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Myanmar's first census in 30 years got under way yesterday.
But the exercise has been widely criticised for stoking religious and ethnic tensions after the government denied members of the persecuted Muslim minority the right to identify themselves as Rohingya.”
“If a household wants to identify themselves as Rohingya, we will not register it,” presidential spokesman Ye Htut said after meeting boss Thein Sein on Satuday.
He said people could call themselves “Bengali.”
Administrators in some parts of the country said they were barring census-takers because they worry it will be used for political purposes.
The complicated survey seeks information well beyond the number of people living in each home.
It also includes sensitive and controversial questions about race and ethnicity that human rights groups have repeatedly warned are inappropriate.
