Electronic oppression: The junta sharpens its instruments of control | Frontier Myanmar 6/26/25, 5:46 PM This was a dreaded but familiar procedure to Mee Mee, who was travelling from Yangon. Since the 2021 military coup, Myanmar’s roads have been littered with checkpoints manned by soldiers, police and pro-regime militiamen. They would usually only glance at the ID cards and faces of travellers, but that evening Mee Mee saw something new. A policeman was sitting at a table holding an electronic tablet, on which he entered data from people’s ID cards. As a medical student who had quit her studies after the coup to join the Civil Disobedience Movement, Mee Mee felt a rising panic. The junta has relentlessly persecuted members of the CDM, including by trying to block their ability to travel or arresting them for sedition. “I was very worried they would identify me as a CDMer and pull me out of the bus, but luckily that didn’t happen. No one in the bus had any problem and we were allowed to continue our trip,” said the 32-year-old, who spoke to Frontier using a nickname for safety reasons. She later learned from the driver’s assistant that, because it would take too long to check every passenger’s details, the policeman only “chose young men and women who are from regions and states where resistance forces are strong, like Rakhine and Magway”. But although this electronic screening of passengers wasn’t comprehensive, it still represents a significant surveillance upgrade for the regime. The junta has spent several years trying to digitise, consolidate and improve the reliability of data on Myanmar’s population – data that has previously been scattered across paper archives rife with errors, omissions and duplications. A centralised and accurate digital population register would allow the regime to more efficiently hunt down dissidents, track the movement of all citizens and enforce a military conscription drive that began in February last year. The junta has since 2022 been compiling such a database, including by registering people’s biometrics as reported previously by Frontier. Last year the regime used the new data to start issuing Unique Identification documents, or UIDs. These are paper slips containing a QR code and a unique 10-digit number, and are meant to replace the handwritten Citizen Scrutiny Cards, more popularly known as National Registration Cards, which have been the primary form of ID for citizens since the 1990s. The new national database marks those that are wanted for arrest, and the regime has been screening people against it at passport offices and airports since at least 2023. This has led to the detention of numerous members of the CDM who were trying to leave the country. In March this year, though, the regime started targeting domestic travellers by implementing similar checks at highway checkpoints. As witnessed by Mee Mee, police can connect to the database using tablets or computers to screen people on the spot. This enhanced surveillance has had some success. Eleven Media reported last month that police in Mandalay Region arrested 1,657 people between March 7 and May 21 using the new system at checkpoints. They included those branded as common criminals, but also alleged deserters from the military and police. There have also been reports of people being arrested via similar checks for allegedly assisting armed resistance groups. They include two women and one man who were stopped separately in Mawlamyine and Kalaw Township in Shan State in mid-March, and were found to be wanted for “financing terrorism”. A university student was also reportedly arrested in Shan’s Nansang Township in late May because, unbeknownst to her, she was labelled in the database as committing the same offence three years before. https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/electronic-oppression-the-junta-sharpens-its-instruments-of-control/ Page 2 of 6