Hundreds of Huawei CCTV cameras with facial recognition go live in Naypyitaw

The sophisticated system, set up by two Myanmar companies, cost more than four billion kyat

Nyan Hlaing Lin

Published on Dec 15, 2020

Min Min

Published on Dec 15, 2020

Rajahtani road in Naypyitaw (Min Min/Myanmar Now)

A system of 335 surveillance cameras with facial recognition technology made by the Chinese tech giant Huawei went live across Naypyitaw on Monday, at a cost of more than 4bn kyat ($2.9m).

The cameras cover eight townships in the capital with artificial intelligence that can also scan vehicles’ number plates, said Myint Swe, the top advisor for the Naypyitaw Safe City project.

“Anyone with a criminal history entering Naypyitaw will be recognised. The system is able to detect and find that person,” he told Myanmar Now. “The other thing is being able to determine where a car has been just by looking at its plate number.”

Most of the equipment used was made by Huawei, he said.

Naypyitaw Council called for tenders last year for the project and twelve companies took part in the bid. The Naypyitaw-based Linn IT Solution won the right to build the control centre, while Naung Yoe was chosen to install the cameras and communication cables.

The owner of Linn IT Solution, Nay Lin Htike, last year donated a clock tower to the Naypyitaw Development Committee that was built at a prominent location near the Tha Pyay Gone roundabout.

The two companies could not immediately be reached for comment.

Myint Swe said the system was secure from hackers. “We’ve been careful with the system. We bought a firewall ourselves and it was quite costly,” he said.

“But the good thing is if something happens, it’s the companies’ responsibility and there’s no need for concern,” he said.

A spokesperson for Huawei declined to comment on the grounds that the company did not win the tender itself.

The police are operating the control centre in Naypyitaw under the management of a group led by the chair of the Naypyitaw Council, Dr Myo Aung, said Myint Swe.

Naypyitaw Council said the system would help maintain rule of law, regional peace, and traffic safety.

In 2017 Aung Win Khaing, one of the plotters in the assassiantion of government legal advisor Ko Ni, managed to escape arrest after last being spotted in Naypyitaw. Police blamed a CCTV error for their failure to catch him.

Nay La, a lawyer for Ko Ni’s family, said the police gave the excuse that CCTV footage that could have helped locate Aung Win Khaing was difficult to recover as the system deleted footage after six days.

The new system keeps footage for sixty days, said Myint Swe.

dr_aung_moe_nyo_and_group.jpg

Magwe region chief minister Dr Aung Moe Nyo arrives at the CCTV control center in Naypyitaw (Myint Swe/Facebook)

Last week Mandalay’s electricity, energy and construction minister, Zarni Aung, told Myanmar Now that a contract has been signed with Huawei to install CCTV cameras in Mandalay for the Mandalay Safe City project.

The 2bn kyat project will cover three of the city’s seven townships and use the same facial recognition technology as the Naypyitaw project.

“The Mandalay government selected us because this Huawei system will improve the police task force’s capability and reduce crime rates,” said Zhou Kai, head of communication at Huawei Myanmar.

Last year Huawei was banned from doing business with any company that operates in the US. Then in September this year all non-US suppliers were banned from shipping to Huawei if their products contained US technology.

The ban followed concerns that the Chinese government may use Huawei networks in the US to gather data, while Huawei said it was brought in because US companies had fallen behind.

Last week the Washington Post reported that Huawei had worked on facial recognition technology to help the Chinese government identify members of the persecuted Uighur minority.

Nyan Hlaing Lin

Nyan Hlaing Lin is Senior Reporter with Myanmar Now

Min Min

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Mandalay PDF refutes junta’s claim that it seized cache of weapons

The armed group also said the junta falsely claimed a woman it arrested was a resistance fighter

Esther J

Published on Dec 3, 2021

Soldiers and police during a crackdown on anti-coup protesters in Mandalay on February 15 (Myanmar Now)

The junta has falsely claimed that its forces seized a cache of weapons in Mandalay after detaining dozens of people it accuses of being resistance fighters over the past month, the leader of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) for the city has said.

Bo Nat Khat told Myanmar Now that a December 1 statement from the military council that it had arrested 33 resistance fighters and found guns, bombs and grenades was a “lie”.

The statement said that 28 men and five women were detained between November 3 and December 1, including 15 members of the Mandalay PDF. It named Khin Aye Maw, 50, as one of the fighters.

But Khin Aye Maw, a resident of Chanmyathazi Township, had no involvement with the PDF and was taken as a hostage on November 25 when her son evaded arrest, said Bo Nat Khat.

“She’s the mother of an engineering student the military was looking for. She has absolutely no ties with the PDF or any revolutionary forces. She was taken in the place of her son,” he added.

Khin Aye Maw’s 12-year-old daughter was detained with her mother, then later released and placed under house arrest, he said.

The statement added that the captives included four members of the Yaw Defence Force (YDF), which is based in neighbouring Magway Region, but the YDF told Myanmar Now that none of its members were captured.

The junta’s statement also said that one of the captives, Ko Htwe, gave information to interrogators that led to the discovery of 20 guns, an M79 grenade launcher, bombs, grenades and bullets near the Leikkya waterfall in Taunggaung village, Madaya Township on November 30.

“It’s not true that they seized weapons from the Mandalay PDF. None of that really happened,” Bo Nat Khat said.

Bo Nat Khat suggested many of the captives were arrested not because of any proven involvement in attacks against junta targets, but because their names were given up by others who were tortured during interrogation.

The military uses CCTV to track culprits in the wake of attacks and then tortures captives to extract information from them about their connections, he added.

“The revolution is everybody’s business,” he said. “We are not doing this for individual profit. We are not doing this for the development of our own lives. We are doing this to overthrow the dictatorship and we need the strength of the entire country to be able to do so.”

Esther J

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KIA clashes with junta soldiers in Hpakant and Mohnyin

The fighting comes a week after the junta launched airstrikes in KIA territory

Nyein Swe

Published on Dec 3, 2021

An archive photo of a KIA soldier aiming his gun (EPA)

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) clashed with the Myanmar military in Hpakant and Mohnyin townships on Wednesday, a little under a week after the junta launched airstrikes against the rebel group in Mohnyin.

About 50 soldiers from the junta’s Infantry Battalion 42 attacked KIA territory near Nyaung Htauk village in Mohnyin at around 8am, said Colonel Naw Bu, the KIA’s information officer.

“We were only defending against them; they were heading towards our base on the ground,” he told Myanmar Now. The territory is under the control of the KIA’s Brigade 9.

The clash ended at about 6pm. Naw Bu did not disclose details of casualties.

There was another clash the same day near Wailon village, which sits along the road linking Hpakant with Mohnyin, about 17 miles from Hpakant’s urban center.

A junta artillery unit from Hpakant fired around 30 shells at the site of the clash between 3pm and 8pm, a local said. “The shelling from Hpakant was so loud that my house was shaken,” he said.

The same artillery unit fired five more shells on Thursday morning, he said.

Soldiers stationed near Hway Long have been demanding bribes from people passing along the road there, charging 5,000 kyat per vehicle and up to 3,000 kyat per person, he added.

Vehicles travelling from Hpakant to Mohnyin had to turn back on Wednesday because of the clashes, he said.

There was a third clash on Wednesday near Kwingyi village between Mohnyin and Nanmar townships, but Myanmar Now was unable to gather further details.

Locals have estimated that some 30 soldiers died in two of Wednesday’s clashes but Myanmar Now was unable to verify this. The junta rarely comments publicly on clashes in Kachin State.

The KIA has teamed up with newly formed resistance groups of the People’s Defence Force to attack junta targets in the townships of Shweku, Katha, Htigyaing, Kawlin and Wuntho in recent months.

Last week’s airstrikes targeted the KIA’s Battalion 26. There were no injuries from the strikes, the KIA said.

There have been hundreds of clashes between the KIA and the junta’s forces in Kachin since the February 1 coup. In May the KIA shot down a military helicopter in Momauk Township.

Nyein Swe

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Two Mandalay Region men killed in junta custody in separate incidents

In one case, soldiers repeatedly beat a farmer in front of villagers and splashed water on his face to wake him when he passed out

Wathone Nyein Aye

Published on Dec 3, 2021

Mary Hnin

Published on Dec 3, 2021

Phyo Maung Ye (left) was shot while he was being detained and died in junta custody hours later. Than Tun Aung, 25, was beaten to death by soldiers in his village (Supplied)

Two men were murdered by soldiers after being detained in Mandalay Region this week in seperate incidents, locals have told Myanmar Now.

Than Tun Aung, a 25-year-old farmer, was detained and severely beaten on Monday after soldiers stationed in his village of Khine, Myingyan Township, started firing their guns at random, several locals there said.

He was among 11 men at the village bar at the time who were accused of an “unauthorised gathering” and taken to the local school.

Than Tun Aung fainted from the beatings on his way to the school, but the soldiers splashed him with water to wake him up and kept beating him as they continued on their way, said a local who spoke to eyewitnesses.

“The kid died while they splashed water on him and kicked him repeatedly,” the local said. “They were beating him for ‘not answering’ their questions but the truth is he just couldn’t speak anymore because of his injuries.”

Five hours after his arrest, villagers found his body between the market and the local clinic covered with a blanket. Soldiers told villagers he died of a cold, said another local, who has now fled Khine.

Than Tun Aung’s funeral was held at the village cemetery on Tuesday, but soldiers disrupted the ceremony by blocking the way for people who were carrying his body to be cremated, said the second local.

“The main road to the cemetery is the road near the school where the soldiers are stationed,” he said. “The soldiers came out of the school and told us that they couldn’t let us pass, so we had to go through the woods to get to the cemetery.”

Than Tun Aung leaves behind a 22-year-old wife and a one-year-old son.

Around 30 soldiers have been stationed at the school for about a month and more than 1,500 residents have fled to nearby villages.

The 10 other people detained with Than Tun Aung have been released but are not allowed to leave the village, locals said. “Those who were arrested didn’t dare to flee because the military threatened to harm their families if they did,” said one resident.

Than Tun Aung’s family did not want to speak with the media because soldiers were still in the village, the locals added.

Soldiers have been checking villagers’ mobile phones and social media pages, they said.

There have also been incidents of soldiers detaining villagers and forcing them to sing the Myanmar national anthem while they beat them, the locals said, adding that in other cases soldiers have forced villagers to fight each other.

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun could not be reached for comment.

In a similar case on Wednesday, Phyo Maung Ye, the 30-year-old owner of the Today teashop in Sintgaing Township’s Kathe village, was shot in the leg three times as he was detained by junta forces and died in custody at the Hpalanbo police station the same day.

Twelve police and soldiers detained Phyo Maung Ye along with his wife and two-year-old son, who were also taken to the police station but released hours later, according to locals.

Phyo Maung Ye was arrested on suspicion of helping to fund the People’s Defence Force (PDF), said one local.

“A Facebook account wrote that Phyo Maung Ye was financially supporting the PDF and he posted a status to refute that claim, but he was arrested at his shop the next day,” said the local. “He was shot three times in his leg during his arrest. We heard he had his arm broken during interrogation as well.”

The police station claimed that Phyo Maung Ye died when he tripped and fell during an escape attempt. They did not allow his family to take his body and said they had cremated it themselves.

“It’s impossible that he tripped and fell and died. He died because they tortured him. He had already been shot when he was arrested,” said another local.

“He was a good person doing honest work. He was not affiliated with the PDF either,” he added. “He did not give them any financial support. It saddens me a lot that our own villager had to experience this.”

The Sintgaing chapter of the PDF said Phyo Maung Ye’s killing was an act of terrorism by the military. “He was not a member and he was not a supporter. They took out their anger on an innocent civilian,” said a member of the group.

Myanmar Now tried to contact the military council and the Hpalanbo police station about Phyo Ye Maung’s death but all calls went unanswered.

In July junta forces arrested and tortured another teashop owner in Sintgaing. Min Thu Tun was detained along with his wife and child in Ohn Pin Chan and reportedly lost his hearing and some of his eyesight while being interrogated.

At least 1,302 civilians have been killed by the junta since it seized power in February and 7,687 remain in junta custody, according to recent figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.