Thai military strategy in the deep south: surveillance state

The combining of biometric and DNA data, along with an extensive CCTV system across the border region, now provides the military with a sophisticated surveillance tool in their counter-insurgency operations. AI software can be used to distinguish potential insurgents intermingled with the general population in towns across the region, at checkpoints, and in raids. This new integrated system potentially overcomes the army’s weakness in HUMINT intelligence gathering, and now gives the advantage the army has always been seeking, to be able to find insurgents.

One of the benefits of these systems is that physical military personnel can be withdrawn from town and city areas, as CCTV is now the primary means of surveillance. There are reportedly 8,200 surveillance cameras operatingand controlled out of the Pattani Municipal Office CCTV Control Center.

As biometric surveillance is becoming the primary counter-insurgency tool of the military, there is the risk that the new surveillance strategy will undermine any future success of the peace talks. The BRN earlier in May condemned the actions of the government in taking forced DNA samples, along with the targeted killing of three BRN insurgents during Ramadan.

The new super-surveillance system is improving the army’s ability to seek out and suppress insurgency activities. It is an indicationthat insurgents are now seen as criminals, rather than separatists by the government. However, this may come at a cost with Malay Muslim disenchantment with the government’s data collection methods.