Activists say assault of Cambodian-Australian visiting homeland was politically motivated

San Bunchhay required eight stitches in his head after he was attacked during a visit to Cambodia.  (Supplied)

A brutal attack on a politically active Cambodian-Australian visiting his homeland has sent shock waves through Australia’s Cambodian diaspora.

WARNING: This story contains a graphic image.

The incident — which left Melbourne man San Bunchhay needing eight stitches for a gash in his head — sets a worrying precedent according to community leaders and has already prompted some activists to cancel upcoming travel plans.

It’s also dispelled notions for some that the handover of power from strongman leader Hun Sen to his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, last year might mean less repression of dissident political voices.

Mr Bunchhay, 43, was in the Cambodian town of Battambang to celebrate Khmer New Year when he was assaulted on April 10.

He had just visited a bank downtown about 5.50pm when he was set upon by as many as six men wearing masks and motorcycle helmets and armed with bamboo sticks.

“As the assailants were beating me, two of them blocked the door of my car to prevent my wife, children and relatives from getting out to help me,” he told media outlet RFA.

“These guys violently attacked me, even though there were two security guards stationed in front of the bank and about 20 people entering and leaving the building.”

The assailants escaped on motorcycles while Mr Bunchhay was taken to hospital where he was treated for injuries including the wound on his head.

A vocal opposition supporter on social media, Mr Bunchhay had been involved with protests in Australia ahead of Cambodia’s elections last year and before Mr Manet’s visit to Australia in March this year.

Adding to suspicions the attack was politically motivated, Mr Bunchhay told RFA, was the fact that the police attended his family home while he was still in hospital before he had a chance to report the incident.

He and his family cut their visit short and returned to Australia on April 12.

The ABC approached Mr Bunchhay for comment but he said that after being interviewed by RFA he had been asked by his family not to speak to any other media.

‘We’re not going to Cambodia’

In recent years, Cambodia’s government has increasingly cracked down on dissent, effectively quashing political opponents, civil society and the free press in the country.

A report by pro-democracy group Freedom House earlier this year found that Cambodia was also among the top five perpetrators of “transnational repression” along with with Russia, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, and China.

It said the Cambodian government was responsible for at least 15 documented incidents including the assault of four Cambodian activists and the detention of eight others in Thailand.

Even in Australia, critics of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) have had their activities monitored and received death threats.

However, some had felt it was still possible to visit Cambodia without fear of retribution.

A Cambodian-Australian activist, who asked to be referred to as Mrs A, said the assault on Mr Bunchhay had changed that.

She said she had cancelled an upcoming trip — her first since before the pandemic.

“This year, we thought, OK, everything has settled down, everything’s quiet, seemed to be in a friendly tone,” she said.

“But then this guy got attacked in Cambodia because he went to the demonstrations.

“So that really shook us up and we decided no, not this year. We’re not going to Cambodia.”

She said the diaspora community was “really concerned”.

“It’s really, really frightening and it’s not just myself now not going to Cambodia,” she said.

“A few other people also say that they cannot go into Cambodia anymore.”

Hun Manet ‘no different from his father’

Hemara In, the president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in Victoria, told the ABC he had no doubt the attack was politically motivated.

He said it had the same modus operandi as countless other attacks on government critics, however this was the first assault of an Australian in Cambodia that he was aware of.

“All of us, especially those who are really involved in politics, or those who tried to promote democracy in Cambodia, we are really in shock,” he said.

Mr In, who faces jail in Cambodia after he was accused in 2021 of incitement to topple the government, said the incident dispelled any notion Mr Manet was any less authoritarian than his father.

“Many Cambodians believed that because Hun Manet was educated abroad, he would understand democracy a bit better than his father, who was a former Khmer Rouge,” he said.

“But since Hun Manet has become prime minister there have been many arrests [in Cambodia] and also people in Thailand were attacked.

“So no, we don’t believe that Hun Manet is any different from his father.”

Mr In said the Australian embassy in Phnom Penh should convey its concerns to the Hun Manet government.

“The Cambodian government should guarantee to the Australian government that this sort of thing will never happen again or at least try to get those who committed this crime to justice,” he said.

Human Rights Watch’s Asia deputy director Bryony Lau said the organisation had documented other similar attacks on critics of the Cambodian government.

“Those attacks, like this recent assault on San Bunchhay, should be investigated,” she said.

In a Facebook post, Battambang Provincial Police Commissioner Sat Kimsan said the police were investigating the case urgently and carefully.

He told RFA the motorbike licence plates had been identified but the suspects’ identities remained unknown because their faces were covered.

Lack of arrests ‘curious’

Federal MP for Bruce Julian Hill, whose electorate includes one of the largest Cambodian communities in Australia, said he had met with Mr Bunchhay and his wife.

“[I] am finalising a report on the incident which we will be forwarding to the foreign minister,” Mr Hill said in a statement.

“It is ‘curious’, to say the least, that the Cambodian authorities manage to track down and arrest online critics of the regime with breathtaking speed even when they use false-names online, yet have been unable to arrest the perpetrators of this violent incident despite apparently having clear CCTV footage.

“Australians in the Cambodian community have a right to speak freely in Australia without fear of being physically attacked when doing nothing wrong.”

The ABC contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who said they stood ready to provide consular assistance, should it be requested.

“Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment,” a spokesperson said.

The Cambodian embassy in Australia did not respond to the ABC’s request for comment.

Sue Coffey, editor of Seeking Justice in Cambodia and board member at Cambodian human rights group Licadho, said the “appalling” attack on Mr Bunchhay was “symptomatic of the continuing climate of violence and repression under the Cambodian government led by Hun Manet”.

“The attack seems designed to silence anyone daring to oppose the government,” she said.

“The Australian government should demand Cambodia identify and arrest those responsible for an attack on an Australian citizen.

“Clearly members of the Cambodian diaspora in Australia are not safe to return to Cambodia if they are known to have criticised the CPP.”