From: pires@vxcern.cern.ch
Newsgroups: soc.culture.portuguese
Subject: Indonesia, UNITA, etc.
Date: 8 Jan 1993 10:07:15 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Um telex interessante da IPS...

Rui
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Copyright 1992 Inter Press Service
Inter Press Service
December  15, 1992, Tuesday

HEADLINE: UNITED STATES: MAJOR LOBBYISTS REPRESENT RIGHTS ABUSERS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Dec. 15

   Some of Washington's top lobbying groups receive millions of dollars 
from foreign governments that are among the world's worst abusers of 
human rights, according to a new report released here today.

   Released by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), an investigative group 
based here, the 79-page report says U.S. taxpayers are indirectly 
subsidizing these lobbyists' fees by providing tens of millions of dollars in 
aid to the abusive governments.

   The report, entitled "The Torturers' Lobby," selected 15 countries which 
have been identified as major human rights abusersby the State 
Department and independent human rights groups and which also receive 
U.S. aid or trade benefits or were given major U.S. military support during 
last year's Gulf War.

   Among those receiving U.S. aid, the countries chosen for the study were 
Turkey, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, the Philippines, Indonesia, Egypt, Israel, 
Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, and the rebel group, UNITA (the National Union 
for the Total Independence of Angola).

   China, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait -- all of which receive no U.S. aid -- 
were also selected because of their close political or commercial ties with 
the United States.

   All of those countries hired well-connected lobbyists to press their cases 
with the U.S. Congress and administration, the report found. Human rights 
activists have long complained that high-powered lobbyists have made it 
more difficult for U.S. lawmakers to link aid to human rights concerns.

   The firm which received the most money -- more than $14 million -- 
from abusive regimes in the early 1990s, according to the report, was "Hill 
and Knowlton" some of whose top officers are currently working on behalf 
of President-elect Bill Clinton on the transition between administrations.

   The firm received more than three million dollars from Indonesia, more 
than one million dollars each from Israel and Turkey, and also did work 
for Kuwait, China,  Peru,  Egypt, and UNITA.

   Abusive governments were helped by another top-flight lobby firm with 
close ties to the Republican administration of Presidents Ronald Reagan 
and George Bush. "Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly" received $3.3 million 
during the last 18 months from Kenya, Nigeria and UNITA, according to the 
report.

   Kuwait, whose six-month occupation by Iraq was ended by U.S. armed 
forces, paid the most to foreign lobbyists of any of the 16 -- $12.5 billion.

   Among U.S. aid recipients, Indonesia placed first -- sending $6.8 million 
to Washington lobbyists since mid-1991, according to the report.

   In return, it received $98.9 million in U.S. economic aid, according to the 
report. Despite efforts by both the Bush administration and its Jakarta's 
lobbyists, military aid to Indonesia was cut off by Congress last fall to 
protest the Nov. 1991 massacre of more than 100 civilians in East Timor.

   Turkey paid $3.8 million to its lobbyists here in exchange for some $804 
million in U.S. aid and major new trade benefits rewarded in part for its 
support during the Gulf War.

   Colombia paid the most in lobbyists' fees of Latin American governments 
charged with widespread abuses. It spent $3.2 million for which it 
received $93.8 million in aid, while Nigeria placed first among Sub-Saharan 
recipients at $2.6 million.

   UNITA, the only non-governmental subject in the study, paid out almost 
two million dollars to lobbyists since mid-1991. The rebel group, which 
repudiated U.N.-monitored elections in Angola in September, received an 
estimated $250 million in covert aid between 1986 and 1991.

   Charles Lewis, the CPI's director, also noted to reporters Tuesday that 
Clinton's Commerce Secretary-designate, Democratic Party chair Ron 
Brown, represented Haiti's government under Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" 
Duvalier, while his law firm -- "Patton, Boggs and Blow" -- received 
$220,000 from Guatemala last year.

   Lewis also stressed that the figures cited in the report were "very 
conservative", since many lobbyists do not actually disclose their activities 
on behalf of foreign governments.

   The report itself was based on the records of the Justice Department's 
Foreign Agent Registration Act which has been widely assailed as 
ineffective by lawmakers and critics concerned about lobbying activities 
on behalf of foreign governments and corporations.

   Clinton himself took note of that concern last week when he issued new 
regulations for senior officers of his administration forbidding them from 
ever representing foreign governments before the agencies to which they 
will be assigned.

   In many cases, said Lewis, governments could not afford to pay for 
lobbyists if they did not receive U.S. aid. "Should the U.S. taxpayer in effect 
subsidize lobbyists hired by some of the world's most persistent abusers of 
human rights," he asked.