United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan to monitor the peace and demobilization. The mission was headquartered in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Tajikistan was in a state of political turmoil for months after the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence from the Soviet Union in September 1991. The United Tajik Opposition, an alliance of democratic, liberal and Islamic forces were able to take power in mid-1992 for a short time, after which Emomali Sharipani Ramona's government forces were able to regain control militarily. According to the United Nations, "by mid-1993, in a country of under 6 million, an estimated 50,000 people, mostly civilians, had been killed, some 600,000 had
Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic autonomy and in 1988 the old national flag of Latvia was legalized, replacing the Soviet Latvian flag as the official flag in 1990. Pro-independence Latvian Popular Front candidates gained a two-thirds majority in the Supreme Council in the March 1990 democratic elections. On May 4, the Council declared restoration of Latvian independence after a transitional period through negotiations with the USSR. This is also the date, when Latvian SSR was renamed Republic of Latvia. However, the central power in Moscow continued to regard Latvia as Soviet republic in 1990–1991. In January 1991, Soviet political and military forces tried unsuccessfully to