Myanmar for listing Rohingyas as Bengali

Rohingya people in Myanmar can include themselves as "Bengali" in the country's first census, says a Myanmar official.

The move came as Buddhists in an unrest-hit western state of Myanmar vowed to boycott the census over fears it could lead to official recognition for the Rohingya, AFP reports.

On Saturday, Myanmar government's spokesman Ye Htut said: "People could call themselves 'Bengali'." Myanmar authorities, who view most Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, uses the 'Bengali' term to identify the Rohingya people.

"If a household wants to identify themselves as 'Rohingya,' we will not register it," Ye Htut told reporters in Yangon.

Myanmar's first census since 1983, which is set to begin on Sunday and last for 12 days, is backed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and is aimed at plugging an information deficit in the former junta-run country.

Buddhist nationalists have reacted with fury to the fact that the questionnaire includes a section for people to self-identify their ethnicity, theoretically allowing the Rohingya to be registered as such and raising fears it could lead to political rights for the group.

According to the UNHCR, currently more than 25,000 Rohingya Mulsims live in two official camps in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh.

The Rohingyas in the camps are remnants of an influx in the 1990s when about 300,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in the wake of an alleged persecution by Myanmar's military junta.

Long-standing animosity between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine erupted into bloodshed in 2012, leaving dozens dead in clashes and around 140,000 people displaced.

A number of Rohingya refugees entered into Bangladesh fleeing sectarian violence in Myanmar in 2012.

Bangladesh has been negotiating for years with Myanmar to send them back.

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/myanmar-for-listing-rohingyas-as-bengali/