Swazi traditional law and custom in traditional courts; legal education at University of Botswana and Swaziland; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

National holiday: Independence Day, 6 September

Branches: constitution was repealed and Parliament dissolved by King in April 1973; new bicameral Parliament formally opened in January 1979; 80-member electoral college chose 40 members of lower house and 10 members of upper house; additional 10 members for each house chosen 223