The Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979, but it appears that some of their tactics of forced confessions have simply been repurposed. The Cambodian government’s recent trend of posting apology and confession videos from opponents, secured under threats of imprisonment or harm to their families, shows the unsettling reality that these tactics are not a relic from the past.
A profession of guilt and denunciation of imagined enemies were key elements of the confessions which the Khmer Rouge would extract from prisoners during their reign of terror from 1975 to 1979. These “confessions,” which were made under extreme forms of torture, were meaningless in terms of their factual content, and were used to justify mass executions. More than 4,000 “confession” files from the Khmer Rouge’s S–21 detention and interrogation center survive and are housed at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum.
Hun Sen, who, after almost four decades as prime minister, nominally handed over the office to his son Hun Manet in 2023, was a Khmer Rouge commander from 1970 to 1977. Under his long rule, the confession procedure has been adapted to serve the needs of an insecure and paranoid regime. Today, the aim is not to physically obliterate the confessors, but to silence criticism from the global Khmer diaspora.
THE CASE OF VANNA HAY
Consider the case of Vanna Hay, a young opponent of the Hun regime living in Japan. Vanna Hay is a staunch believer in democracy, transparent governance, and human rights. As such, his political activism led to his Cambodian–based brother, Vannith Hay, a public servant in Cambodia’s health ministry, being arrested in Cambodia on 16 August 2024.
The arrest and the resulting pressure on Vanna Hay were part of the government’s crackdown on criticism of Cambodia’s membership of the Cambodia–Laos–Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV–DTA), which has been accused of large–scale deforestation and failing to provide economic growth. Cambodia has officially withdrawn from the agreement to prevent political mobilization.Amnesty International says that at least 94 people were arrested over the CLV–DTA issue between late July and late August, with many remaining in prison. But not Vannith Hay.
On 18 October, Vanna Hay made a video “confession” via Facebookdenouncing long–term exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy as an “extremist,” begging for forgiveness from Hun Sen, and requesting to be allowed to join the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). That same day Hun Sen publicly welcomed Vanna Hay as a CPP member, and his brother was released.
THE CASE OF MECH DARA
Another “confession” has occurred recently. Mech Dara, an award–winning journalist who received a hero’s award last year from the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his reporting on human rights, was arrested on 1 October following his articles which exposed the corruption and human trafficking running rampant in Cambodia. Similar to Vanna Hay, Dara released an apology video from prison, stating his reports were false and apologizing for damaging both “the leaders and the country’s reputation.” The next day he was released on bail. For him, the cost of freedom has been journalism.
These cases are simply the latest examples of Cambodia’s transnational repression and evidence that Hun Sen doesn’t bother to hide his actions. In 2018, he threatened to beat up anyone who protested against him on a visit to Australia, and when he visited Brussels in 2022, he ordered his henchmen to take photos of protestors and display them at Phnom Penh International Airport to intimidate their families.
The regime in Cambodia is just one of a growing number that engages in transnational repression. Over 100 secret Chinese police stations, tasked with controlling the diaspora, have been reported to be operating in 53 countries in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia at the behest of Xi Jinping. As a country with such close ties to China, Cambodia appears to not only be learning from its history, but its allies in how best to repress its diaspora. Until there is a coordinated international response, domestic security in free societies will be under threat.
One step forward would be for the U.S. to adopt the Transnational Repression Policy Act, introduced in March 2023 by a bipartisan group of senators made up of Jeff Merkley, Ben Cardin, Bill Hagerty, and the incoming Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The bill would task the U.S. intelligence community with identifying perpetrators of transnational repression and their methods, with the president having powers to impose sanctions on proven culprits. The creation of a United Nations Special Rapporteur for Transnational Repression would also be a step forward. The free world can no longer sit back and allow rogue regimes to persecute their diasporas with impunity.
