‘Even though the International Crisis Group has brought out this alert, the government will continue with the census as planned,” U Myint Kyaing, the director general of the Department of Population under the Ministry of Immigration and Population told Mizzima on February 13.

The decision to proceed with the census was decided at a meeting of the National Advisory Committee for the census in Nay Pyi Taw earlier on February 13, U Myint Kyaing said.

“We will continue as planned and we also have the agreement of all the national races to proceed with the census,” he said.

U Myint Kyaing was responding to a “conflict alert” issued by the ICG on February 12, which said the census risked inflaming tensions at a critical moment in Myanmar’s peace process and democratic transition.

Describing the census as “ill-advised” and “fraught with danger”, because of the possibility that it could exacerbate ethnic and religious tensions, the Brussels-based think-tank called for the census to be delayed.

“A postponement by the government, United Nations and donors “can demonstrate that they are sensitive to the serious risks presented by the census as currently conceived, and that they are willing to respond to the deep reservations expressed by many important groups in the country,” the ICG said.

The ICG commends the Department of Population and other officials for their efforts to make the technical and administrative preparations for the census, and acknowledges that it will provide data crucial for national planning and development.

“However, the plans have proceeded with apparently little concern at the political level – by government, the United Nations and donors – over the potential risks,” it says.

“There is still time to adjust the process by limiting the census to just the key demographic questions on age, sex and marital status – that is, the first six questions on the census form.”

The ICG said the census “consisting of 41 questions, is overly complicated and fraught with danger”.

It singles out for criticism the ethnic classification system being used for the census, which it says is based on an old and much-criticized list of 135 groups produced in the 1980s.

In his response to the ICG report, U Myint Kyaing said the classification issue would be “discussed among the national races”, but did not elaborate.

The Ministry of Immigration and Population is receiving technical assistance from the United Nations Population Fund for the census, which will be the first in Myanmar in 30 years.

Mizzima sought a response from the UNFPA to the ICG report in an email sent on February 13. No reply had been forthcoming from the UNFPA as of 3pm, Yangon time, on February 14.

A suggestion to postpone the census was included in a letter sent to the UNFPA Myanmar representative, Ms Janet Jackson, by 30 ethnic, religious and civil society groups on December 16.

The letter was sent four days after the groups met to discuss the census at a conference in Chiang Mai to which Ms Jackson gave a Skype presentation.

“Given the uncertainty around the government negotiations with ethnic armed groups over peace negotiations, constitutional amendments and the upcoming elections in 2015, we wonder about the advisability of conducting a census in March and April 2014,” says the letter, a copy of which was provided to Mizzima last month.

“In spite of protestations that the census is a technical exercise, no one believes that the government will not use the census for political ends,” it says.

“Some government officials have stated that the number of seats or ethnic representation in regional and state parliaments will be based on the 2014 census.

“Many ethnic communities are now mobilizing to collect their own numbers. If the census figures do not match their own numbers, tensions will rise.”

The UNFPA is known to have commissioned an American specialist on Myanmar, Associate Professor Mary Callahan of the University of Washington, Seattle, to write a political risk assessment of the census last year.