Report on census in south Sudan raises doubt

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) – Sudan's first census in 15 years came under renewed scrutiny Friday as an official report highlighted a string of obstacles to the exercise in the semi-autonomous south.

Early rains, an influx of returnees, poor mapping, shortages of questionnaires and insecurity hampered the exercise, said southern census officials in the report presented to the regional parliament.

The enumeration last April was a milestone in the peace deal that ended Sudan's 21-year civil war, crucial to prepare constituencies for elections and confirm or adjust the wealth and power-sharing ratios between north and south.

But the evaluation report from census officials in the south said that an influx of returnees, from among the four million displaced by the war, led to shortages of questionnaires and heavy rains made some areas inaccessible.

In two states of semi-autonomous southern Sudan, Upper Nile and Lakes, questionnaires were destroyed or taken away, according to the report.

"At the same time, some members of the communities involved had become displaced and enumerators found it difficult to locate them," according to the report. "It's possible that some of these people were not counted."

In some states, where field mapping was done a year before the census, a significant number of villages had mushroomed by the time of enumeration and as such, people may have been missed out, it said.

"The upcoming census results will be negative," James Igga, speaker of the southern parliament, told lawmakers.

The census results are not expected to be published until the year-end and preparations for national elections, which are scheduled for 2009, have fallen heavily behind schedule.

Even before the census, the southern government said it would refuse to be bound by the results, accusing the Arab north of manipulating the exercise to maximise its control and marginalise the African majority.

Discontentment and disillusionment run deep in the south, where the legacy of the war that killed two million people and displaced another four million, is keenly felt despite a flood of refugees returning for the count.-AFP