Irrawaddy-Aug 7
The Myanmar military junta has hired a US lobby firm at a cost of US$3 million per year to help rebuild its relations with the US in the run-up to the regime’s planned election, which has been widely condemned as a sham designed to cement military rule in the guise of a civilian government. The regime’s Ministry of Information (MOI) signed an agreement with Washington-based DCI Group, which “shall provide public affairs services” to the junta aimed at “rebuilding relations” with the US, especially on trade, natural resources and humanitarian relief, according to US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings viewed by The Irrawaddy. Signed by DCI Group managing partner Justin Peterson and MOI Permanent Secretary Win Kyaw Aung, the contract is effective for one year from July 31.
According to the terms of the agreement, the junta will have to pay $3 million a year to the firm in two equal installments: $1.5 million upon execution of the agreement, and the remainder before December 31, 2025. MOI Deputy Permanent Secretary Myint Kyaw is listed in the filings as the individual that Republican-linked DCI Group engages with. He is on the junta’s five-member information team. In 2023, the US slapped sanctions on the junta’s Defense Ministry and two state-owned banks used by the junta to buy arms and other goods from foreign sources, including Russia, mainly to crush the ongoing nationwide anti-regime armed struggle. The junta has killed more than 7,000 people since the 2021 coup. Justice for Myanmar, an activist group that exposes the Myanmar military’s economic interests, corruption and human rights abuses, said no amount of spin by Washington lobbyists can wash the blood off the Myanmar military’s hands. “We condemn DCI Group’s decision to serve as an enabler for a junta that is committing atrocities with total impunity,” the group said. The junta’s hiring of DCI came after Min Aung Hlaing last month asked US President Donald Trump to “reconsider easing and lifting the economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar”, and sought a tariff rate of 10-20 percent. The request came after the US said it would impose a 40 percent tariff on all goods from Myanmar from August 1. After a one-week delay announced by the Trump administration on July 31, those tariffs took effect Thursday. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-hires-us-lobby-firm-in-bid-to-boost-ties-with-washington.html
