Cambodia Bids Farewell to King Sihanouk

Damir Sagolj/Reuters: Officials with portraits of the late King Sihanouk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Friday. 

Damir Sagolj/Reuters Mr. Sihanouk's son, King Norodom Sihamoni, cried as his father's coffin left the Royal Palace. 

By THOMAS FULLER
Published: February 1, 2013

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The sound of artillery shells thundered across Phnom Penh on Friday, a final salute to the late King Sihanouk that summoned memories of Cambodia’s war-torn past. 

A procession through the streets of the Cambodian capital marked the start of funeral ceremonies for Mr. Sihanouk, who died in October at the age of 89, and whose reign spanned both the euphoria of independence from France in 1953 and the terror of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970’s. His body will be cremated on Monday.

The canons, lined in formation along the banks of the Mekong River and loaded with shells provided by Vietnam, fired as the chariot carrying the king’s gilded coffin rolled past at a mournful pace.

“It reminded me of the battlefield,” said Mey Thorn, a bicycle rickshaw driver in Phnom Penh watching the procession. “Things are better now, getting better and better.”

Hun Sen, the authoritarian prime minister who has been in power nearly three decades and now dominates Cambodian politics, had a relatively low-key role in the ceremony, sitting along with other officials in a float shaped like a mythical bird.

Mr. Sihanouk’s son, King Norodom Sihamoni, who unlike his father has had only a ceremonial role since taking the throne in 2004, watched the procession from the gate of the royal palace with his mother, Norodom Monineath.

Mr. Sihanouk’s funeral comes at a time of relative stability for Cambodia and rising prosperity in Phnom Penh and a few other urban centers. But economic growth has been uneven, leaving the countryside, where the majority of the population lives, dirt poor.

Vietnam, another war-torn nation, has surged ahead of Cambodia over the past decade in gross domestic product per capita, a measure of average wealth, according to World Bank figures. Only one quarter of the Cambodian population has access to electricity, compared with nearly full coverage in Vietnam and Thailand. About one-third of the Cambodian population does not have running water in their homes.

“The wealth that we get from economic growth does not benefit people overall — just a handful of people,” said Son Chhay, a senior member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, the main opposition party in Parliament that was formed by the merger of two parties last year. “We have just rich and poor. We don’t have a middle class.”

The procession in Phnom Penh on Friday passed near the signposts of urban affluence, including a towering skyscraper under construction.

It was the most elaborate funeral in recent memory and included military bands, attendants in traditional dress banging large gongs and rows of officials wearing white shirts and black armbands.

Tens of thousands of onlookers kneeled on the roadside with their hands clasped as the procession looped through the city, pausing for an incantation from monks and ending at the cremation site next to the royal palace.

Analysts said the government is seeking to draw on the legacy of Mr. Sihanouk as the father of the modern nation who led the campaign for independence from France. More than 15,000 civil servants took part in the ceremony on Friday.

“The policy of the government is to promote his memory,” said Pung Kek, president of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights. “Hun Sen wants to be seen as the protector of the monarchy.”

The monarchy, especially among older Cambodians, is a defining institution, Ms. Pung said.

“Some Cambodians in the countryside like to say, ‘You cannot have a country without a king,’” she said.

Government announcers eulogized Mr. Sihanouk on Friday as the father of the nation, a leader who built factories, schools, roads and hospitals.

“He is the father of integrity and the father of national unity,” said one announcer, whose comments were carried on loudspeakers around the city and on national television, which broadcast the procession.

“He is the best king ever,” the announcer said.

One of the most frequently used words to describe Mr. Sihanouk’s legacy is “complex.” Milton Osborne, a leading expert on Cambodian history called him a “prince of light and a prince of darkness.”

Perhaps the darkest stain on Mr. Sihanouk’s legacy was lending his prestige to the Khmer Rouge and helping them come to power. After the Khmer Rouge rule left 1.7 million people dead, Mr. Sihanouk said supporting the group was one of his biggest regrets.

But those who came out to witness the procession on Friday said they remembered Mr. Sihanouk for his generosity.

Keo Sina, 56, who owns a cake shop on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and walked with 9 other members of her family to see the procession, said she remembered Mr. Sihanouk delivering aid to her village when she was a child.

“Today is the last day that we can see the king,” Ms. Keo said. “He sacrificed his life to the country. I hope his soul rests in peace.”

The government has declared a week of mourning. Civil servants were given two days off and businesses along the procession route were ordered to close.

“All entertainment centers and broadcasters must refrain from displaying excessive happiness,” a government statement said.

Poypiti Amatatham contributed reporting from Phnom Penh .