WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An Israeli-Canadian lobby hired by the Myanmar junta said on Saturday that generals want to leave politics after their coup and try to improve relations with the United States and distance themselves from China.
Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who had previously represented Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Sudanese military rulers, said Myanmar generals also want to repatriate Rohingya Muslims who fled to neighboring Bangladesh.
The United Nations says more than 50 protesters have been killed since the February 1 coup, when the military overthrew and arrested elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy party. win polls in November by defeat.
On Friday, a UN special envoy urged the Security Council to take action against the Board for the killings of protesters.
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, which he said “misinterpreted.” .
He said Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader since 2016, had come too close to China for the generals ’liking.
“There is a real push to move towards the West and the United States instead of trying to get closer to the Chinese,” Ben-Menashe said. “They don’t want to be a Chinese puppet.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has denounced the coup and imposed sanctions on the military and the companies it controls. A U.S. State Department official declined to comment.
Ben-Menashe said he was speaking from South Korea after a visit to Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, where he signed an agreement with the board’s defense minister, General Mya Tun Oo. He said he would be charged an undisclosed fee if sanctions were lifted on the military.
A military government spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment on Saturday.
Ben-Menashe said he had been tasked with contacting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to gain support for a plan to repatriate the Rohingya, a Muslim minority. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled military aggression in 2016 and 2017 in which soldiers killed indiscriminately, raped women and set houses on fire, according to a UN investigative mission.
“It’s basically trying to get funding for the return of what they call Bengalis,” Ben-Menashe said, using a term that some Myanmar use for Rohingya to imply that they are not from the country.
Hundreds of thousands of people have protested in almost every city in Myanmar for weeks demanding the release of Suu Kyi and respect for the results of the November elections, which the army said were affected by fraud.
Ben-Menashe said the Board could show that the vote was manipulated and that ethnic minorities could not vote, but did not provide evidence. Election observers have said there have been no major irregularities.
He said that in his two visits to the country since the coup, “the riots were not so widespread” and that most people in Myanmar did not support the protest movement.
Ben-Menashe said police handled the protests, not the military, despite photos and video footage of armed soldiers at the demonstrations. He argued that the military was in the best position to oversee the return to democracy after the coup it gave.
“They want to get out of politics completely,” he said, “but it’s a process.”
Simon Lewis Reports; Edited by Daniel Wallis