South China Morning Post
April 1, 1998
WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok
Spin doctors for the Burmese military regime have succeeded in persuading US politicians that any sanctions will backfire and the opposition is isolated, exiled activists claimed.
Rangoon's paid lobby in Washington is "appallingly dangerous", said Seattle -based Larry Dohrs.
The head of the government-in-exile, Sein Win, said: "The lobbyists are trying to convince US lawmakers and the American public the Burmese junta is improving its record on human rights and narcotics trafficking.
"Nothing could be further from the truth."
The junta paid about US$500,000 (HK$3.9 million) last year for the services of Jefferson Waterman International, a lobby firm run by the former US assistant secretary of state for narcotics control, Ann Wrobleski.
It also brought in former television reporter Jackson Bain for about US$250,000, and the Atlantic Group has been hired for an unknown sum to try to overturn President Bill Clinton's ban on new US investment.
While the generals have continued to imprison dissidents, isolate Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and associate with drug traffickers, the Washington lobby group has arranged junkets, wooed Congress and produced optimistic newsletters.
The junta's name change last year, from the State Law and Order Restoration Council to the State Peace and Development Committee, is understood to have been prompted by its US advisers.
Several American businesses have also joined in the effort to change Washington's Burma strategy.
The oil giant Unocal, with a one-third stake in Burma's Yadana offshore gas project, gave US$50,000 to a group co-ordinating corporate America's anti -sanctions effort.
As assistant secretary of state, Ms Wrobleski had argued that Rangoon would probably not move against the drug industry until a government "enjoying greater credibility and support" was in place.
But her firm's newsletters now describe Burma as an exotic country that "offers much to tourists, photographers, scuba divers, historians and others".