They said Hun had murdered political opponents, jailed dissenters and run Cambodia “like a mafia state”. “Violence is in his blood,” Srey Kang told a crowd in Sydney’s Hyde Park.
Hun is in Sydney for the Asean-Australia summit, which began on Friday. Australia is not a formal member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations but takes part in the group’s biennial summits.
Hun Sen vows to 'shame' Australia if pressured over political crackdown
In February, Hun had threatened if they protested against his visit.
“If they burn my effigy ... I will pursue them to their houses and beat them up,” he said. “I want to remind those who plan to demonstrate against me that my visit is an honour for their government.”
“Many killings happened under the nose of the Hun Sen’s government and were swept under the carpet ... The murdering of Mr Kem Ley in the middle of a busy Phnom Penh Star Mart gas station a day after his interview with Radio Free Asia was too much for us to bear.
“We are here today to tell Hun Sen that his time is up. The game is over.”
Srey Kang called on Malcolm Turnbull and the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, to do more to condemn Hun.
“It is shameful that we see this thug, Hun Sen, come to this Australia-Asean summit, walking with blood on his hands and shaking hands with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull,” she said.
“Hun Sen is a violent man ... grave human rights abuses have been committed. We are here today to appeal to the leaders that are attending the Australia-Asean summit to tell Hun Sen that enough is enough.”
The protesters called on Hun to release political prisoners, reinstate the opposition party and hold a free and fair election.
The organisers claimed that politicians such as Labor’s Mark Butler, Penny Wong and Chris Bowen, and the federal Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, had expressed support for the protest.
Australia warned against 'dancing with dictators' at Asean summit in Sydney
Those attending also heard from the Victorian Labor MP Hong Lim, a former president of the Cambodian Association of Victoria, and the Australian director of Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson.
“Australia is trying to airbrush human rights issues from the summit ” Pearson told Guardian Australia before the protest. “The reason Hun Sen has gone so far this time is because of the lack of international response from other countries.
“We don’t want this summit to just be a propaganda coup for Hun Sen and Suu Kyi and give them the global legitimacy they crave ... If this election in 2018 proceeds in Cambodia without the CNRP [the opposition party], Australia should be thinking about targeted sanctions and asset seizures against senior members of the Cambodian government.”
The organiser of the protest, Genevieve Kang, said Hun had also threatened overseas Cambodian-Australians and many of them were wary of spy networks.
“Hun Sen was losing power in Cambodia, nobody would vote for him any more,” she said. “The biggest problem is Cambodians who live overseas, who can speak up. He’s trying to control Cambodians overseas.
“They have got spies in the community. They have infiltrated the community. Some people are too scared to come because they don’t want their face identified.”
