WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Canadian-Israeli lobbyist hired by the Myanmar military junta will receive $ 2 million to “help explain the real situation” of the Army coup in the United States and other countries, documents filed with the US Department of Justice show. USA.
More than 60 protesters have been killed and 1,900 people have been arrested since February 1, when Myanmar’s generals seized power and detained civilian leaders, including state adviser Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ari Ben-Menashe and his company, Dickens & Madson Canada, will represent the military government of Myanmar in Washington, as well as lobby in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Russia and international organizations such as the United Nations, according to a consultancy agreement. .
The Montreal-based company will “assist in the formulation and execution of policies for the beneficial development of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and also in explaining the country’s real situation”, reads the agreement, presented Monday to the Department of Justice as part of compliance with the US Foreign Agent Registration Act and published online.
A spokesman for the military government of Myanmar did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment.
In a speech that was met with widespread skepticism, Ben-Menashe told Reuters he was tasked with convincing the United States that Myanmar’s generals wanted to approach the West and move away from China. He said the generals wanted to resettle the Rohingya Muslims who fled a 2017 military attack for which the United Nations accused those same generals of overseeing a genocide.
“It is highly implausible that he could convince the United States of the narrative he is proposing,” said John Sifton, Asia defense director at Human Rights Watch.
Other documents submitted by Ben-Menashe showed that the agreement was reached with the Minister of Defense of the Board, General Mya Tun Oo, and that the government would pay the company US $ 2 million.
Mya Tun Oo and other important generals have been sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury and the Canadian government, so the paperwork says the payment will be made “when legally permitted”.
The lawyers told Reuters that Ben-Menashe may be violating the sanctions.
“To the extent that he is providing services to sanctioned parts of the United States without authorization, this would appear to be a violation of US law,” said Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions adviser to the U.S. Treasury.
The US Treasury Department declined to comment.
Ben-Menashe told Reuters he received legal advice that he would need licenses from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Canadian government to accept payment, but that he would not be breaking the law by lobbying the junta.
“There are technical aspects here, but we will leave it to the lawyers and OFAC to deal with it,” he said, adding that his lawyers had been in touch with Treasury officials.
Simon Lewis reporting; additional reporting by Daphne Psadelakis and Mark Hosenball; Robert Birsel’s Edition