Census suspended due to dispute

Myanmar authorities have suspended a population assessment on “Bengali migrants” in Rakhine state due to disagreement among the people, who demanded to be recognised as “Rohingya” not “Bengalis”, officials said.

The official process began last Friday in the Rakhine capital Sittwe, and other towns.

The dispute erupted after officials in Sittwe found people in “Bengali” neighbourhoods refusing to take part willingly in the assessment, officials said.

An immigration official who took part in the assessment in Thetkelpyin village in Sittwe said: “We tried to start our process at 10am that day. The first problem came up because we could not call in two Bengali representatives to take part in the process. They refused. 

“We tried to start it by ourselves. But when we started, a woman arrived shouting ‘I don't want to see them here, I don’t want to see them here!’ She was joined later by several ‘Bengali’ women and they tried to shoo us away. When we asked them why they didn’t like to be assessed, they told us that they would never give any listing if they were not recognised as ‘Rohingya’.

“As the crowd became bigger, we had to stop it for the moment. And we reported to superior officials about the situation. 

“It’s impossible to continue our tasks today. We’re concerned something bad might happen. Some hostility was seen among the ‘Bengali’ communities.”

Win Myaing, the secretary for Information and Records Committee at the Rakhine State Government, said: “We heard the news [they] were disturbed. We are not seeking to list the number of ‘Rohingya’. We only want to list the number of ‘Bengalis’, in accordance with the plan.”

A total of 63 teams have been formed in the state to conduct an official survey – census – in towns where ‘Bengalis’ live. Some 18 of the teams are in Sittwe. 

Each team has 20 members made up of three immigration staff, four Nasaka staff, one official each from the ward or village administrator’s office and Land Records Department, two representatives each from the Rakhine ethnic community and ‘Bengali’ community, one administrator each from every wards or villages, three military personnel, and three police.

Kyaw Myint, an immigration officer, said on Friday: “Today no listing was done. No ‘Bengali’ representatives came even when they were requested to come. We will suspend the process today.”

A military officer was reported to have been injured in a Sittwe village recently. This has spurred authorities to increase security numbers at places where trouble has occurred previously.

Meanwhile, about 200 workers from the Ministry of Immigration and Population were sent to Rakhine for the census, the status of which is now uncertain.