The terrorist military council is using an electronic ID verification system linked to a National Database to identify and arrest military deserters, police deserters, Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) staff, and political activists across the country, according to military sources in Naypyidaw. The council has detailed records of military deserters, police deserters, CDM staff and freed political activists stored in a computerized National Database system. Immigration officials and military officers can access this National Database at any time to check suspicious individuals’ personal information and verify their details.
The military council has installed checkpoints connected to the National Database system with Person Scrutinization and Monitoring System (PSMS) capabilities at various locations including Junction 3, Mile 26 of Yangon-Mandalay Highway, Min Lwe Kon Gate at the Hlegu-Bago border, Nyaung Khar Shay, Hpa-an Gate, Myawaddy Border Gate, Tachileik Border Gate, and Kawthaung Border Gate. At these checkpoints, officials can access the National Database to check individuals’ information. The system contains registration data for military deserters, police deserters, CDM staff and those with political offense records, according to military sources in Naypyidaw.
There has been an increase in arrests of CDM staff at the Myawaddy border gate while attempting to cross to Mae Sot, Thailand to process bridge crossing permits. According to a bridge crossing permit service agency based in Myawaddy on the Thai-Myanmar border, this is because their information is stored in the computer system’s CDM staff database, making it nearly impossible for listed individuals to avoid detection. The military council has been collecting biographic data from Myanmar citizens through the e-ID system and entering it into the database, along with biometric data collection, verification and issuance of Unique ID (UID) numbers. They are now using this system to track down and arrest their targets.
