Village Peace and Development Council (PDC) officials in Mudon Township are collecting and updating family lists, say residents.

Beginning last week, members of the People’s Militia Force in Mudon began telling residents to present their family lists at village PDC offices. Every household in Burma is required to have a family list, which contains the names, birth dates and thumbprints of every resident.

IMNA sources report that most residents are bringing their family lists to village PDC officials, who also keep a second copy of the list. “Most villagers went to the offices the day after the villagers were told by militia members to bring the lists,” said the source, adding, “The headmen have never made an order like this.”

According to a villager who went to the village PDC office, the authorities are questioning households and making changes to ensure the family lists are accurate. “They check families' member on the list comparing who remains in the house, including children, to who is really living there,” said a woman who went to the PDC office in Hnee-padaw village. “They don't count the age for people. They delete people who are dead and investigate migrant members who are not currently living in house.”

Until November, most family lists have not been updated recently. According to one resident, villagers update the lists rarely because they doing so requires making a payment, because people do not think the lists are important or because people do not like dealing with PDC authorities.

The order is the first of its kind, although family lists were ordered to be displayed outside homes in Mudon Township during the cold season last year. The push to update the list also coincides with an attempt by the department of Immigration and National Registration to make identity cards for villagers in Mudon Township who do not have identification.

Village PDC officials are explaining that they need to lists to verify how many people currently reside in Mudon Township. Many residents, however, expressed skepticism to IMNA’s field reporter, and surmised that the lists were being updated in preparation for an election, scheduled for 2010.

Many people in Burma do not have identity cards, and the regime attempted to make IDs for much of the population before a referendum on a new national constitution was held last May. The cards were free, but did not prove citizenship or permit travel.