A proposed law in the United States to combat cross-border repression represents progress in the fight against the activities of regimes like that in Cambodia, which regularly seek to intimidate members of their diaspora.
The Transnational Repression Policy Act, introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley, would establish a Transnational Repression Task Force within the Department of Homeland Security to monitor foreign government intimidation of people in the United States and report annually to Congress. To have the greatest impact, the bill must be combined with a comprehensive program of personal sanctions against those responsible for transnational repression, including asset freezes.
Cambodia has a long and well-documented history of transnational repression. Critics of the Hun family regime who fled to Thailand were tracked down and beaten. As prime minister in 2018, Hun Sen openly threatened violence against Cambodians living in Australia. The widow of government critic Kem Ley, who was murdered in broad daylight in Phnom Penh in July 2016, fled to Australia with her five children and is among the Cambodians who have received death threats there.
During his visit to Brussels in 2022, Hun Sen ordered his henchmen to take photos of protesters and display them at Phnom Penh International Airport. The protesters’ families should expect visits from the authorities, Hun Sen said. In the US, Cambodian journalist Taing Sarada is one of those who regularly receives death threats.
Hun Sen resigned as prime minister in August 2023 and was replaced by his son Hun Manet. The change is purely cosmetic. Hun Sen still holds de facto power as chairman of the Senate and head of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). The pattern of intimidation inside and outside Cambodia continued relentlessly under Hun Manet.
My own case illustrates how the regime uses transnational repression. I was a supporter of the Sam Rainsy Party in Cambodia since 2002. The party merged with the Human Rights Party led by Kem Sokha in 2012 to form Cambodia’s first united democratic opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
The CNRP won around 45 percent of the vote in both the 2013 national election and the 2017 local elections. The 2017 result was actually an improvement, as the opposition had usually performed better in national elections than in local elections. The danger of defeat in the 2018 national election was obvious to the government. This led to the dissolution of the CNRP by the country’s politically controlled Supreme Court in November 2017.
By this time, Kem Sokha was already chairman of the CNRP and had been arrested two months earlier. He is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence after being convicted on a trumped-up charge of treason. Kem Sokha is being held in his home and is not even allowed to meet with his doctors or lawyers without official permission.
I fled Cambodia after Kem Sokha’s arrest in 2017. Had I stayed in Cambodia, I would undoubtedly have been either imprisoned or killed. Today, I live in Lyon, France, where I have been granted political asylum. I continue to criticize the regime in videos on my Facebook page, one of the few opportunities for Cambodians to openly discuss politics. My page has over 200,000 followers. The Khmer-language media in Cambodia is predominantly controlled by the government.
Even this kind of resistance in a faraway foreign land is only possible at a high price. My father is a general and supports the CPP. My family has disowned me. Hun Sen has publicly stated that my family members could lose their jobs if I do not keep quiet.
Such tactics demonstrate the regime’s fundamental cowardice, its refusal to engage in open, honest debate or even to allow dissenting voices to be heard. But because of the existence of the global Cambodian diaspora, most of which emerged from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, those voices will always be there. The regime’s goal of no dissent is absolutely impossible to achieve. The Cambodian diaspora will always be grateful to countries around the world that have welcomed our nationals.
But these countries must not lose sight of the reality of the regime they are dealing with. The Cambodian government places great value on its national sovereignty and stresses that there should be no outside political interference. But its transnational repression, which mimics the tactics of other repressive regimes such as China and Iran, undermines the democratic sovereignty of free countries.
There is an urgent need to do more to protect the freedoms of the diaspora from authoritarian regimes that take other citizens for granted. A regime like Cambodia’s, which regularly seeks to intimidate members of its diaspora, should be denied international legitimacy. Respect for dissenting voices outside and inside the country should be the minimum requirement for inclusion in the international community.
