‘Don’t wait until one of us dies in a pool of blood’: MPs on hit list for criticising Cambodian leader

Terrified politicians, community leaders targeted on ‘death list’ of critics of Cambodian PM Hun Sen say the dictator’s enforcers should be banned from entering Australia.

Former Clarinda MP Hong Lim was among several community leaders targeted in an anonymous letter. Picture: AAP

A former Victorian Labor MP named on a “death list” of Australian critics of Cambodian strongman Hun Sen says the Albanese government is still allowing the dictator’s enforcers to enter Australia despite promises to crack down on foreign interference by the regime.

Former Clarinda MP Hong Lim was among several community leaders targeted in an anonymous letter sent to his successor in the seat, Labor MP Meng Heang Tak, who was also warned he would be killed if he did not stop his criticism of Hun Sen.

Mr Lim said the Cambodian regime had the capability to send professional assassins to Australia, with visas still being approved for government officials and military officers.

“They are making a fool of us - you just embolden Hun Sen, making him more and more daring and escalating,” said Mr Lim, who has had discussions with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police.

“Every time I meet up with ASIO or the AFP I say – don’t wait until one of us dies in a pool of blood like our friend Kem Ley did,” he said.

Kem Ley was a prominent broadcaster and critic of Hun Sen shot dead in broad daylight while drinking coffee at a Phnom Penh petrol station.

Hong Lim speaks at a rally against the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and human rights abuses within the ASEAN countries in Sydney. Picture: AAP

Last year The Australian revealed how Hun Sen has divided Australia into seven zones, each controlled from Phnom Penh by a high-ranking military officer or official in the regime, in which Cambodian-Australians are rewarded for allegiance to the dictator or singled out for punishment as traitors.

The network is used to conduct surveillance and provide reports to the regime on local opponents of Hun Sen, and has previously directly threatened violence against Cambodian-Australians, including Mr Lim.

The Australian zones – which take in every state and territory except Tasmania – are overseen by Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet, who is likely to assume power soon, after a tightly-controlled election held on Sunday with rival parties banned.

Hundreds of uniformed members of Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party have attended meetings in every state around Australia over the past month ahead of the sham election.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, left, poses with his son Hun Manet. Picture: AFP

“If this is not foreign interference in our country, I don’t know what is,” Mr Lim said. “It makes the whole country look so weak, that they can come and go at any time.

“People are fearful of them. They have meetings with sometimes 500 people, give free dinners. When we protest they take photos and videos of us.

“At one meeting two or three years ago they put my photo on their board. It means that now we are targeted and so Hun Sen only has to say, yes, do it, and somebody would want to do it because they would want to be promoted.”

The death threat list includes the president of the Cambodian Association of Victoria Chea Youhorn and “any Australian member of parliament” or any member of the Khmer community who opposed Hun Sen or his decision to hand over power to his son Hun Manet.

“I want to tell you that a hit list has been prepared to solve many problems that you and so call democratic voice in Australia and around the world,” the anonymous writer says.

“These people including yourself will be targeted for death by my Cambodian third hand squad who will be flying there to do the clean up. Take this as a warning.”

Mr Tak, the current state MP for Clarinda and recipient of the death threat letter, said the Hun Sen regime could carry out the threat if it chose to.

“If it wanted to, whilst I’m not alleging who’s responsible for this letter, of course, but he is capable of that, given he has got a network and those who are prepared to carry out activities like this. You have to take it very seriously.”

Labor MP Meng Heang Tak, was also warned he would be killed if he did not stop his criticism of Hun Sen. Picture: Supplied

The local Cambodian community has pleaded with the Albanese government to live up to its pre-election rhetoric and ban regime officials who use the threat of violence to enforce obedience by Australian citizens to Hun Sen.

Mr Lim says Australia needs to use its visa powers to restrict entry and its Magnitsky laws to target human rights abusers and super-rich cronies of the regime who use Australia to stash their wealth and educate their children.

“Labor was supposed to implement the Magnitsky Act but they haven’t done anything. I’m choking with emotion, I’m talking about my own party, Labor, in power, being even more cowardly and weak than the coalition government.

“This is just sad that we’re going down that vortex of shame, and in my own party.”

Federal Labor MP Julian Hill, whose Victorian electorate is home to a significant Cambodian population and who has been a longtime critic of the Hun Sen regime said the CPP’s foreign interference operations were “a poor man’s version of the Chinese Communist Party’s very sophisticated activities.”

“It’s just not acceptable that these gangster thugs come to Australia to interfere in our democratic rights with the aim of suppressing legitimate criticism of Cambodia’s government.

“There’s a lot the government has done and is doing, although there are natural limits that any democratic government faces in combating this kind of behaviour.”

Victoria Police have confirmed Moorabbin Crime Investigation Unit detectives are investigating the letter, which was typed and appears to have been posted in Dandenong.