By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Greater Dandenong mayor Youhorn Chea says he won’t be silenced by a death-threat letter that he believes comes from the top of the Cambodian Government.
Cr Chea as well as Greater Dandenong councillor Heang Tak and outgoing Clarinda MP Hong Lim were named in the letter – which is being investigated by Victoria Police.
The letter was typed in English and delivered to the Springvale offices of Cambodian Association of Victoria headed by Cr Chea several months ago.
It warned that the three local politicians would be killed like critical political commentator Kem Ley – who was gunned down at a petrol station cafe in 2016.
Cr Chea says they have been targeted for being outspoken against long-time Cambodian Prime Minister and former Khmer Rouge commander Hun Sen – who was re-elected in a “fake election“ on 29 July.
“For me I just want Cambodia to have freedom and democracy.”
It was an unprecedented international threat to local political leaders, Cr Chea said.
“I’d never heard of something like this even during the Khmer Rouge days.
“It’s so evil. It’s coming from the top, from the (Hun Sen) regime itself.”
The letter also threatened Dr Ley’s wife Bou Rachana. She and her five children were granted a special humanitarian visa by Australia in February.
The letter’s author warned that he had a wife in Australia, so nothing could stop him coming to Australia to enact his threat, Cr Chea said.
He says cashed-up “bad people”and generals from Cambodia have been allowed visas and have been destabilising Cr Chea’s “non-political” association since April.
“Those people just wanted to intimidate me and make me scared (before the association’s election in May).”
At a recent mayoral roundtable to support refugees against impending welfare cuts, Cr Chea told of himself fleeing Cambodia’s ‘Killing Fields’ for Greater Dandenong in 1982.
“I survived refugee camps, and the widespread famine and disease in these camps.
“The war separated my family – we are now scattered in many places across the world.”
The threat allegation was first aired on ABC TV’s 4 Corners program on 30 July – just after Cambodia held contentious general elections.
Protests across Australia, including a 700-strong crowd at Springvale Town Hall, opposed the “sham election” on 29 July.
This year, Cr Chea attended the burning of an effigy of Prime Minister Sen, in defiance of his warning that participants across the world would be bashed in their houses.
Cr Chea now takes some security precautions. But he said he wouldn’t let the threat stop him criticising the regime – which “dissolved” the main opposition party and jailed its leaders in the lead-up to the election.
He says Australia should follow the US Government’s response to the “fake election”, and ban Cambodian officials from entering its shores. In recent years, Australia has attempted to resettle asylum seekers in detention on Nauru in Cambodia.
As for Cr Chea’s former homeland, he feels Cambodia is “not close at all” to being free.
“We can’t be silenced because I don’t want my country to be Communist again, not under the control of corrupt people.”
