Myanmar census-takers and their protectors face rebel attacks

Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese.

Officials conducting a census in Myanmar ahead of planned elections next year are getting harassed and arrested by insurgent groups, and security forces providing them protection are getting attacked, residents said.

The military junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup, is holding a national census this month that will be used to draw up voter lists for an election they say will restore democratic rule — though opponents are doubtful.

Ethnic minority armies and rebel groups that have taken control of vast swaths of territory once held by the military oppose the election, saying it will be a sham and only serve to legitimize the junta’s control. 

They have urged residents to cooperate with the census-takers. 

And in recent cases, they have started firing on soldiers providing security for census officials in five townships in southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region and in western Chin state.

On Oct. 4, five military administration camps providing security for census-takers in Tanintharyi region’s Palaw township were bombed by drones, an official from a rebel People’s Defense Force, or PDF, in Myeik district told Radio Free Asia. 

Census activities have stopped in Palaw and not yet begun in Launglon township because of the attacks, residents said.

RFA could not reach Thet Naing, the region’s social affairs minister and spokesman, for comment.

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Similarly, a clash broke out in Chin state’s Hakha township on Oct. 1, when members of the Chinland Defense Force, an opposition group, attacked junta soldiers providing security for census takers in certain neighborhoods, local residents said.

Three days later in Tedim township, PDF members arrested Kam Lian Thang, a member of the military administration who was involved in census activities, according to a resident who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“He has been actively involved in every aspect of the census, openly cooperating with the junta,” the resident said. “We captured him as a symbolic figure.”

Don’t participate

The Chin Brotherhood Alliance, a military and political alliance of several ethnic armed organizations active in Chin state, advised residents on Sept. 30 not to participate in the census in areas it controlled and warned that it would take action against those who supported the activities.

RFA could not reach Aung Cho, state secretary and the spokesman for the junta in Chin state, for comment.

On Oct. 6, fighting broke out between rebel forces and the junta’s soldiers guarding census-takers in Sagaing region’s Katha township. 

Meanwhile, the PDF in Tanintharyi region’s Launglon township on Oct. 6 arrested nine people for their involvement in the census, including six schoolteachers and a clerk from the General Administration Department were arrested on Oct. 6, a PDF official said.

The Launglon township PDF announced on Oct. 3 that it deemed the military administration’s census and future election as unacceptable, and warned that it would take severe action against anyone participating in the process.

Other rebel forces and political activists have also declared their opposition to the military council's census and vowed to arrest those involved in it.

The military administration is going to great lengths to provide security during the census in light of statements by anti-regime forces warning people not to participate, a member of the junta’s census team in Yangon region said.

Pre-announcements about when and where the census will be conducted are not made in advance, but instead issued just a day or so before, he said. And local communities and police are also assisting with the efforts.

Many people feel compelled to answer the census-takers' questions given the situation under junta control, though most are reluctant to participate, he said.

Opposition will persist because people are concerned about the security of their personal  information in the hands of the junta, said Sithu Maung, a former National League for Democracy lawmaker from Pabedan township in Yangon region.

“The census is causing concern because it is perceived as a means to compile a list of names for arresting political activists and young people involved in various political protests,” he said. “I believe that the response to this situation will intensify over time.”

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.