Lobbyist to be paid $2.7m by junta to ‘explain’ Myanmar’s coup to US
WASHINGTON An Israeli-Canadian lobbyist hired by Myanmar's junta will be paid US$2 million (S$2.7 million) to "assist in explaining the real situation" of the army's coup to the US and other countries, documents filed with the US Justice Department showed.
More than 60 protesters have been killed and 1,900 people have been arrested since Feb 1, when Myanmar's generals seized power and detained civilian leaders, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr Ari Ben-Menashe and his firm, Dickens & Madson Canada, will represent Myanmar's military government in Washington, as well as lobby Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Russia, and international bodies like the United Nations, according to a consultancy agreement.
The Montreal-based firm will "assist the devising and execution of policies for the beneficial development of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and also assist in explaining the real situation in the country," read the agreement, submitted to the Justice Department.
Mr Ben-Menashe said he had been tasked with convincing the US that Myanmar's generals wanted to move closer to the West and away from China. He said the generals wanted to resettle Rohingya Muslims who fled a 2017 military assault for which the United Nations has accused those same generals of overseeing a genocide.
"It is highly implausible that he could convince the United States of the narrative he's proposing," said Mr John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
Other documents submitted by Mr Ben-Menashe showed the agreement was reached with the junta's Defence Minister, General Mya Tun Oo, and that the government would pay the firm US$2 million.
Lawyers told Reuters that Mr Ben-Menashe could be in breach of sanctions.
"To the extent that he is providing services to sanctioned parties from the United States without authorisation, that would appear to be a violation of US law," said Mr Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions adviser at the US Treasury.
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