The Kachin Independence Organisation has rejected a request from the government to collect census data on territory under the KIO’s control, a member of the Kachin Peace-talk Creating Group told Mizzima on March 18.
Lamai Gum Ja said the request was made by the Minister of Immigration and Population, U Khin Yee, when he met members of the PCG in Myitkyina on March 16 during President U Thein Sein’s visit to the Kachin State capital.
Lamai Gum Ja said the PCG was likely to have passed the minister’s request to the KIO the same day.
The reasons why the KIO had rejected the request including continuing fighting between the KIO’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army, and government forces, and general concerns about the security situation.
“That is why the KIO is not ready to cooperate with the census,” said Lamai Gum Ja.
He said U Khin Yee had asked to meet senior Kachin leaders, including KIA deputy commander-in-chief General Gum Maw, in Chiang Mai to discuss the census but they had refused.
Daw Khaing Khaing Soe, the director of the Department of Population, said the KIO did not attend a ceremony held in Nay Pyi Taw on March 1 to mark the launch the census.
She expressed regret that the KIO had decided not to participate in the census, which will be the first in Myanmar in more than 30 years and is due to take place from March 29 to April 10.
“Even before going to battle, we need to know how many men there are to start in the battle,” Daw Khaing Khaing Soe said.
“Even in countries where fighting is breaking out in every corner it could be possible to conduct a census,” she said, adding that information about the size and distribution of the population was essential for national planning and development.
“Our country is conducting the census to initiate development projects and we urgently need the information,” Daw Khaing Khaing Soe said.
The KIO is one of the biggest ethnic organisations to have refused to cooperate in the census but many other national minority groups are known to have expressed misgivings about the process.
The government has managed to collect some census data in Kachin State. Census information was gathered in six townships in PutaoDistrict, in the state’s far north, between March 2 and 7.
