YANGON: Census takers guarded by police and soldiers took to the streets of Myanmar on Wednesday for a national survey that anti-junta groups have urged people to boycott. The ruling junta is pressing ahead with the census even though it has lost control of large areas of the country to armed groups opposed to its rule. Bloody conflict rages across much of Myanmar but the junta says the survey is needed to update voter lists ahead of promised elections in 2025.
Teams of enumerators accompanied by soldiers and armed police went door to door in Yangon to fill in the 68-question survey. The survey includes questions about family members living away from home -- which critics say is a way for the junta to identify who has joined armed groups or fled the country to avoid conscription into the army. The census also includes questions about householders' ethnicity and the language they speak at home. — AFP
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