CCTV systems in Myanmar
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Extent and progress of CCTV installation
As of July 2022, there has not been any update released on the progress
of CCTV installations in the three neighbourhoods in Mandalay or on
the surveillance project in Hlaing Thar Yar. It is crucial to know how
these two neighbourhood CCTV projects are different from Naypyidaw’s
citywide, fully operational CCTV networks, as the current lack of
information about placement, procurement, and use of CCTV cameras
paints a hazy picture (at best) of how Myanmar’s surveillance network is
growing. This is also an important area of research and analysis for civil
society, as understanding the similarities and differences between the
two would help determine how to ultimately demand the removal of these
cameras. Apart from the number of CCTVs, which we learnt from media
reports, we do not know the locations in which CCTVs will be installed;
specific locations such as street corners, inside neighbourhood streets,
or in crowded places would shed light on the government’s attempts to
control ‘crime’ and how it can infringe human rights. For example, in
Hlaing Thar Yar, there are 140 cameras for a township of 67.4 km2 and
so we assumed that there will be one CCTV per 0.5 km2, or that cameras
would be concentrated in particular areas, such as on streets near factory
workers’ residences.
Chain of control and oversight
Based on the calls for tenders, it also seems that different government
departments such as the police force, city development committees,
electricity supply offices, engineering departments, regional government
offices, and the Ministry of Home Affairs are handling different projects
in different areas and it is not clear how they will be interconnected – if
at all – after the projects are implemented. For example, will there be
centralised access to the police department, or will they fall under the
management of a particular ministry? It is not clear how many control
centres there will be or if they will all be centralised, or how different
police departments will coordinate. During the NLD government’s tenure,
our interviewees informed us that the budgets for smart city projects
were either allocated by the Myanmar Government or provided by each