SINGAPORE, July 11 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s junta government is installing Chinese-made cameras with facial recognition capabilities in more cities across the country, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
In tenders to buy and install security cameras and facial recognition technology, the plans are described as safe city projects aimed at maintaining security and, in some cases, preserving civil peace, people who are involved or have been involved in the projects said.
Since the coup in February 2021, local authorities have launched new camera surveillance projects for at least five cities, including Molameen – the country’s fourth-largest city, according to the three people, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals the junta.
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The new projects are in addition to five cities where camera systems touted as crime prevention measures were installed or planned by the previous government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, according to the sources and local media.
A junta spokesman did not return calls from Reuters for comment. None of the 10 municipal governments, all of which are controlled by the junta, returned calls for comment. Reuters was unable to review the tenders or visit the cities to verify the installation of the cameras.
The junta is planning camera surveillance systems for cities in each of Myanmar’s seven states and seven regions, said one of the sources, who was briefed on the junta’s plans twice by different people.
The extent of the junta’s efforts to introduce camera surveillance systems has not been reported so far.
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The bids were won by local supply firms including Fisca Security & Communication and Naung Yoe Technologies Co, the three sources said. The firms are sourcing the cameras and some related technology from Chinese surveillance giants Zhejiang Dahua Technology ( 002236.SZ ) ( Dahua ), Huawei Technologies Co Ltd ( HWT.UL ) and Hikvision ( 002415.SZ ), the three sources added.
Fisca and Naung Yoe, both based in Yangon, did not respond to requests for comment.
Huawei and Dahua did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Hikvision said in a statement that it has never sold directly to Myanmar government authorities and its customers in overseas markets are distributors and integrators. It also said it did not sell facial recognition technology in the country.
Hikvision did not respond to inquiries about whether it knew of any cases where its hardware capable of running facial recognition software had been sold in Myanmar.
The three sources also said Myanmar supply firms that won the tenders sometimes use facial recognition software developed by local and regional companies because Chinese software licenses are expensive. They did not name the software companies.
SURVEILLANCE CONCERNS
Closed circuit television (CCTV) or video surveillance systems are used by many cities around the world to deter crime. Increasingly controversial facial recognition software is also being used, with the technology gaining traction in the United States for law enforcement purposes. Some sophisticated systems, such as those used in Chinese cities, use artificial intelligence to match real-time images of people to an image database. Read more
People with direct knowledge of the projects in Myanmar and human rights groups said they feared the new projects could be used to crack down on activists and resistance groups, both of which were designated as terrorists by the junta after its coup.
They failed to provide evidence of the junta’s intentions.
“Surveillance cameras pose a serious risk to democracy activists (in Myanmar) because the military and police can use them to track their movements, understand links between activists, identify safe houses and other gathering places, and recognize and intercept cars and motorcycles used by activists,” Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said in a statement to Reuters.
Myanmar’s junta engages in widespread surveillance. It has installed spyware to intercept telecommunications and internet providers to eavesdrop on its citizens’ communications and deployed “information warfare” units to monitor and attack dissidents online, Reuters reported. Read more
The army has officers dedicated to analyzing feeds from surveillance cameras, Nii Tuta, a former captain who defected from the army in late February 2021, told Reuters. He said he did not know how many officers had been assigned to the job. but described visiting CCTV control rooms staffed by soldiers in the capital Naypyidaw. Reuters was unable to independently verify this and a junta spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
TEN CITIES
Mawlamyine held an auction for a CCTV system shortly after the coup, according to the three sources. The towns of Taunggyi and Dawei followed in the months after, two of them said.
The tender for Mawlamyine was jointly won by Fisca and Naung Yoe, the two sources said. Bids for Dawei and Taunggyi went to Fisca, one source said, adding that hundreds of Dahua cameras have been installed in each city this year.
There are now more than 200 Dahua cameras in Mawlamyine and more are to be installed, another of the sources said.
Dahua cameras were installed this year in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin, a region of ethnic unrest, one source said, adding that the Hpa-an city government had begun early discussions about a camera system.
Before the coup, Suu Kyi’s government installed CCTV cameras in Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, while the city of Mandalay also signed a CCTV system agreement with Huawei, according to local media and two sources.
Huawei cameras were combined with facial recognition software in Naypyidaw, one source said. In Yangon, the surveillance system consists of a Hikvision traffic management center and a combination of camera brands, another of the sources said.
Since the coup, the junta has told Mandalay – Myanmar’s second-largest city – to move faster to install cameras, two sources said. One source said at least 300 Huawei cameras had been installed before the coup, with hundreds more to come.
The city of Bagan – a historic tourist center – also held a tender for a CCTV system before the coup, two sources said.
In Rakhine state, where the military is fighting an ethnic armed group, video surveillance systems with Huawei cameras have been deployed by Myanmar’s security forces since 2019 in the town of Sittwe and some villages, one source said.
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Reported by Fanny Potkin; Additional reporting by David Kirton in Shenzhen, Brenda Guo in Shanghai and Poppy McPherson in Bangkok; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
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