Lakes State Governor threatens to boycott census over omission of ethnicity
By Manyang Mayom
March 25, 2008, (RUMBEK) – The Governor of Lakes State threatened to boycott the fifth Census to protest against the omission of the ethnicity in the forms containing the questionnaire for the census.
Awet was speaking during the reception of 264 returnees from Khartoum to Rumbek; Akot said that the data on ethnicity is very important to determine who is a south Sudanese to vote during the referendum in 2011.
Earlier this month, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the Government of Southern Sudan, Gabriel Changson Chang, told the press that the inclusion of ethnicity and religion in the questionnaire is important because it would determine whether Sudan is of African or Arab and Islamic country.
The government of Lakes state had received 264 returnees’ people coming from Khartoum to western Bhar-El-Gazal state and direct to Rumbek last Friday evening in a dusty convoys lead by International Organisation of Migration (IOM) and South Sudan relief rehabilitation commission (SSRRC) with some few police accompanied the returnees.
They returnees were received by Lakes state governor Daniel Awet including members of local chiefs in Lakes state on Friday.
However the returnees are worried about the conditions of their settlement in the state.
Rebecca Yar said ” I don’t have a house to stay in it here in Rumbek; I will put up with my relatives under the trees because I found my relatives in Akuac been displaced for survey that was carried out by Lakes state authority in last month.”
(ST)