Women Activists Myanmar (WAM) say they are outraged that Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton attended the 10 November informal virtual meeting of ASEAN-Australian Defense ministers with Myanmar junta regime representative Lt Gen Mya Tun Oo.

In a press release 18 November, WAM said it was indefensible that Mr Dutton permitted a Myanmar regime representative to join the defence meeting given the regime’s ongoing alleged crimes against humanity committed against the Myanmar people.

WAM points to incidents in Myanmar on the day of the meeting in which Myanmar soldiers allegedly abducted three women in Mandalay, and another incident in which soldiers allegedly raped a woman in front of her husband, then beat the couple and stole some of their belongings.

The NGO cites instances of rights abuse recorded by the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism of Myanmar (IIMM).

WAM claims the presence of Minister Dutton at the meeting conveys a message of recognition of an illegitimate regime, one that took power by force in February, ending Myanmar’s troubled experiment with democracy.