Local and foreign dignitaries offered their condolences to the royal family on news of the death in Beijing yesterday of King Father Norodom Sihanouk, who led his country out of colonial rule in the 1950s and went on to play a leading role in the country’s modern history.
Son Soubert, a former politician, statesman and adviser to the late
King, said he would be remembered first and foremost as the father of
Cambodia’s independence from France in 1953.
“It is a great loss for Cambodia and for the Cambodian people, who
revere him. He is known as the father of independence in the country and
of its territorial integrity,” he said.
Mr. Soubert said the King Father would also be remembered as a
founder of the Non-Aligned Movement. Formed in 1961, the group defied
geopolitical pressures to take sides at the height of the Cold War and
brought together such world leaders as Josep Broz Tito of Yugoslavia,
Jawaharlal Nehru of India, and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.
Until his death yesterday, Mr. Soubert said, the King Father was the last surviving founding member.
Prince Sisowath Sirirath, whose father, Sisowath Sirik Matak, played a
pivotal role in Norodom Sihanouk’s ouster as Cambodia’s head of state
in 1970, called the late King a “father figure.”
Hailing from another branch of the royal family, Prince Sirik Matak
was among those passed over when King Norodom Sihanouk was crowned and
went on to become his political rival, advocating for the U.S. ties the
late King shunned at the time.
Prince Sisowath Sirirath, now a Funcinpec standing committee member,
said yesterday that the two royal families had largely managed to put
those divisions behind them.
“No matter what happened in the past, he is like a father figure to
me and was kind to my family after he returned,” Prince Sirirath said.
Norodom Sihanouk appointed Prince Sirirath Cambodia’s ambassador to the U.N. in 1982, a post he occupied for the next 16 years.
Funcinpec spokesman Tum Sambol said the late King’s death was a loss
to the country and the party, which Norodom Sihanouk founded as a
resistance movement in 1981 against Cambodia’s Vietnam-backed government
of the time and which in 1992 morphed into a political party under his
eldest son, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Funcinpec has been in a longtime
coalition government with the ruling CPP.
“This is a very serious blow to Funcinpec members because Funcinpec
was started by the King Father more than 30 years ago,” Mr. Sambol said.
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, credited
the late King with bringing democracy to the country along with its
independence.
“He brought democracy back to Cambodia, he achieved a national
unity,” he said. “On behalf of the Sam Rainsy Party, we would like to
express our condolences to the King’s family.”
Members of the diplomatic corps also paid their respects.
“The Embassy of the United States of America in Phnom Penh extends
its deepest condolences to His Majesty King Sihamoni, the entire Royal
Family, and all the people of Cambodia on the passing of His Majesty
King Father Norodom Sihanouk,” the embassy said in a statement.
“Cambodia has lost a leader who dedicated his life to the cause of
national peace and stability. This is a time of tremendous grief for the
Cambodian people, and we share in your mourning.”
The retired King shared a rocky relationship with the U.S. over his
efforts to keep Cambodia out of the second Indochina war and, to the
end, he blamed the CIA for his ouster as chief of state in 1970.
China, which took Norodom Sihanouk in after his ouster and where the
former King settled in his old age to receive medical treatment for
prostate cancer, offered sympathies as well.
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences to Queen
Mother Monineath in Beijing in person yesterday, according to China’s
state news agency Xinhua, and called the former King an old friend of
the Chinese people who had helped forge strong relations between the two
countries.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sent a statement of condolence to Prime Minister Hun Sen.
“He [the King] built a foundation for the relationship between our
two countries for the future…and deeply understood Japan’s contribution
in seeking peace for Cambodia,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Zsombor Peter and Simon Lewis)
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