The mobile phone company said it was selling its business due to the military coup as UN officials urged more action against the general.

Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications company, said it has reached an agreement to sell its Myanmar mobile phone business to the M1 Group, thereby exiting the country that fell into chaos after the military seized power in a coup on February 1.

The operator will sell all of its businesses to M1, an investment holding company led by Lebanon’s richest man and former prime minister, for US$105 million.

Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group, said in a statement: “The situation in Myanmar has become increasingly challenging for Telenor in the past few months due to personnel safety, regulatory and compliance reasons.” “We have evaluated all options and believe that selling the company in this situation is the best solution.”

The military led by General Min Aung Rae arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and senior members of his democratically elected government on February 1st, and took power for himself, claiming that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won the election by a landslide in November. There is fraud in.

The coup suddenly stopped the 10-year slow democratization process and triggered widespread protests and large-scale civil disobedience. The military responded with lethal force. According to the Political Prisoners Aid Association, which has been monitoring the situation, nearly 900 people have been killed since the coup, and 5,120 people are currently in detention.

Telenor stated that it invested in Myanmar in 2014 because it believed that “access to affordable mobile services will support the country’s development and growth.”Since the coup, the generals Combat free movement Information, restrict internet access and ban Facebook and other social media platforms, and Satellite Antenna.

As a result of the coup, Telenor announced that it would sell its Myanmar operations.The buyer is M1 Group [File: Lynn Bo Bo/EPA]

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional group of 10 members, which also includes Myanmar, but efforts to find a political solution to the crisis seem to have stopped, but little progress has been made in solving the problem. Five points of consensus It reached an agreement with Min Aung Hlaing in April.

On Wednesday, Michelle Bachelet, a senior UN human rights official, urged ASEAN to take more action to promote the proposed dialogue between the military and Myanmar’s democratically elected government and allow humanitarian aid to enter.

Bachelet said: “ASEAN urgently needs to appoint a special envoy or team to conduct some kind of political dialogue.” “I encourage ASEAN to engage with democratic leadership and civil society, not just the military.”

The United States and some other countries have Impose sanctions High-ranking generals and some military companies, but the United Nations has made little progress.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, noticed the lack of decisive action. He told the UN human rights agency that the international community is “being down Myanmar.”

He called for the establishment of the “Myanmar People’s Emergency Coalition” to put pressure on the military through a series of measures, including sanctions on oil and gas companies and a ban on arms exports. He said the government must also cooperate with the Government of National Unity (the government established by the overthrown government) to ensure that any humanitarian assistance can reach those in need.

Andrews also emphasized that the international community should ensure that any claims made by the military on legitimacy are denied, such as its false claim that it has been recognized by the United Nations.

“The military government has seized many levers of state power, the money pockets of the Myanmar Ministry of Finance and the Administrative Office, but it has not – or even come close – to control the country and the people,” Andrews said on Wednesday. “The Burmese people fully believe that the military government is illegal. In fact, it is the scourge of terrorism launched against them.

“Now, more than ever, we need to summon the courage of the Burmese people to choose a path of meaningful and sustained action.”