Cambodia's former king dies at 90
Source: Agencies |
October 16, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Norodom Sihanouk, the revered former king who was a towering figure in Cambodian politics through a half-century of war, genocide and upheaval, died yesterday. He was 90.
Sihanouk saw Cambodia transform from colony to kingdom, US-backed regime to Khmer Rouge killing field, and foreign-occupied land to guerrilla war zone - and finally to a fragile experiment with democracy.
Sihanouk abdicated the throne in 2004, citing his poor health. He had been getting medical treatment in China since January and had suffered a variety of illnesses, including colon cancer, diabetes and hypertension.
Prince Sisowath Thomico, a royal family member and also Sihanouk's assistant, said the former king suffered a heart attack yesterday at a Beijing hospital. "His death was a great loss to Cambodia," Thomico said, adding that Sihanouk had dedicated his life "for the sake of his entire nation, country and for the Cambodian people."
Crowned at 19
Sihanouk's successor, Norodom Sihamoni, flew with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to Beijing yesterday to retrieve the body, said Colonel Chhay Bunna, a senior police officer in charge of security at Phnom Penh's international airport. State flags flew at half-staff, and Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said an official funeral will be held once the former king's body is repatriated.
Born on October 31, 1922, Sihanouk enjoyed a pampered childhood in the former French colonial Indochina.
In 1941, the French crowned 19-year-old Sihanouk rather than relatives closer in line to the throne, thinking the pudgy, giggling prince would be easy to control. They were the first of many to underestimate him. By 1953 the French were out.
Two years later, Sihanouk stepped down from the throne, organized a mass political party and steered Cambodia toward uneasy neutrality at the height of the Cold War. Sihanouk accepted limited US aid and nurtured relations with China. He was also a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement.
He made movies, painted, composed music, fielded a palace soccer team and led his own jazz band. His large appetite extended to fast cars, food and women. He married at least five times - some say six - and fathered 14 children.
In 1965, Sihanouk broke off relations with Washington as US involvement in the Vietnam War shifted into high gear.
Sihanouk's top priority was to keep Cambodia out of the war, but he could not. US aircraft bombed Vietnamese communist sanctuaries in Cambodia with increasing regularity, and his protests were ignored.
Internally, Cambodia was a one-man show. Sihanouk's sharpest critics accused him of running a medieval state as an ancient Khmer ruler reincarnated in Western dress.
In 1970, a US-backed coup sent the prince to Beijing for years of exile. Within weeks, war broke out, beginning a systematic destruction of Cambodia that killed millions and impoverished the survivors.
Sihanouk, seeking to regain the throne, joined the Khmer Rouge-dominated rebels after his overthrow. They had numbered only a few hundred until then, but his presence gave them a legitimacy they had never before enjoyed.
The alliance left Sihanouk open to subsequent criticism that he opened the way for the Khmer Rouge holocaust. But his relations with the rebels were always strained.
"The Khmer Rouge do not like me at all, and I know that," he said in a 1973 interview. "When they no longer need me, they will spit me out like a cherry pit."
When the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975 and Sihanouk returned home, they detained him and ordered his execution. Only the personal intervention of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai saved him.
With Sihanouk under house arrest in the Royal Palace, the Khmer Rouge ran an ultra-radical regime from 1975 to 1979, emptying cities to create a vast forced labor camp. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians were executed or died of disease and hunger under their rule.
Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978 and toppled the Khmer Rouge weeks later.
Freed as the Vietnamese advanced on Phnom Penh, Sihanouk found exile in Beijing and North Korea.
He headed an unlikely coalition of three guerrilla groups fighting the Vietnamese-installed puppet government. The war lasted a decade. In a mix of politics and theater - bringing his French poodle to negotiations, singing love songs over elaborate dinners - Sihanouk engineered a cease-fire and moved toward national unity and peace.
The hard-living Sihanouk had suffered ill health since the early 1990s. He endured cancer, a brain lesion and arterial, heart, lung, liver and eye ailments.
In late 2011, on his return from another extended stay in China, Sihanouk dramatically declared that he never intended to leave his homeland again. But he flew off to Beijing just a few months later for medical care.
Sihanouk saw Cambodia transform from colony to kingdom, US-backed regime to Khmer Rouge killing field, and foreign-occupied land to guerrilla war zone - and finally to a fragile experiment with democracy.
Sihanouk abdicated the throne in 2004, citing his poor health. He had been getting medical treatment in China since January and had suffered a variety of illnesses, including colon cancer, diabetes and hypertension.
Prince Sisowath Thomico, a royal family member and also Sihanouk's assistant, said the former king suffered a heart attack yesterday at a Beijing hospital. "His death was a great loss to Cambodia," Thomico said, adding that Sihanouk had dedicated his life "for the sake of his entire nation, country and for the Cambodian people."
Crowned at 19
Sihanouk's successor, Norodom Sihamoni, flew with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to Beijing yesterday to retrieve the body, said Colonel Chhay Bunna, a senior police officer in charge of security at Phnom Penh's international airport. State flags flew at half-staff, and Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said an official funeral will be held once the former king's body is repatriated.
Born on October 31, 1922, Sihanouk enjoyed a pampered childhood in the former French colonial Indochina.
In 1941, the French crowned 19-year-old Sihanouk rather than relatives closer in line to the throne, thinking the pudgy, giggling prince would be easy to control. They were the first of many to underestimate him. By 1953 the French were out.
Two years later, Sihanouk stepped down from the throne, organized a mass political party and steered Cambodia toward uneasy neutrality at the height of the Cold War. Sihanouk accepted limited US aid and nurtured relations with China. He was also a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement.
He made movies, painted, composed music, fielded a palace soccer team and led his own jazz band. His large appetite extended to fast cars, food and women. He married at least five times - some say six - and fathered 14 children.
In 1965, Sihanouk broke off relations with Washington as US involvement in the Vietnam War shifted into high gear.
Sihanouk's top priority was to keep Cambodia out of the war, but he could not. US aircraft bombed Vietnamese communist sanctuaries in Cambodia with increasing regularity, and his protests were ignored.
Internally, Cambodia was a one-man show. Sihanouk's sharpest critics accused him of running a medieval state as an ancient Khmer ruler reincarnated in Western dress.
In 1970, a US-backed coup sent the prince to Beijing for years of exile. Within weeks, war broke out, beginning a systematic destruction of Cambodia that killed millions and impoverished the survivors.
Sihanouk, seeking to regain the throne, joined the Khmer Rouge-dominated rebels after his overthrow. They had numbered only a few hundred until then, but his presence gave them a legitimacy they had never before enjoyed.
The alliance left Sihanouk open to subsequent criticism that he opened the way for the Khmer Rouge holocaust. But his relations with the rebels were always strained.
"The Khmer Rouge do not like me at all, and I know that," he said in a 1973 interview. "When they no longer need me, they will spit me out like a cherry pit."
When the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975 and Sihanouk returned home, they detained him and ordered his execution. Only the personal intervention of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai saved him.
With Sihanouk under house arrest in the Royal Palace, the Khmer Rouge ran an ultra-radical regime from 1975 to 1979, emptying cities to create a vast forced labor camp. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians were executed or died of disease and hunger under their rule.
Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978 and toppled the Khmer Rouge weeks later.
Freed as the Vietnamese advanced on Phnom Penh, Sihanouk found exile in Beijing and North Korea.
He headed an unlikely coalition of three guerrilla groups fighting the Vietnamese-installed puppet government. The war lasted a decade. In a mix of politics and theater - bringing his French poodle to negotiations, singing love songs over elaborate dinners - Sihanouk engineered a cease-fire and moved toward national unity and peace.
The hard-living Sihanouk had suffered ill health since the early 1990s. He endured cancer, a brain lesion and arterial, heart, lung, liver and eye ailments.
In late 2011, on his return from another extended stay in China, Sihanouk dramatically declared that he never intended to leave his homeland again. But he flew off to Beijing just a few months later for medical care.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
