April 26, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — The US Department of State welcomed the start of the Fifth Sudan Population and Housing Census, praising particularly the Sudanese First Vice-President Salva Kiir mayadrit.

An enumerator interviews a resident on the opening day of Sudan’s 5th National Population and Housing Census in Khartoum, Sudan Tuesday April 22, 2008. (AP)

The census is a milestone in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended 21 years of civil war, and will provide important information for development planning.

The United States contributed $9.1 million towards census preparations.

"We commend the efforts of the Government of National Unity, in particular First Vice President Salva Kiir, as well as those of the Government of Southern Sudan, the UN, and donor countries to make the census a success." The State Department stated.

Washington was anxious to the first decision of Southern Sudan government to postpone the fifth census on April 12. However the Sudanese presidency decided to adjourn the date of census for one week to start on April 22 instead of April 15.

The southern Sudan government had justified its withdrawal from the national census saying it wants southerners living in the north to return to the south before the counting.

The census has been delayed at least three times and months of debate on whether to include questions on ethnicity and religion or how millions of war-displaced Sudanese will be counted, ended without agreement.

The US Administration noted that Sudan’s democratic transition requires the involvement of all Sudanese, "and we encourage all its citizens — including those in Darfur — to stand up and be counted in this process."

The danger remains that anyone disagreeing with the results will simply deny them, causing further room for dispute.

The State Department underlined in its statement that the census is independent from the voter registration and elections process scheduled for 2009.

Outside of the south, in western Sudan, the census has created a rare united platform for Darfur’s fractious rebels who have all agreed to reject it.

That in turn has prompted a similar reaction from hundreds of thousands of Darfuris who fled their homes during the fighting to squat in miserable camps.

However, Washington condemned the threats by rebel groups against census takers and urged all "parties to work together to ensure a peaceful and safe conduct of the census."

"We remain concerned about census issues in Darfur, especially the counting Internally Displaced Persons, and we condemn threats by rebel groups against census enumerators."

The most recent U.N. estimate for Sudan’s population is 37.8 million but the numbers are difficult to verify because of Sudan’s huge internal displacement and also tens of thousands of Sudanese who have fled fighting over the years to neighbouring countries.

Southerners say they were undercounted in the last census in 1993 at the height of the civil war with millions displaced and vast swathes of the south inaccessible, and there are concerns that despite peace in the south numbers in the upcoming census may not show a big increase.

The 2005 agreement gave the south just under one third of representation in central government but only a few hundred thousand southerners have returned home since then.

(ST)