In the desolate camps of western Myanmar, many homeless Muslims are determined to assert their identity as Rohingya after years of persecution, in a census some fear will spark further turmoil.
Myanmar’s first census in 30 years — which starts at the end of the month with UN help — will provide new data on the country, which until now has relied on figures from a flawed population tally in 1983.
Yet observers warn that controversy over rigid official definitions of ethnicity and entrenched mistrust of authorities after decades of junta rule risk damaging the country’s fragile peace efforts and further inflaming religious tensions after waves of anti-Muslim violence.
Questions of identity go to the very heart of divisions in Rakhine State, where long-held animosity between Buddhist and Muslim communities erupted into bloodshed two years ago, leaving scores dead and displacing 140,000 people — mainly among the stateless Rohingya.
Violence has already flared in the camps on the outskirts of the state capital, Sittwe, as anxieties over the possible impact of the census run high.
Eindarit, 36, lay beaten and bandaged in a wooden shack following an effort to prevent dozens of fellow Rohingya from fleeing Myanmar by boat.
“He asked them not to leave because we have to take part in the census,” said Hla Mint, a 58-year-old retired policeman and de facto local leader who spoke on Eindarit’s behalf.
It ended in violence. Eindarit was badly wounded, losing most of his teeth. The attack left him requiring strapping to his jaw.
“I think this is going to create a huge mess. Everyone is extremely worried this is going to erupt into a new stage of violence,” said Chris Lewa, of the Arakan Project, which campaigns for Rohingya rights.
Myanmar’s 800,000 Rohingya — who are stateless, and considered by the UN to be one of the world’s most persecuted minorities — face restrictions that hamper their ability to travel, work, access health and education and even to marry.
Many Rohingya are deeply distrustful of the Burmese government — which maintains that most in the community are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh — and fear it could use its census findings to somehow extinguish their potential citizenship claims.
The survey form does not have a dedicated box for Rohingya, who are not one of the country’s 135 official ethnic minorities — despite the fact many can trace their ancestry back generations in Myanmar.
They can still identify themselves as Rohingya in the census — there is a box for “other” with space to write any group or name they wish to be identified as, which some see as a breakthrough in their efforts to assert their identity.
Many of Rakhine’s Muslim population were listed as Bengali in the last census.
“We are labeled ‘Bengali, Bengali’ all the time. Evidence that we were born here, that we have been staying here, is crucial to us,” Hla Mint said.
The census “risks inflaming tensions at a critical moment” in Myanmar’s democratic transition, according to a recent study by International Crisis Group, which added that controversial sections on religion and ethnicity should be dropped in favor of a focus on key demographic data.
It said the results, many of which will be released before Myanmar holds its first national polls since the end of junta rule, had “direct political ramifications” because the country has some constituencies carved out along ethnic minority lines according to population size.
Yet the government and UN Population Fund (UNFPA) have rejected those suggestions.
They say information on ethnicity is needed as part of efforts to provide a crucial snapshot of the country for national planning.
UNFPA’s Myanmar chief Janet Jackson said most of the armed groups — apart from Kachin rebels near the Chinese border — had accepted the census.
She said that efforts are under way to ensure everyone is counted in Rakhine “sensitively and with calm,” adding the survey would not be linked to citizenship.
The UN aims to find census-takers among Rakhine’s Muslim population in a bid to ease inter-communal mistrust.
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