TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – An Israeli-Canadian lobbyist hired by the military junta Myanmar said on Saturday that the generals wanted to leave politics after the coup and seek to improve relations with the United States and distance themselves from China.
Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli military intelligence official who previously represented Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Sudan’s military ruler, said Myanmar’s generals also wanted to repatriate Rohingya Muslims who had fled to neighboring Bangladesh.
The United Nations says more than 50 demonstrators have been killed since a February 1 coup when the military toppled and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi after his National League for Democracy Party won elections in November by a landslide.
On Friday, a UN special envoy urged the Security Council to take action against the junta over the killing of protesters.
Quoted in Reuters, March 7, 2021, in a telephone interview Ben-Menashe said he and his company Dickens & Madson Canada had been hired by Myanmar generals to help communicate with the United States and other countries he said “misunderstood” them.
He said Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader since 2016, had grown too close to China which the generals disliked.
“There is a real impetus to move to the West and the United States rather than trying to get closer to China,” said Ben-Menashe. “They don’t want to be Chinese puppets.”
President Joe Biden’s government has condemned the military coup and imposed sanctions on soldiers and businesses controlled by the Myanmar military. A US State Department official declined to comment.
Ben-Menashe said he was speaking from South Korea following a visit to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, where he signed an agreement with Myanmar’s junta defense minister, General Mya Tun Oo. He said he would be paid an undisclosed fee if sanctions against the military were lifted.
A government spokesman Myanmar military no comment.
Screenshot of Myanmar state television broadcast from February 3, 2021 shows General Min Aung Hlaing speaking during a meeting. [MRTV / Handout melalui REUTERS]
Ben-Menashe said he had also been assigned by the junta to contact Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to seek support for plans to repatriate the Rohingya, the Muslim minority. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled military offensives in 2016 and 2017, in which soldiers killed, raped women and burned houses, according to a UN fact-finding mission.
“Basically they are trying to give them funds to repatriate what they call Bengalis,” said Ben-Menashe, using a term some people in Myanmar use for Rohingya to imply they are not from the country.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been protesting in nearly every town and city in Myanmar for weeks demanding Suu Kyi’s release and recognition of the results of the November 8 election, which the military says is fraught.
Ben-Menashe said the military junta could prove the vote was rigged, and that ethnic minorities had been prevented from voting, but provided no evidence. Election observers say there are no major irregularities in the elections.
He said that in his two visits to Myanmar since the coup, the disturbance had not spread and the protest movement was not supported by most Myanmar people.
Angel, known as Kyal Sin, 19, took cover before being shot in the head when Myanmar troops opened fire to break up an anti-coup demonstration in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 3, 2021. At least six people died when Myanmar security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protesters. REUTERS / Stringer
Ben-Menashe also said that it was the police apparatus that handled the protests, not the military, although there were photos and video footage of armed soldiers at the demonstration.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said he saw orders for police and military soldiers to shoot dead protesters.
“They used 12-gauge shotguns, they used 38mm rifles, they used semi-automatic rifles against peaceful protesters who posed no threat to them,” he said.
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The deadly wounds and bullet holes hitting the bodies of Myanmar demonstrators, as seen in photographs and in details of conversations with family members of victims, are some of the evidence that military junta security forces shot to kill, Amnesty International said.
“Everything points to troops adopting firefighting tactics to suppress protests, and with the silence of the military government, there is a growing consensus that this has been endorsed by the government,” Emerlynne Gil, Deputy Regional Director for Research, said on Thursday.
However, Ben-Menashe argues that the military junta is the most appropriate party to oversee the return to democracy of Myanmar after military coup he launched, said the generals wanted to get out of politics completely, but needed a process.
REUTERS
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