Al-Jazeera.com :
Tens of thousands of census-takers have fanned out across Myanmar to gather data for a rare snapshot of the former junta-ruled nation that is already stoking sectarian tensions.
Groups of school teachers and local officials began on Sunday the 12-day population survey-the first since 1983 — travelling from house to house in an ambitious drive aimed at counting everyone across the poverty-stricken nation. But the census was called into question before it even started in Rakhine state, the site of deadly religious conflict.
A main point of contention is that Muslims will not be able to register as “Rohingya”.
Buddhist nationalists have threatened to boycott the tally over fears it could lead to official recognition for the Rohingya, viewed by the United Nations as among the world’s most persecuted minorities.
“Fill in the form that you are Rohingya,” read a sign scrawled on a wall in one of the bleak displacement camps clustered on the outskirts of the Rakhine capital Sittwe.
Muslims in the camps, made homeless in two major bouts of fighting two years ago, expressed determination to defy the government edict to register as “Bengali”, a term used by the authorities, who view most Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
“We do not want any problems. I was born here and my parents were also born here. I was born a Myanmar national.
For me, I will not register as ‘Bengali’, I will register as ‘Rohingya’,” Hla Myint, 58, told the AFP news agency.
Foreign aid workers fled Rakhine during the week after Buddhist mobs attacked their offices as tensions escalated in the run-up to the census.
An 11-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet after police fired warning shots to disperse angry crowds in the state capital Sittwe.
Humanitarian workers in the region have come under increasing pressure from Buddhist nationalists who accuse them of bias in favour of local Muslims.
