Outrage Over Census
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 26 April 2008 15:28
- Written by Pachodo.org News Room
Source: The Nation
Badru Mulumba, Southern Sudan
Before officials in Southern Sudan announced that they had rejected the country's census - a decision they later rescinded - Juba residents had exuded enthusiasm for the count. But now that the census has started, their enthusiasm has turned to anger.
Ministers returned home to villages to organise people for the census which they were told would determine how much money each village would receive from the government.
Some people transported their families from schools in neighbouring countries just to be counted. Refugees sneaked back into the country briefly, targeting the first night of the count on April 15. There were no signs of trouble then.
Weeks later, the census is the topic of discussion in small gatherings, with many saying it was a sham.
"We should not have accepted it," says Mayen Nirew, a 23-year-old journalist, who brought his brothers back from school in Uganda for the count.
"I am not keen on the census," says Mayom Bul Atem, 28, who returned from Canada three months before the census, just to be sure he was in the country for the event. "I think it's a sham because there are many issues that have not been addressed," he said. "I have no faith in it."
The census was meant to help determine wealth and power sharing between the north and South, but nobody seems know where the 2,000,000 internally displaced Southern Sudanese in Khartoum will fall.
"This is about sharing the cake," Igga says. "If you are undercounted, you will get a very small slice of the cake."
Meanwhile, the row over the omission of ethnicity and religion in the census forms remains unresolved.
In a decree postponing the census from April 15 to April 22, President Omar El-Bashir said there would be a survey to determine ethnicity and religion in the future. However, few believed him.
Right time
"This is the right time to do it, said Igga. So far there have been no explanations as to how the promised survey will be conducted.
"The details could be worked out," says Isaiah Chol, chairperson of the Southern Sudan Commission for Census, Statistics and Evaluation, "but I don't know how."
Pointing out that the border between the north and South - and even those between villages - has not been demarcated, Chol says the demarcation of these borders should have preceded the census.
Meanwhile, an inter-clan cattle raiding attack has killed 95 people in southern Sudan and wounded 42 others in violence that disrupted the start of a national census, a southern official said.
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I think most of you will agree with me that South Sudan is being managed by a group of unqualified people all belong to SPLM ,
but since the death of our leader John Garang and Salva Kir took the power a series of contradictions dominated the scene .e.g.You hear Kir shouting in a rally that he doesn't know the number of wells in the oil field in the South as well as the amount of revenue from the sale of oil.what did he want the audience to do for him. when the public mandated him it was expected that he will protect our interest and not the apostle wise he takes a decision and cancels it the following day the issue of census is a living example the Northerners won the battle by excluding tribe in the questionnaire that would have exposed the real number of Arab tribes in Sudan,all over the South tribal fights are going on dose Kir lack means of solving or stopping these conflicts. He is this days busy widening the crack between the Southerners in the convention If I was to be in his place I would see that amicable solution is reached to maintain the spirit of unity amoung our people .