"Throughout the year 2001 the SPDC continued to interfere with and monitor the movement of people in Burma. Through its extensive intelligence network and administrative procedures, the SPDC systematically monitors the travel of all citizens, especially the movements of politically active people in the country. All residents in Burma are required to carry national identity cards, showing the citizenship status, normal place of residence, date of birth, name of father, and so on. In 1990 these cards were also required to describe the holders? ethnicity and religion. All residents and citizens of Burma are required to apply for these cards, with the exception of the Muslim Rohingya minority, who are not considered citizens by the government (see chapter on minority rights for further information). As possession of these national identity cards is mandatory in order to buy train or bus tickets, to register with a local council outside one?s normal place of residence, to vote in any future election, or to enroll in institutions of higher learning, those without such cards face severe restrictions on their freedom of movement and liberty as human beings..."