Census in Burma refuses to count Rohingya Muslims

(Vatican Radio) The United Nations said it was deeply concerned by the refusal of census-takers in Burma to record members of the Rohingya Muslim population. The group has long faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, and have been denied citizenship since a 1982 citizenship law was enacted.

The country, also called Myanmar, has only recently had a civilian government, after decades of military rule.

Burma Campaign UK issued a statement on Wednesday saying the United Nations Population Fund and international donors went ahead with support for Burma's census despite numerous organizations inside and outside Burma warning about the dangers of going ahead with the count.

“In a normal country having a census would be a sensible thing to do, to find out how many people are in the country and what their needs are,” said Mark Farmaner, the Director of Burma Campaign, UK. “But in the normal environment in Burma where you have a country moving away from direct military rule, but still having a very authoritarian government that people don’t trust, and where you have got a lot of ethnic tensions, my organization…was very concerned that this census would trigger more ethnic tensions, particularly against the Rohingya Muslims.”

Farmaner told Vatican Radio the international community should stop providing financial and technical support for the census.

“We don’t want to give anymore legitimacy or support to a census which is discriminating against the Rohingya,” he said.

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Mark Farmaner: