Myanmar’s military junta pays $2million to Canadian lobbying firm to ‘explain the real situation’

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Myanmar’s military junta has paid $2million to a Canadian lobbying firm to help ‘explain the real situation’ in the strife-torn country it emerged today.

The top brass have recruited former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe and his Montreal-based firm Dickens and Madson to help press their case overseas, including in the United States and at the United Nations.

It comes as armed police carried out dawn raids in a neighbourhood of Rangoon (Yangon) known for housing workers of the nearby Ma Hlwa Kone train station after unionists vowed to strike nationwide. 

Officers were seen firing shots as protesters fled their barricades in terror.

The strike threat came in response to the crackdown on demonstrations in which more than 60 people have been killed since the coup which ousted Oxford-graduate Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. 

In other developments, it was reported a school principal who died of unknown causes after being taken into custody by security forces, while in New York, the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on a statement that would have condemned the coup in Myanmar, called for restraint by the military and threatened to consider ‘further measures’.

The Dickens and Madson agreement came to light after dossiers were filed to the US Justice Department outlining the terms.

Dickens and Madson agreed to lobby the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel, Russia and other countries as well as at the UN and African Union and other international organisations on behalf of the Myanmar republic.

‘The agreement between the parties is for the payment of fees and expenses in the amount of $2,000,000.00 US to be paid by the foreign principal to the Registrant when legally permissible by controlling jurisdictions,’ the document says.  

Part of the firm’s remit is ‘to assist in explaining the real situation in the country’, while lobbying to get international sanctions lifted.

Myanmar’s generals have shown no sign of heeding calls for restraint amid escalating violence despite mounting international pressure, including targeted sanctions by Western powers.

Ben-Menashe, who describes himself as a former Israeli intelligence officer, has been involved in controversy in the past.

He was arrested in the late 1980s on US allegations that he sold military aircraft to Iran. The case went to trial, but he was acquitted.

In the early 2000s he was a key figure in a treason case brought against a Zimbabwean opposition leader, while in 2019 his firm signed a $1 million deal to lobby for a jailed Tunisian presidential hopeful.

He was also implicated in a scandal in Canada that led to the resignation of the chairman of a parliamentary committee responsible for monitoring the country’s spy service. 

This morning, police sealed off the Mingalar Taung Nyunt railway workers’ neighbourhood.

Photos and video on social media showed officers blocking streets and what was said to be people escaping. At least three arrests were reported but it was not immediately possible to independently confirm that.

The raid comes just days after several Myanmar unions, including the Myanmar Railway Worker’s Union Federation, issued a joint call for a nationwide work stoppage. The statement said the strike would be part of a broader effort for ‘the full, extended shutdown of the Myanmar economy.’

Myanmar has been embroiled by protests and other acts of civil disobedience since the February 1 coup that toppled elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government just as it was to start its second term. The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian nation after five decades of military rule.

Security forces have responded with mass arrests and at times lethal force. At least 60 protesters have been killed since the military takeover, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Authorities have also moved to shut down independent reporting on the situation, both through arrests of journalists the closure of media outlets.

Despite the increasingly violent tactics of security forces, protests continued Wednesday in cities and towns across the country, including Yangon, Mandalay, Monywa, Dawei and Myitkyina.

State railway workers were among the earliest organized supporters of the protest movement and their strike began soon after the coup.

Police last month made an effort at intimidating railway workers in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, by roaming through their housing area one night, shouting and randomly firing guns.

The junta now in control of the country, formally called the State Administration Council, indirectly acknowledged the effectiveness of the rail strike.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper in a Tuesday report on a junta meeting, cited officials as saying that rail transport between Yangon-Mandalay would resume ‘in the near future.’

It also acknowledged that the banking sector has been affected by the protest movement.

The dawn raid on the railway workers followed another night of intimidation by police marching through residential areas in several cities after an 8 p.m. curfew, firing guns and stun grenades, and staging selective raids to arrest people.

There were more reports Tuesday of protesters dying in custody after being arrested. The latest was a school principal who died of unknown causes after being taken into custody by security forces, according to media reports and an activist who knew him.

Previously, an activist with Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party died in custody. Witnesses said his body had wounds consistent with torture, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 1,930 people have been arrested in connection with the coup. Dozens of journalists have been arrested, including Thein Zaw of The Associated Press, who has been charged under a public order law that carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

Authorities continued their assault on the media on Tuesday, raiding the offices of Kamayut Media and detaining its co-founder and editor-in-chief. The military also raided the offices of Mizzima, an online news service. No one was arrested in the latter raid, though equipment was vandalized and property was taken away.

The military government on Monday announced that the licenses of five local media outlets – Mizzima, DVB, Khit Thit Media, Myanmar Now and 7Day News – had been canceled. All five had been offering extensive coverage of the protests.

In New York, talks are expected to continued following the U.N. Security Council’s failure to agree a statement, diplomats said. China, Russia, India and Vietnam all suggested amendments late on Tuesday to a British draft, including removal of the reference to a coup and the threat to consider further action.