Junta-appointed authorities in Yangon have ordered local administrators in the city to resume late-night inspections of homes suspected of having unregistered guests, according to an order-letter seen by Myanmar Now.
The letter, dated July 2 and sent by the North Yangon District General Administration Department, instructs administrators to inspect homes and vehicles in their respective wards and report back to higher authorities by the 8th of each month.
Soon after seizing power on February 1, the military reinstated a law requiring households to register overnight guests that had been revoked by the ousted civilian government.
Through an amendment to the Ward or Village-Tract Administration Law, the junta authorized late-night inspections in a bid to tighten control over the civilian population.
Raids were frequent in the first few months after the coup, but have been less common since late April, when armed resistance groups began targeting local administrators for assassination.
On June 12, a new order was issued reiterating that all overnight guests, including those staying at Buddhist monasteries, must be registered with the authorities.
However, that order does not seem to have resulted in a resumption of efforts to enforce the rule.
“They carried out a lot of raids and late-night inspections when protests erupted shortly after the coup, but they haven’t been so active in the past month,” said a resident of the Yuzana Garden City housing complex in Yangon.
But the regime appears to be using the outbreak of a third wave of Covid-19 that began earlier this month to renew its efforts to impose restrictions on free movement.
On Saturday, the General Administration Office in Mandalay’s Pyigyidagun Township announced that a permit would be needed to move around within the township due to the pandemic, a local resident told Myanmar Now. The office also ordered residents to register overnight guests.
However, no immediate measures were taken to ensure that the rules were being followed, the resident added.
“Last night, they did not inspect household-lists in our area. But as usual, soldiers gathered,” he said.
Similarly, Yangon residents said that, despite the junta’s orders, late-night inspections have so far failed to materialize in most neighbourhoods.
“They didn’t come, and we haven’t registered any overnight guests,” said a landlord in Yangon’s Thaketa Township.
In Hlaing Tharyar Township, which has been under martial law since March, inspections have continued as usual, according to local residents.
“They mostly focus on dormitories. There are a lot of people from the countryside working here, so everyone in the area has to register overnight guests,” said one resident.
A resident of Thamine in Yangon’s Mayangone Township said that regime forces charged with enforcing the guest-registration rule seem to regard it chiefly as an extortion opportunity.
“If the person is not someone they really want to arrest, they just order him to sign a pledge and then they release him after taking some money,” said the resident.
