By Sufyan bin Uzayr

International Policy Digest

April 10, 2014

“Muslims have been targeted, but also Buddhists have been subjected to violence. But there’s fear on both sides and this is what is leading to all these troubles and we would like the world to understand: that the reaction of the Buddhists is also based on fear.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

Dear Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi,

Thanks in part to the Internet, I have the luxury of writing this open letter to you.

Last month, at the third Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), you met with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Both of you discussed various issues, such as the importance of providing micro-loans to rural women and drug trafficking in the region. It was encouraging to hear that steps are being taken for the betterment of the entire region.

However, something was missing, the plight of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. Did you forget about them? Sheikh Hasina did allude to the Rohingya crisis, though. She told you that both Myanmar and Bangladesh need to resolve the refugee crisis, but you did not respond.

Since my assumption is that you have completely forgotten about the Rohingya people, allow me to remind you of their plight. They happen to be Burmese citizens. They are one of the most persecuted communities in the world. The United Nations describes them as “friendless,” and they are being massacred. On a side note, they also happen to have a religion that’s different from the majority of Burmese citizens, and this is why they are being killed. Essentially, Myanmar wants to eliminate the Rohingya people from its territory, and Bangladesh does not consider itself to be accountable for foreign refugees.

One can blame a lot many people for the destruction and violence towards the Rohingya people, but that’s an altogether different story. My question is, why are you silent?

I have followed your heroics ever since I was a child. As a child, I could not have fathomed what threat a single person posed to the military junta of Myanmar. After all, the junta had guns and bullets and you had just flowers! You symbolized the heart and spirit of resistance. You stood tall as the champion of freedom and democracy in your country. Your release from house arrest in 2010 marked a new era in the history of Myanmar.

As a result, your silence on the Rohingya issue is both shocking and disappointing. How can you – who has fought for the freedom of her own countrymen – be silent while an entire section of her country’s population is being killed? How can you be a mute spectator?

Your silence is shocking, Ms. Suu Kyi. And the fact that the world is silent about your silence is even more shocking. You see, it seems like nobody wishes to say anything negative towards you. After all, you are worshipped as a political hero. (The leader of the resistance.) Everyone supports the war you have waged for a ‘free’ Myanmar. However, your version of a ‘free’ Myanmar does not have room for the Rohingya people!

Since the Rohingya masses do not have many supporters, your stand is not unique, which is why I am writing this letter. You see, when it comes to the Rohingya crisis, the Bangladeshi and Burmese governments are trying their level best to evade responsibility, and the international community has chosen to be silent. You, on the other hand, could have served as a much-needed mediator. You could have facilitated a solution to this crisis by bringing the relevant players to the table and encouraging them to seek a mutual compromise. Unfortunately, you seem too busy to do that.

I know that if you were to express your willingness to help the Rohingya people, the international community would listen. But your inaction is heartbreaking.

The world rejoiced when you were released from prison. Why? Because you had fought for freedom, and your imprisonment was unjustified. Today, the Rohingya people of your country need you, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. You have a political and moral duty towards them.

Please, try not to disappoint them!

Sincerely,

Sufyan bin Uzayr

By Radio Free Asia 

April 10, 2014

Myanmar's first census in three decades, which was scheduled to end Thursday, has been extended to at least the end of the month to cover those who could not participate in the 12-day nationwide exercise, a senior official said. 

The exercise, which began on March 30, had covered about 10 million of the country’s estimated 11 million households as of Tuesday, according to Myanmar's Director of the Population Department Khaing Khaing Soe. 

Those who could not meet census takers during the exercise would have to provide their personal data to administrative offices closest to them or to a hotline that had been set up until the end of the month, she said. 

"They have to go and provide their data to the closest local administration office. We have already informed village and township census committees about those who were not listed on the census data," she told RFA's Myanmar Service. 

"If they can’t go and contact them, we have opened a hotline, whose number is 1840, until the end of April," she said. "When they call and let us know their data, we will take prompt action." 

Khaing Khaing Soe said that "95 percent" of the census has been successful but added that complete data derived from the exercise would be announced only in a year's time. 

"We can’t provide all the details yet but what we can say is that 95 percent of the work has been successful," she said. "The census process is not done yet. We will work on it until we get as much details as we can. We will announce the complete data of this census in March or April of 2015." 

Kachin state

Khain Khaing Soe acknowledged "difficulties" in undertaking the census in Kachin state, where fighting continues between rebels from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and government troops. 

State media had accused the KIA of trying to “interrupt” the census taking process, saying it had threatened and disrupted the work of enumerators in parts of Mansi and Mogaung townships in Kachin state and Momeik and Manton townships in Shan state. 

“There are no difficulties in ethnic regions except Kachin state,” Khain Khaing Soe said. 

“The census workers who are teachers were told not to take data in KIA-controlled areas in Kachin state. We will discuss and negotiate with the minister of immigration and leaders from KIA-controlled areas to do as much as we can to collect data in Kachin state."

Myanmar’s largest armed rebel group, the KIO, has been fighting with government troops over the last three years after a 17-year cease-fire agreement was shattered, even though they are participating in talks with government negotiators on a nationwide cease-fire agreement. 

Most of Myanmar’s other ethnic rebel groups have agreed to work with officials to administer the census in their areas. 

No data for Rohingyas

Another problem area during the census was conflict-ridden western Rakhine state, where the authorities disallowed minority Rohingya Muslims from registering their ethnicity, depriving potentially tens of thousands from participating in the exercise.

Data was not collected from anyone identifying themselves as Rohingya, an ethnic minority regarded as stateless by the authorities although they have lived in the country for generations. 

The government doesn't recognize Rohingya as among the 135 ethnic groups under Myanmar's 1982 Citizenship Act, saying they should identify themselves as Bengali because the authorities regard most of them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 

Khaing Khaing Soe said the authorities were still trying to woo the Rohingyas to participate in the census. 

“The census data is for the country’s development. As the first major priority, we just want to know the number of people and their ages and, secondly, their educations levels and occupation,” she said. 

“When some people didn’t want to identify their ethnicity, we accepted it and skipped this stage. We were told by some people that they didn’t want to participate in the census taking. For those people, we have discussed and are still negotiating with them.” 

Myanmar’s Eleven newspaper quoted a senior official of the Population Department as saying that those refusing to be included in the census will be added to the survey using estimates. 

International concern

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has provided technical assistance to the Myanmar government for the census, last week said it was "deeply concerned" about the decision not to accept Rohingya as an ethnicity. 

Britain, which partly financed the survey, on Thursday said the exercise was "a critical step in Burma's development process," but said the move to exclude the Rohingyas breached international standards, Agence France-Presse reported. 

British Foreign Minister Hugo Swire said on Monday he had summoned the Myanmar ambassador over the conduct of the census in Rakhine.

Reported by Kyaw Thu for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

By Andrew R.C. Marshall & Amy Sawitta Lefevre

Reuters

April 10, 2014

After a two-hour trek through swamp and jungle, Police Major General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot halts in a trash-strewn clearing near Thailand's remote border with Malaysia. 

"This is it," he says, surveying the remains of a deserted camp on a hillside pressed flat by the weight of human bodies.

Just weeks before, says Thatchai, hundreds of Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar were held captive here by one of the shadowy gangs who have turned southern Thailand into a human-trafficking superhighway.

With Thatchai's help, Thailand is scrambling to show it is combating the problem. It aims to avoid a downgrade in an influential U.S. State Department annual report that ranks countries on their anti-trafficking efforts.

But a Reuters examination of that effort exposes flaws in how Thailand defines human trafficking, exemplified by its failure to report the lucrative trafficking of thousands of Rohingya confirmed in Reuters investigations published in July and December.

In March, Thailand submitted a 78-page report on its trafficking record for 2013 to the State Department. Thai officials provided a copy to Reuters. In the report, Thailand includes no Rohingya in its tally of trafficked persons.

"We have not found that the Rohingya are victims of human trafficking," the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. "In essence, the Rohingya question is an issue of human smuggling."

The distinction between smuggling and trafficking is critical to Thailand's assertion. Smuggling, done with the consent of those involved, differs from trafficking, the business of trapping people by force or deception into labor or prostitution.

A two-part Reuters investigation in three countries, based on interviews with people smugglers, human traffickers and Rohingya who survived boat voyages from Myanmar, last year showed how the treatment of Rohingya often constituted trafficking. Reporters found that hundreds were held against their will in brutal trafficking camps in the Thai wilderness.

A record 40,000 Rohingya passed through the camps in 2013, according to Chris Lewa, director of Arakan Project, a humanitarian group.

The Rohingya's accelerating exodus is a sign of Muslim desperation in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, also known as Burma. Ethnic and religious tensions simmered during 49 years of military rule. But under the reformist government that took power in March 2011, Myanmar has endured its worst communal bloodshed in generations.

After arriving by boat to Thailand, criminal networks transport Rohingya mainly into neighboring Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country viewed by Rohingya as a haven from persecution. Many are held by guards with guns and beaten until they produce money for passage across the Thai border, usually about $2,000 each - a huge sum for one of the world's most impoverished peoples.

Thailand faces an automatic downgrade to Tier 3, the lowest rank in the U.S. government's Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report, unless it makes "significant efforts" to improve its record, according to the State Department. The agency is expected to release its findings in June.

"GRIEVOUS RIGHTS ABUSES"

A Tier 3 designation would put the Southeast Asian country alongside North Korea and the Central African Republic as the world's worst centers of human trafficking, and would expose Thailand to U.S. sanctions.

If Thailand is downgraded, the United States, in practice, is unlikely to sanction the country, one of its oldest treaty allies in Asia. But to be downgraded would be a major embarrassment to Thailand, which is now lobbying hard for a non-permanent position on the United Nations Security Council.

Reuters asked New York-based Human Rights Watch to review the report that Thailand recently submitted to the State Department. The watchdog group, which monitors trafficking and other abuses globally, said it was concerned that two-thirds of the trafficking victims cited in the report were Thai nationals.

"Any examination of trafficking in Thailand shows that migrants from neighboring countries are the ones most trafficked," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia director. "Yet Thailand's identification statistics show far more Thais than migrants are found as victims."

He added that the numbers were also flawed due to the absence of Rohingya among the list of trafficking victims. Thailand failed to recognize "the grievous rights abuses the Rohingya suffer in these jungle camps, and the fundamental failures of the Thai government to do much about it."

The State Department said it is examining Thailand's submission. "We have received the information from the Thai government, and it is currently under review," Ambassador at-Large Luis CdeBaca of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons said in a statement to Reuters.

"PLIGHT OF THE ROHINGYA"

The next TIP Report will appraise Thailand's anti-trafficking efforts in 2013.

That year ended with the State Department and the United Nations calling for investigations into the findings of a December 5 report by Reuters. That article uncovered a secret Thai policy to remove Rohingya refugees from Thailand's immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers waiting at sea.

Thailand made "significant progress" in combating human trafficking in 2013, said its foreign ministry, citing data included in the recent 78-page report Bangkok submitted to the State Department.

According to the Thai report, Thailand convicted 225 people for human trafficking in 2013, compared to 49 people in 2012. (According to the State Department, Thailand convicted only 10 people in 2012.)

The report said Thailand identified 1,020 trafficking victims in 2013, compared to 592 in 2012, and almost doubled the government's anti-trafficking budget to 235 million baht ($7.3 million).

It identified victims by nationality, counting 141 people from Myanmar among the victims. But none were Rohingya, who are mostly stateless. The Myanmar government calls the Rohingya illegal "Bengali" migrants from Bangladesh. Most of the 1.1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar's western Rakhine State are denied citizenship.

In January 2013, said the Thai report, more than 400 Rohingya illegal migrants were found in rubber plantations near the Thai-Malay border in Thailand's Songkhla province. Seven Thai suspects were arrested and charged with smuggling and harboring of illegal migrants, and were later convicted.

The Thai report describes this group of Rohingya as being smuggled, not trafficked.

However, the Reuters article in December documented a clandestine Thai policy to remove those Rohingya from immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers and smugglers waiting at sea. Many Rohingya were then ferried back to brutal trafficking camps in Thailand, where some died.

The official Thai report said the government "has taken every effort to suppress the smuggling of Rohingyas over the years and to reduce the risk of Rohingyas being exploited by transnational trafficking syndicates."

"The plight of the Rohingyas who left their homeland is essentially one of people smuggling, not one that is typical of human trafficking," said the report.

Pongthep Thepkanjana, the caretaker deputy prime minister, said he would not speculate on whether Thailand's efforts were enough for an upgrade on the U.S. trafficking rankings.

"We don't do this just to satisfy the United States," Pongthep, who chairs Thailand's national committee to implement anti-trafficking policy, told Reuters. "We do this because trafficking in persons is a bad thing."

HUNTSVILLE, THAILAND

The anti-trafficking efforts of Police Major General Thatchai are part of that undertaking.

At the abandoned camp he recently examined, Thatchai said scores of Rohingya were beaten until relatives agreed to pay for their release and onward passage to Malaysia. Other Rohingya have died of abuse or disease in nearby trafficking camps whose locations were revealed by the December 5 Reuters report.

Thatchai took charge of the region's anti-trafficking efforts in October. He has vowed to shut the trafficking camps, break up the gangs and jail their leaders.

"They torture, they extort, they kill," said Thatchai, 46, who speaks in an American accent picked up while earning a doctorate in criminal justice in Texas. "It's too much, isn't it?"

His campaign has freed nearly 900 people from camps and other trafficking sites and unearthed new detail about criminal syndicates in southern Thailand.

Well-oiled Rohingya-smuggling networks are now being used to transport other nationalities in large numbers, said Thatchai. He said he has identified at least six smuggling syndicates in southern Thailand, all run by Thai Muslims.

This year, along with hundreds of Rohingya, he has also detained about 200 illegal migrants from Bangladesh, as well as nearly 300 people claiming to be Turks but believed to be Uighur Muslims from China's restive province of Xinjiang.

Like officials in Bangkok, Thatchai generally characterized the transporting of Rohingya through Thailand as human smuggling, not human trafficking.

At the same time, he said his aim was to disrupt the camps through raids and use testimony from victims to unravel the networks. He hopes to gather enough evidence to convict southern Thailand's two main people-smuggling kingpins on human trafficking charges.

One target lived in Ranong, a Thai port city overlooking Thailand's maritime border with Myanmar. This suspect, Thatchai said, sells Rohingya to the other syndicates. They then resell the Rohingya at marked-up prices to Thai fishing boats, where bonded or slave labor is common, or take them to camps to beat more money from them - usually a sum equivalent to about $2,000.

The Ranong kingpin made about 10 million baht ($310,000) a month this way, alleged Thatchai, and owned dozens of pick-up trucks to move his human cargo.

"THERE WAS TORTURE"

The second suspect was a leader of a syndicate in the province of Satun. That gang is believed to operate a string of camps along the province's border with Malaysia - including the abandoned camp Reuters visited with Thatchai on March 27.

At least 400 Rohingya, including many women and children, were held at that camp for up to a month, said Thatchai. The Rohingya were guarded by armed men and fed two meals of instant noodles a day.

"Today we have proved that what the victim said is true," Thatchai said after the site visit. "There was a camp. There was torture and kidnapping."

But Thatchai also said he thinks no amount of raids and arrests in Thailand will staunch the flow of Rohingya out of Myanmar's Rakhine State.

Deadly clashes between Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists erupted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2012, leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless, most of them Rohingya.

Since then, about 80,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar by boat, according to the Arakan Project.

More look set to follow, after attacks by ethnic Rakhine mobs in late March forced foreign aid workers to evacuate the state capital of Sittwe. This has jeopardized the delivery of food and water to tens of thousands of Rohingya.

(Amy Sawitta Lefevre reported from Bangkok. Additional reporting by Jason Szep in Washington. Editing by Jason Szep, Bill Tarrant and Michael Williams.)

By Jack Healey

Huffington Post

April 10, 2014

As someone who has been long-interested in the struggle for the peoples of Burma to earn for themselves the full promise of human rights and real democracy, I waited with the world for the promise of reform and transition. Having been a founder of the US Campaign for Burma, a deep advocate for the cause of all ethnic nationalities there, and the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to lead her country from the darkness of authoritarian abuse to the brightness of an empowered future, I watched and held my breath in the so-called thaw in Burma. The elections that have been held, the removal of individuals from the banned list, the loosening of restrictions on journalism inside the country, and the apparent interest in the corridors of power to join the ranks of civilized nations made me hope that the grimmest times were ending and that the best times lay ahead.

South Africa had serious bumps in its transition to a fully enfranchised citizenship. Certainly the struggles of Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, Indonesia, and others might stand as both caution for the difficulties of the path but also for the potential of things to progress quickly to a better tomorrow. The policy of isolation didn't seem to produce any great victories to date, so at least trying engagement seemed like a good idea. With the rest of the world, we watched, we waited, and many of us might have even prayed.

Now it seems that the democratic and human rights future of Burma is on the cusp of being derailed once again. There are problems everywhere with the current track of the newly fabricated Naypyidaw regime, but they are depressingly telltale. The systematic rigging of the constitution to prevent the possibility of even a run for the presidency for Aung San Suu Kyi; the continued failure to contend with ethnically targeted rapes and attacks by the Tatmadaw, the military; the arbitrary appearance of corruption and a politically motivated judicial process, in land-grabs and more common prosecutions; and the continued impoverishment of the vast majority of citizens in a land overflowing with natural resource potential; these are all distressing trends in a country with such recently brightening promise.

However, nowhere does the current malaise of Burma come into focus as it does when one examines the case of the Rohingya. Numbering an estimated 0.8% of the population and largely inhabiting Rakhine (Arakan) State, the Rohingya are a minority that is historically present in Burma since before the days of British imperial rule and which practices Islam. They have suffered an incredible level of prejudice and mass violence that seems to either have been directly organized by the government itself or violence that has been strategically ignored by the media in Yangon and Naypyidaw. With status that has been increasingly marginal since being officially and by-fiat made a stateless people in 1982 by the former autocrat despot Ne Win, the Rohingya were prohibited from marrying without permission, from having children without permits, and from traveling outside of their own village and/or de facto refugee camps under a capricious and changing set of regulations. The past few years have seen organized hate campaigns operating under the guise of the Buddhist sangha, including monks. They have witnessed the torching of children and the blockade of aid/medicine shipments. They have seen the formal expulsion of Medicins Sans Frontieres in front-line relief work by the Naypyidaw government.

Now, it seems, after a massive international outcry including voices from the United Nations and that has seen involvement by Fortify Rights International, Human Rights Watch, Initiatives For Asia, and even Amnesty International, the government has entrenched its position by denying even the right to be counted in the first census in decades to take place and arguably the first semi-systematic one (though with this exclusion only systematic in racism) in over a half-century. It is unacceptable. It is unacceptable for Burma's so-called democrats to remain silent or to voice their assent for this hatred having flames fanned. It is unacceptable for any nation to maintain silence and it is unacceptable for any thinking or feeling human to do so.

We ask, in no ambivalent terms, to immediately contact your House and Senate representatives (see www.contactingthecongress.org) and ask people what they are doing to guarantee that human rights in Burma remain on the table for the Rohingya, for all Muslims and peoples of all faiths, for all nationalities, and for the full roll of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be applied within the borders of Burma and the United States.

Burma seemed to be on the verge of rising up. Now it seems to be in a race to the bottom for denying basic human rights and for maintaining a regime of silence on such a front. Please register your voice now. Write your representatives TODAY. An actual physical letter would be best, then a phone call, then an email. Ask them to stand with HRAC and the numerous others who have clamored for attention to be paid at the highest levels. Both parties are at fault for not trumpeting this more clearly here. Human rights are beyond partisan politics and continuing to ignore the plight of the Rohingya is unconscionable for any party or person anywhere.

By U Kyaw Min

RB Opinion

April 10, 2014

Myanmar is on the process of taking a nationwide census from 30th March to 10th April 2014. Myanmar census law of 2013 says every community has the right to self identify their ethnicity. UNFPA in its press release on April 1, 2014 showed deep concern about Myanmar government’s decision not to allow census respondents who wish to self-identify as Rohingya. It further says, in its agreement with UN on the 2014 census, the government made a commitment to conduct the exercise in accordance with international census standard and human rights principles. It (Myanmar) explicitly agreed with the condition that each person would be able to declare what ethnicity he or she belongs to, including those who are not in the officially listed categories.

But now Myanmar immigration senior officials announced that people who wish to define their ethnicity as Rohingya will not be able to do so. Thus there is no census counting of 1 million plus Rohingya in Rakhine state because they insisted on to be counted as Rohingya. In the grass-roots there are intimidation and threat for further violence. Trouble makers have, as usual, full freedom to do what they want. Thus Rohingya feel insecure and terrorized. Officials say to avoid violence Rohingya should discard their ethnic identity. That saying itself seems to be an encouragement to the Rakhine trouble makers.

There are interviews of politicians and state leaders describing Rohingya as virus and danger to the national security. The recognition of Rohingya as an indigenous people of Myanmar during post independence period is said to be a mistake done by then prime minister U Nu. U Nu is gone. We cannot abide by his decision. In fact, without the cabinet decision, no prime minister alone has the power to designate a people as indigenous of the country.

In history Rohingyas have never been a threat to state security. All major minorities except Rohingya have armed insurgent groups now. Why this exaggeration for Rohingya? It is just because of the rights of freedom of opinion. Census process is not going according to census law and Myanmar commitment to UN. Things are being handled according to the whim of a section of the people in Rakhine state. Irony of Rohingya’s fate is that opposition NLD secretary general U Nyan Win joined hands with the government to deny Rohingya their ethnicity. Here it indicates Myanmar democracy means dictatorship of majority. Government with the collaboration of opposition has freedom to exterminate a vulnerable minority.

Formerly the term Rohingya is said to be baseless and non-historic. Now when volumes of historic evidences are brought forth, their tune changed dramatically. They try to say the term Rohingya is Bengali usage for Rakhine. Historical researches say Rakhine language is different from Rohingya. Some senior immigration officials say why not Rohingya has a original country like Indians, Pakistanis, Bengalis, Chinese? They must know that Rohingya’s origin is Arakan alias Rohang. From Rohang they are Rohingya.

Nowadays there are further suppressive laws and rules under procession. Rohingya are targeted to disenfranchise in the coming 2015 election. Articles carrying false imageries defaming Rohingya and faulty facts to distort Rohingyas’ nationality are very common nowadays. Articles and interviews of Rakhine politicians are intimidating and threatening. Rohingya is portrayed as a danger to Myanmar nationalism. We know, true nationalism is the one which give full protection to all its citizens. There arise the questions, what kind of nationalism Myanmar’s is? Is it American like or Hitler like? Denying rights to others who are not from our own is Hitler like nationalism.

Rohingyas are now highly marginalized and afraid of fascist like nationalism. They feel insecure in Rakhine state. The security of their food, property, mind and life is on stake. They just can hope heaven will rescue them form the coming peril.

U Kyaw Min is chairman of Democracy and Human Rights Party based in Yangon, Myanmar.

By Z. M. Babar

RB Analysis

April 10, 2014

The current nationwide census of Burma (Myanmar) started on the 29th March, one day before the scheduled dates and set to end on 10th April, 2014. For Naypyitaw, it is maybe the best luckiest time as it has allocated more than 100 million USD for its military generals and radical elements. How? If we look at the images and videos of enumerators accompanied by excess security forces, it is more likely to be marching towards the enemies. Very simple math it is! There are 100,000 teachers assigned for conducting the 12-day long census for a total number of 1.2 million households of all over Myanmar. According to this figure, it could be fixed that one enumerator has to visit only less than (0.9) house a day for completing the task within 12 days. Based on earlier reports, approximately, there is a pack of 62 million population waiting to be enlisted in the census program. Then, we could say that one enumerator has to meet a household of five family members in average per day and even less than this figure as all the family members are not entitled to answer the questions. Now, we should look at the budget which is more than $100 million (UNFPA approved $70 million alone while UK 10 million Pounds). If so, every enumerator should get 1000 USD which is more than seven hundred thousand Myanmar Kyat roughly. But government has promised them to pay 8,000 Kyat / day. Then, every single enumerator has to receive a voucher of 104,000 Kyat at the end of the census which is one-tenth of the amount they were promised. Surprisingly! Many enumerators complained that they are being paid half of the promised amount by the authorities. On the other hand, the confession of enumerators may be true if it was true that every Rohingya household was forced to pay 3000-4000 Kyat in Arakan in the name of payment to enumerators or just extortion by the township administration. 

Very curiously, the most funniest and meaningless thing ever I have experienced in this census is the number of enumerators accompanied by various government agencies in red-scarf on their shoulders indicating they will give blood or take blood if necessary. But it is very opposite, in social media, we have seen many pictures and videos where flocks of enumerators here and there scattered are marching towards a Rohingya village or household while accompanied by more excess security forces plus other different departments. According to data and respective statistics, only one enumerator is enough to carry the job for a household a day. It is a very easy job for a school-teacher who has always engaged with more than 100 students in a classroom for eight hours per day. This census could be termed as one of the disorganized tasks assigned to the hungry birds. All these odd scenarios indicated that the entire project and budget of the census are being consumed very quickly and ended up with nothing good for the nation and its people, especially the long awaited people for restoration of their lost ethnic identity whom are known as ‘ Rohingya’ by ethnicity in the world history of civilization. Let me highlight about the connection of nasty things that the census brought with it. Many analysts objected the fund approval of the census as a concern of premature and early to take this step because the communal violence, hate speech, 969 terror network of radical monks has not been stopped yet. As the analysts and experts predicted, it has called new campaign for Rohingya ‘starvation in hunger, die in empty-stomach, leave empty-handed or accept Bengali as your ethnicity’ by attacking INGOs offices and suspending Doctors without Borders (MSF). This campaign should be considered as an indirect genocide or ethnocide. If such condition on Rohingyas continues in Arakan, Myanmar is not very far away from facing a civil war of cannibals. The Rohingya IDPs and non-IDPs whom were being threatened by different means may eat or burn themselves to save their ethnicity but there is another option which is opposite. 

Forced Bengalization and checking family lists are not new or strange experiences for those Rohingyas who have been living in Northern Arakan for decades as there are routine check-ups every six to nine months by the then Nasaka forces either to extort money or to put a red-mark on the name of a family member who have left the country. What is new now is the silent, very non-violent revolution of Rohingya amazingly in withstanding on their real ethnic identity which has been labeled, snatched away by successive military regimes until now! There is theory called ‘reaction for an action’. If harsh conditions are applied to a soft thing, it becomes very hard to break (e. g, from muddy to brick, brick to rock, rock to iron). In Rohingya tradition, we say that if you squeeze an orange too much, it will give you bitter taste. So, the more you squeeze the orange, the higher the bitterness and one day, your all taste buds could be possibly destroyed. Therefore, it is the time for Naypyitaw to play a neutral role in solving all differences among the Muslims and Buddhists. If the current ideology of Buddhism taught by radical monk, Wirathu has been followed, the world may become into thousand pieces as it needs one country one religion and one community in purest manner. This is very foolish and silly idea to think in these modern days when we are seeking multi-cultural nature and its beauty without hatred, racial discrimination and so on. For achieving this goal, we need to educate the people, release them to move freely, allow inter-faith marriage; ensure citizenship rights, rule of law, security and safeguard all ethnic minorities. Doing campaign to eliminate non-Buddhist communities from Myanmar is as similar as opposing its original natural beauty as it has been awarded with many different colors and races. At the same time, religious tolerance is very important! We need to tolerate each other as if Rohingyas who have been tolerating serious inhumanities more than five decades.

RB News

April 9, 2014

Sittwe, Arakan -- On April 9th 2014 at 12:00 PM police returned the body of Hasina Begum to Sittwe IDP camps. She had left to go to Sittwe Hospital on April 7th for treatment of diarrhea and problems with urination. She was two months pregnant at the time, and was accompanied by her sister, Jamila Begum. A statement from her Husband, Shomsul Alam, son of Muhammad Ameen reads as follows: 

"My name is Shomsul Alam, S/o Muhammad Ameen, 25 years old, living in Thet Kay Pyin IDP camp, Sittwe, Arakan. My wife Hasina Begum, D/o Bodi Alam, 20 years old was suffering from diarrhea and can't urinate last week. So we took her to Dar Paing clinic, Sittwe on 7 April 2014.Doctors told that her condition was severe and they needed to refer her to Sittwe General Hospital. [They said] No need to worry and doctors guaranteed that she would recover if she is given treatment in hospital. So she was sent to Sittwe hospital by doctors of Dar Paing clinic. We spoke to charge-doctor and asked about my wife's condition on telephone 04322786.He told us that wife is improving and she would return tomorrow and we were to wait for her in Dar Paing clinic. Then, charge-doctor called early this morning and said my wife had died. My wife was brought from hospital to my home at 12:00 PM today. After she had been brought to us we saw many signs of beating in wife's body. It seems she was beaten by Rakhinese nurses and doctors after she had been killed." 

On the final night of her stay in the hospital it was reported that a nurse entered her room while they were sleeping and had an injection prepared to administer to Hasina. Jamila Bagum noticed this and argued that her sister was well and had no need for any injection. It was reported that Jamila was then restrained and the injection was given to Hasina in front of Jamila. Hasina died shortly after. Jamila and the body of Hasina were removed from the hospital the following day by Police. Jamila Begum reported the incident as follows:

"My name is Jamila Begum, daughter of Bodi Alam, 30 years old, living in Thay Chaung IDP camp, Sittwe. I went to Sittwe hospital with my sister as her caretaker. Doctors and nurses treated us ruthlessly in hospital. Doctors and nurses kept beating and scolding. They insulted us as Rohingya. Whenever they came to my sister to give treatment, they used to tell us that this is not your Rohingyas' hospital. You should have gone to Rohingyas' hospital. In earlier morning 3:00 AM today, a Rakhinese nurse came and gave a green colored injection with a small syringe to my sister. When I saw it I struggled my damnedest to prevent her not to give that injection to my sister, but I couldn't stop her because a crowd of nurses came and caught me tightly. No sooner did the nurse give this injection my sister started to struggle and died.” 

There were two Hindu workers at the hospital who care for the dead bodies. Hasina's body was removed from the bed by them. As Jamila worried that the body may be just thrown on the floor, she gave the workers money to properly treat her sister’s body. But still she heard a sound when they threw her on the floor. 

“I even gave the money, Kyat 10,500, to a Hindu worker there to keep the dead body in good place, but they did not, as I noticed my sister’s body was inhumanely beaten. When I complained about that to the police a crowd of doctors and nurses came towards me. They were like ready to kill me but fortunately I was saved by police.” 

Jamila then complained about the treatment of her sister’s body to the police as she was with them at that time. While complaining a crowd of doctors and nurses came towards her as though they were ready to kill her. However, the police said to her, “don't worry they can't kill you in front of me.”

There has been a drastic increase in reports of pregnant Rohingya women losing child at Sittwe Hospital since the removal of MSF from Rakhine State. Likewise, the reports of abuse, neglect, and death under extremely suspicious circumstances have increased dramatically. When Rohingya become sick or injured now they are faced to choose for themselves or their loved ones whether they will wait and hope their health improves without medical care, or risk being treated by doctors they fear may give them extremely poor care or may even attempt to kill them.

By VOA News

April 9, 2014

The Burmese government has promised to protect and cooperate with international aid agencies, whose workers were forced to flee western Rakhine state following riots.

Buddhist mobs last month attacked facilities belonging to several relief groups providing critical aid to the tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims in displacement camps in Rakhine.

The government was criticized for not doing enough to protect the workers, as well as refusing to allow many of them to return when the riots were over, cutting off supplies for the camps.

Following a stern response from the U.N. and other foreign officials, the Burmese government said it will provide the aid groups with "full security services and will cooperate with them on all levels."

In a statement, Burma, which is also kown as Myanmar, vowed to "expose the ringleaders" and others involved in the Rakhine attacks, which it acknowledged were worsened partly by what it called the "sluggish" response of authorities.

The statement, posted on the Burmese president's website said 16 homes, 15 warehouses, 14 vehicles, 2 watercraft, 29 motorcycles, and office equipment were damaged in the attacks.

It said an investigation found that instigators in the attack were angered by an aid worker who took down a Buddhist flag outside her home. Many local Buddhists had already complained that foreign aid groups have given preferential treatment to Rohingya.

The U.N. views the Rohingya as one of the world's most persecuted minorities. Not only are they often the subject of anti-Muslim prejudice, they are also denied citizenship and many other basic rights by the government.

In a statement earlier this week, U.N. envoy to Burma Tomas Ojea Quintana said the Rakhine developments are the latest in a "long history of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya community, which could amount to crimes against humanity."

Buddhist-Muslim violence erupted in Rakhine state in 2012 and has since spread to other parts of the country. The fighting has killed at least 240 people and displaced 140,000 others, mainly Rohingya.

RB News 

April 9, 2014

Maungdaw, Arakan – The Rohingyas in Maungdaw district were threatened by Immigration and Population Department Director General Maung Maung Than, according to locals.

Today at 3:30 pm, Immigration and Population Department Director General Maung Maung Than met with local Rohingya Town-Elders at Maungdaw District Administration office. Maung Maung Than said they will conduct the census in the region and they will fill up the ethnicity name beside the ethnicity code number. They will only fill up code no. 914 and leave the ethnicity name as blank. Code no. 914 is for others who are excluded from the list of 135 recognized ethnic groups.

He added that Maungdaw Township Census Conducting Committee will issue a letter on April 10th for leaving the ethnicity name as blank. Then he threatened that anyone who doesn’t participate in the census will be listed as foreigners and their movements will be restricted. That means that they will not be allowed to go out from the village and no permits for moving from one village to another will not be issued to them.

Similarly, today he had a meeting with Rohingya town-elders in Buthidaung Township and same threats were made.

During the census in 1973 and 1983, the Rohingyas from Arakan state filled up their ethnicity as Rohingya but the government erased the name on the forms and replaced with Bengali. Many Enumerators of those censuses are still alive and they are ready to testify of the cheating by the then government. Now also they are trying hard to leave the ethnicity column as blank and will fill up Bengali once the Enumerators bring the forms to the immigration offices. 

The senior officials told in the beginning of ongoing census that they won’t conduct the census if the respondents claim as Rohingya. Now they are having pressures from the international donors and threatening Rohingyas to complete their jobs by is crooked.

According to the census law enacted by Union Parliament everyone has the right to express their ethnic name. The government itself however is violating the law and threatening the Rohingyas. The local Rohingyas said they will not accept unlawfully conducting census and that they will protect their ethnic name at any cost.

By Qutub Shah 

RB Opinion

April 9, 2014

1. The term 'Muslim' doesn't represent any ethnic group. It's a mere religious identity. 

2. In history, this ethnic minority is not known as 'Muslim' but 'Rohingya' is a historical fact. Changing the name means denial of history. 

3. Offering a third name as 'Muslim' from the gov't is just a distraction to complete the census process. Being included in the census is nothing if there is no warranty for social security, recognition of ethnicity, fundamental rights. 

4. Changing into 'Muslim' means moving from our attitude and claim.

5. The exclusion from census. The exclusion from censes proves that we are really Rohingya. 

6. The persistence over the term 'Rohingya' can only be a way to parmenant and radical solution for the problem. 

7. The term Rohingya also is internationally recognized. 

8. Persistence over the term Rohingya is valuation of the efforts of the freedom fighters under the flag of 'Rohingya' from our ancestors throughout the past. If we use the term 'Muslim', there efforts and struggles for freedom will be in vain. Also, it is valuation of the lost lives, destructed properties now and ever before. In conclusion, if we change the identity name, our problem will be unsolved forever.

Advantage of 'Muslim'/Disadvantage of 'Rohingya'

1. Inclusion in census but as mentioned above, being included in the census is nothing if there is no warranty for social security, recognition of ethnicity, and fundamental rights. So, showing of the gov't a flexibility is an attempt to trap the Rohingyas into its distraction and trick. 

2. Possibility of exposure to more torture, harassment and ill-treatment.

Now, the right to choose and decide is to you. Live long Rohingya, Live long Rohingya, Live long Rohingya!

His Excellency Thein Sein

President Republic of the Union of Burma

Ministry of the President's Office Naypyidaw, Burma

Dear President Thein Sein:

We, the undersigned health care professionals, are alarmed that Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was forced to cease its humanitarian operations in Rakhine State, and we urgently call on you to reverse the order expelling the organization from the region, as you did for other parts of the country. Removing MSF from the health infrastructure in Rakhine State is an inexcusable act that will have devastating consequences. Therefore, we also urge you to commit the relevant authorities at the national and state level to join nongovernmental organizations in effectively delivering health services in an impartial manner to all those in need.

MSF was the leading health service provider in the state, conducting nearly 500,000 consultations each year. Members of the Rohingya community, who are rendered stateless under Myanmar law, were especially reliant upon health services provided by MSF because they face significant obstacles in accessing such services elsewhere.

Humanitarian organizations, including MSF, operate under the principle of impartiality. They administer care based only on medical need, not ethnicity, race, or religion. MSF provided unbiased care, treating stateless Rohingya, ethnic Rakhine, and others in need of medical assistance. They should not be expelled for adhering to this professional ethical obligation. The expulsion of humanitarian assistance agencies and health providers where populations are in need of basic and essential services violates international norms of governance, and suggests disregard for the lives of the vulnerable, particularly women and children, who suffer the greatest losses of life and health when such assistance is denied.

Refusing to allow MSF to continue treating those in need in Rakhine State will leave hundreds of thousands of people without necessary health care, and - in the long term - MSF's expulsion may create a public health disaster. MSF was forced to cease administering

anti-retroviral treatment to an estimated 850 people living with HIV/AIDS. Interrupting this course of treatment is dangerous to the patient and increases the risk of building drug resistance. The estimated 30,000 people reliant upon treatment for tuberculosis will also face severe consequences if they can no longer turn to MSF for care. Malaria is endemic in Rakhine State, and over the past 10 years MSF has treated 1,240,000 individuals suffering from malaria in this state alone. In addition to the resistance concerns with interruptions of HIV treatment, both drug resistant tuberculosis and malaria have recently emerged in Myanmar, and are widely considered threats to regional health and security. The expulsion of MSF and the interruption of HIV, TB, and malaria treatment programs are of ASEAN and Asian regional concern, as well as national ones. Internally displaced people in Rakhine State will likely face heightened vulnerability to these and other diseases, and providing accessible health care to displaced populations should be a priority for regional and national authorities. Myanmar risks undermining the tremendous work of her health professionals in attempting to control drug resistant TB and malaria through the reckless expulsion of MSF.

Again, we reiterate the need for you to immediately reverse this order, as you did for the rest of the country and region, and ensure all people living in Rakhine State enjoy access to health care services.

Sincerely,

Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH 

Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland

Peter C. Agre, MD

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, 2003 Nobel laureate in Chemistry, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland

Professor Arjuna Aluwihare, MD

Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, Former President of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Holly G. Atkinson, MD, FACP

Director, Human Rights Program, Arnhold Global Health Institute at Mount Sinai, Former President of Physicians for Human Rights, New York, New York

Eric B. Bass, MD, MPH

Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

Donald S. Burke, MD

UPMC - Jonas Salk Chair in Global Health Dean, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS

17th Surgeon General of the United States; Distinguished Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

G. Thomas Chandler, MSc, PhD 

Dean, Arnold School of Public Health, and Professor, Environmental Health and Marine Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina

Jane E. Clark, PhD 

Professor and Dean, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

Paul D. Cleary, PhD 

Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health, Dean, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut

James W. Curran, MD, MPH 

Dean of Public Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Abdallah S. Daar, FRS (C), DPhil (Oxon), FRCP (Lon), FRCS, FRCSC

Professor of Public Health Sciences and Professor of Surgery, University of Toronto, Canada, Member of the UN Secretary-General's Scientific Advisory Board

Felton Earls, MD

Professor Emeritus of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Omur Cinar Elci, MD, PhD, FRSPH 

Professor and Chair, Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, St. George's University, True Blue, Grenada, West Indies

Greg Evans 

Dean, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia

Lynn Goldman, MD 

Michael and Lori Milken Dean of Public Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Howard Hiatt, MD

Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Former Dean, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts

Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH&TM, MACP 

Dean and Distinguished Service Professor, School of Public Health, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, New York, New York

Adeeba Kamarulzaman, MBBS, FRACP, FAMM, FASc

Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Richard S. Kurz, PhD 

Professor and Dean, UNTHSC School of Public Health, Fort Worth, Texas

Robert S. Lawrence, MD, MACP, FACPM

Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Health Policy and International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland

Jay Maddock, PhD 

Professor and Director, Office of Public Health Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii

Martin Philbert, FRSC 

Dean, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Professor Peter Piot, CMG, MD, PhD, DTM, FRCP, FMedSci

Director, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Former Executive Director, UNAIDS, London, United Kingdom

Irwin Redlener, MD

Professor of Health Policy and Management; Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, New York

Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH 

Dean, Alumni Distinguished Professor, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Sir Richard Roberts, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs; Recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, Ipswich, Massachusetts

Professor Gerry V. Stimson

Emeritus Professor, Imperial College London; Visiting Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

Paul Volberding, MD

Director of University of California, San Francisco AIDS Research Institute and Director of Research for University of California, San Francisco Global Health Sciences, San Francisco, California

Torsten N. Wiesel, MD, FRS

President Emeritus; Nobel laureate 1981 in Physiology or Medicine; The Rockefeller University, New York, New York

This letter was sent to President Thein Sein on April 3rd, 2014.

By Feliz Solomon

Democratic Voice of Burma

April 8, 2014

The international community has again issued urgent pleas to the Burmese government to restore humanitarian access and ensure the protection of residents — foreign and local — in Arakan State, where critical health and supply services were largely terminated in late March.

“Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in Rakhine [Arakan], mainly from the Rohingya community, are not receiving vital medical and humanitarian aid,” read a joint statement issued by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for Internal Development. British Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire on Monday summoned the Burmese Ambassador to the FCO to urge restoration of humanitarian access.

The same day, UN Special Rapporteur Tomás Ojea Quintana called recent events in Arakan “the latest in a long history of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya community which could amount to crimes against humanity”, and warned that the withdrawal of aid “will have severe consequences” on the right to life for both displaced Muslims and other isolated villagers.

Hundreds of aid workers were evacuated from Arakan State capital Sittwe after their homes and offices were ransacked by Buddhist mobs in what some witnesses have described as a premeditated offensive against aid workers, whom many locals believe favour the Muslim community.

While some critical operations have resumed, such as some water deliveries and at least one programme for severely malnourished children, services are for the most part stalled and currently running at a “bare minimum”, NGO sources said.

Pierre Peron, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told DVB on Tuesday that while short-term measures are being negotiated, some highly critical services will need more stable solutions as the monsoon season draws near.

“In terms of health, the critical issue is still emergency medical referrals. The large majority of emergency medical cases are not being referred to the hospitals,” said Peron. “Because before, there were NGOs that could provide ambulances and boats, but that’s simply not happening anymore.”

About half of emergency referrals in the area are for critical labour complications, he said.

The removal of humanitarian aid has severely hampered access to healthcare for nearly one million highly vulnerable people in Arakan State, including about 140,000 Rohingya Muslims living in camps for internally displaced persons, since a rash of communal violence broke out in June 2012.

The main obstacles to full resumption of relief are physical space and travel authorisation, according to Peron. When workers fled from the area on the 27 March, homes and offices were looted and badly damaged, and some tenant contracts have since been terminated. Aid workers say they are having a difficult time finding physical spaces to work.

“The irony in all of this is that a lot of tourists are still going to Sittwe, and it’s peak season so a lot of the hotels are actually full. We [international aid groups] simply don’t have enough space,” said Peron.

The Burmese government has not issued travel restrictions for tourists in Sittwe, a popular destination for those en route to nearby Mrauk-U. Relocated aid workers still await authorisation to re-enter the area.

“These workers were in Rakhine State providing essential life-saving support, including health services, water and food to internally displaced persons, isolated villages, and other affected communities,” Quintana said in a statement, which also reiterated the findings of his final mission to Burma that, “crimes against humanity may have been committed in Rakhine State.”

The Burmese government was similarly chastised in February for expelling frontline health responders Médecins Sans Frontières from the state. The group’s renegotiated MoU with the government allowed them to resume operations elsewhere in the country, but they remain unable to operate in Arakan.

By Rahmah Ghazali

The Star Online

April 8, 2014

Kuala Lumpur: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim maintained that the Government was “most humane” to Rohingya refugees although it has not signed the United Nation convention.

In response to a supplementary question in Parliament by Nasrudin Hassan (PAS-Temerloh), the minister said the Government would not forcibly send the refugees, who own proper legal documentation to go back to their countries.

There are 132,187 refugees with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cardholders in the country.

“We will not send them back unless they are willing to do so. It is not our policy to send them back where their lives would be in danger,” he said on Tuesday.

He added that the Government had also borne the cost of sending back the refugees who had no proper legal documentation in the past.

“Whereas, the cost should be split in half but in the end it was Malaysia who paid everything. That is humanity,” he said.

He added the refugees were given proper access to education, food and accommodation through the help from non-governmental organisations.

Although the government was concerned with the plight of Rohingya refugees, he said it could not grant each individual with special passes to allow their stay in the country.

“There are about one million Rohingya people there, if we do that, all of them would want to come here.

“That is why we are holding to international principles that only those with UNCHR cards are allowed to stay,” he said.

By Nirmal Ghosh

The Nation

April 8, 2014

Myanmar's ongoing census - the first since 1983 - could lead to dramatic revisions in the way the diverse and multi-ethnic country and its economy are analysed, and resources allocated.

The 12-day, US$75-million (Bt2.4 billion) exercise involving 120,000 or so census workers spread out across the country and going door-to-door with a 41-item questionnaire began nine days ago.

Policymakers have thus far been operating in what Myanmar scholar David Steinberg calls a "miasmal mist".

The last comprehensive census was in 1931. The one in 1983 did not cover many areas where conflict raged between government troops and armed ethnic forces.

"Myanmar's published population figures range from 48 million to 65 million. No one knows. In the past, statistics of all sorts were manipulated to suit the leadership's desires," Professor Steinberg wrote last month.

For instance, Myanmar government officials are hard-pressed to assess the impact of, say, a dam or a road project because they do not know how many people live in the area.

Of the current census, Khaing Khaing Soe, director of Myanmar's department of population and a member of the Central Census Commission said: "It is very important for the government because they will use this census when they lay down their policy. When they undertake projects, they need to know the number of people in the project area."

The questionnaire will yield basic data on things like birth and death rates, maternal mortality, household income, employment, sanitation and fuel sources.

"The most basic data is how many people there are in Myanmar; we really have no idea," said Professor Sean Turnell, a specialist on Myanmar's economy at Australia's Macquarie University.

"We have been going on for 40 years about the lack of data on Myanmar," he said. The numbers that emerge "might make nonsense of the per capita income figures we have".

Professor Nicholas Farrelly, of Australian National University, who is currently doing research in Myanmar, said: "Across the gamut of Myanmar society, the information available to decision-makers is incomplete and inconsistent."

The results of the census may even help decision-makers learn more precisely how many Myanmar people have left the country, he said.

"Such information could help a future government plan for the reintegration of Myanmar's diaspora", he added.

However, the census continues to be dogged by controversy. The United Nations Population Fund, which is helping Myanmar conduct the census, says it is "deeply concerned" that the government would leave out those in western Rakhine state who identify themselves as "Rohingya".

This was a "departure from international census standards, human rights principles and agreed procedures", the agency said.

The Rohingya are a heavily persecuted Muslim minority concentrated in Rakhine state - and widely regarded by local Buddhist Rakhines as illegal Bengali immigrants from Bangladesh out to grab land and Islamise the state.

The view is widely shared by Myanmar's Buddhist Burman majority, and the term "Rohingya" is not recognised by the Myanmar government.

Media reports say census workers, who are accompanied by armed police, leave if a respondent says he or she is Rohingya.

In Myanmar's eastern Kachin state, census workers are having difficulty negotiating access to areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Organisation, which could leave out several hundred thousand people.

Also remaining to be negotiated is access to some 130,000 Myanmar people of various ethnic groups living in refugee camps in Thailand. And some areas under the control of Karen armed groups are also not being covered.

"It is critical for this exercise to be depoliticised because it is about dividing up state resources," Prof Turnell said. "These are areas that are already critically under-served. The big danger is the groups that need to be counted will continue to be under-represented."

Yet any new and accurate data will be better than the assumptions most policy decisions are currently based on.

The process may not be elegant, said Prof Farrelly, but "even a partial set of data about these matters will be much better than what is available today".

The results of the census will be made public in August, with details out early next year.