Pressure Mounts on Cambodia's Sihanouk to Stay Fri Oct 8, 2004 07:08 AM ET
By Ek Madra PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) - Pressure to persuade aging and ailing Norodom Sihanouk to reverse his decision to abdicate the Cambodian throne mounted Friday, but parliament prepared the way for a successor to be chosen. Prince Norodom Ranariddh said he would fly Saturday to Beijing, where the mercurial Sihanouk has been receiving medical treatment for months, to persuade his father not to abdicate. "We are going to China tomorrow to persuade the King not to step down," he said. "I am not a candidate and I have heard all the time that my brother Norodom Sihamoni does not want to be king as well," Ranariddh told Reuters Television, referring to his 51-year-old brother who lives in France. "So the only way is for King Sihanouk to continue." However, people on the streets of Phnom Penh appeared to accept Sihanouk's declaration that he was too old, sick and tired to carry on and parliament enacted legislation unanimously enabling a nine-member council to choose a new monarch. The council comprises the prime minister, the president and two vice-presidents of the National Assembly, the president and two vice presidents of the Senate and two top Buddhist monks. Ranariddh, president of the National Assembly, said that although the constitution laid out the membership and role of the Royal Throne Council, parliament had to pass enabling legislation before it could meet. "But on behalf of the Cambodian people as the whole whom I spoke with last night, everyone from brothers and sisters and taxi drivers, all wanted the king to stay," he said. "And I will tell the King about their messages." The constitution says the monarch rules for life and the Royal Throne Council must choose a successor within a week of the king's death. It contains no provision for abdication, but the government appears prepared to ignore that if it fails to persuade Sihanouk, who turns 82 on Oct. 31, not to retire. Sihanouk was due to return home Thursday. Instead, he announced his abdication, something he has threatened to do many times in the face of frustratingly fractious domestic politics. Some analysts said his declaration may be designed to force the government to choose a successor before he dies rather than risk another bout of chaos in a country still struggling to recover from the "Killing Fields" of the Khmer Rouge. But Sihanouk said in a statement he would not return to Cambodia until a new king was named. "I will return to Cambodia to live at Siem Reap/Angkor when the Royal Throne Council has chosen a new king," he said, referring to the city in northwestern Cambodia adjacent to the famed Angkor Wat temples. That suggested he was contemplating a peaceful retirement near his country's cultural icon after a turbulent life spanning the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge, who used him as a figurehead, effectively a prisoner in his Phnom Penh palace. In the countryside into which the Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and towns, an estimated 1.7 million of the then 7-8 million people were killed by overwork, starvation or execution. Sihanouk lost five children and 14 grandchildren to the brutal Pol Pot regime, which lasted from 1975 to early 1979. In recent years, Sihanouk has threatened repeatedly to quit in frustration at political wrangling, particularly when parties took a year to form a government after indecisive 2003 elections. In a Khmer-language message posted on his Web site at www.norodomsihanouk.info, Sihanouk said he could not carry on. "I have had the great honor to serve the nation and people for more than half century. I am too old now," he said. Ordinary Cambodians appeared sympathetic. "I am sad but there is nothing I can do, just accept his decision," said Sophal, a soldier guarding the royal palace. Sihanouk was last seen in public a week ago as guest of honor at a reception in Beijing marking the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Republic. He was escorted into the room by President Hu Jintao.
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