Executives from an influential and controversial Washington lobby firm, the Podesta Group, have attended a meeting in the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe, of a government-appointed body that oversees the work of humanitarian organisations in the state.
The attendance of Podesta Group executives at the meeting of the Emergency Coordination Committee on May 28 was confirmed to Mizzima on May 30 by an EEC member, U Than Tun.
The Podesta Group's former clients are known to include the government of Iraq and the deposed Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak.
The group "helped stall a Senate bill that called on Egypt to curtail human rights abuses," the New York Times reported on March 1, 2011.
The Podesta Group was co-founded in 1998 by lobbyist Tony Podesta and his brother, John, who was a White House chief of staff during the Clinton presidency.
John Podesta is reported to be close to President Barack Obama and is the current head of the Center for American Progress, an Obama-friendly think tank.
Tony Podesta was responsible for securing big donations for the Democratic Party's Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2013.
The Emergency Coordination Committee was originally appointed by the Union government but in the aftermath of the expulsion of Medicins Sans Frontieres from the state in late February its composition was changed to include Rakhine Buddhist elders.
