Doors were kicked in, signs on houses to identifying the residents were ripped down and foul language shouted by a census team in the town of Buthidaung, located 16 miles east of the northern Maundaw. These kinds of incidents haven’t been reported in surrounding areas, but census officials are being heavily escorted by police and army, sometimes eight for each household group.
The heavy security presence is an obvious attempt to intimidate Rohingya to enter Bengali in the race category, claims Halim, a human rights watchdog from Maungdaw. It’s likely in an area where security forces stand accused of daily abuses on majority Rohingya. The extra security could also be due to recent violence seen in capital Sittwe by Buddhist Rakhines that attacked the offices and homes of international aid groups.
Census collections wasn’t possible in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathidaung , Akyab, Mrohaung, Kyacktaw and other areas, claimed one anonymous Maungdaw politician.
Sheyna Bebe from Shwezarr Village refused to take part in the census when the large team arrived at her door.
“Today in the morning, 8 security forces and 4 census officers came to our home to complete the census. I said I need to be able to choose Rohingya as race and code number 914 and Islam as religious so they left.”
Many families from Maungdaw municipal area ward number 1 are also boycotting it because they aren’t allowed to identify as Rohingya, said an anonymous elder.
Resident Azara Bebe told census officials they can “call us so many names: Illegal migrant, Bengali and Kala”, but if they accept Rohingya, they will “welcome” them “and join the census process”. Officials apparently replied, they will process the census when she writes Bengali.
Twenty-eight households in Chaung ( Balu Kali), Phurwetchaung (Faul Khali) and Wa Pyin refused to complete the census, said Hashim, a trader from the Maungdaw.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) condemned the government’s decision to not allow Rohingyas to choose their ethnicity in a recent statement.
“The Government made a commitment to conduct the exercise in accordance with international census standards and human rights principles. It explicitly agreed with the condition that each person would be able to declare what ethnicity they belong to, including those who wish to record their identity as of mixed ethnicity. Those not identifying with one of the listed ethnic categories would be able to declare their ethnicity and have their response recorded by the enumerator.”
