We, the Committee Seeking Justice for Alethankyaw, have had the opportunity to go over your findings and have made the following observations.
While the NCP acknowledged that documents generated as part of Telenor’s due diligence “indicates that the risks for the Rohingya were not prioritised in Telenor’s due diligence and stakeholder engagement”, the NCP incorrectly concluded that Telenor was not at a fault for failing to foresee that a telecommunication tower in the Telenor network could be used by the military to further inflict suffering and abuse on the Rohingya community. We therefore strongly disagree with the NCP’s finding that Telenor was not to blame for failing to conduct due diligence regarding the risks involved in operating in Rakhine state and whether the Myanmar army personnel could use a cellular tower in the Telenor network to shoot at Rohingya villages.
The NCP states in the final statement, “At the material time, the NCP finds that it was not reasonable to expect Telenor to foresee the misuse of telecommunication tower by third parties for harmful purposes. Today, however, this is a known risk that must be included in the company’s risk-assessment and addressed in human rights due diligence by the ICT sector in conflict and other high-risk contexts.”
To read full statement, please click here.
