By Tim McLaughlin The Myanmar Times March 19, 2014 A political party has called for Rohingya to participate in the upcoming national census but also urged the government to ensure they are able to respond to questions freely and without intimidation. The Democracy and Human Rights Party said it “enthusiastically welcome[es] the 2014 nationwide census” and “urged all Rohingya to fill in your ethnic name correctly and independently without any spelling errors”. The statement was released by the group’s chairman last week. Because the Rohingya is not an officially recognised ethnic group it has not been assigned a numerical code for the census. However, individuals who wish to identify as Rohingya will be able to select “other” and then write in Rohingya. Members of the DHRP and the National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD) had in January called for Rohingya to be given a numerical code, but their attempts to have the census changed were unsuccessful. The Democra