Cambodia to hold cremation for late King Sihanouk

People from across Cambodia have queued to pay their respects

4 February 2013
BBC News

Huge crowds have gathered in the Cambodian capital for the cremation of King Norodom Sihanouk.

The ceremony on Monday evening in Phnom Penh marks the final farewell for the man who was a prominent presence during decades of turmoil.

King Sihanouk died in Beijing in October at the age of 89. His embalmed body has been lying in state since then to allow people to pay their respects.

Foreign dignitaries from several nations are expected at the ceremony.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is attending, as is Prince Akishino of Japan, the brother of the crown prince.

King Sihanouk's widow, Queen Monique, and the son in whose favour he abdicated, King Norodom Sihamoni, will light the funeral pyre at the 15-storey high purpose-built crematorium.

Some of his ashes will be scattered at the confluence of three rivers and the remainder stored in an urn in the royal palace.

Mixed legacy

Monday's cremation marks the end of several days of commemorations for the late monarch, who died of a heart attack.

On Friday, tens of thousands of people turned out to watch as his golden sarcophagus was paraded through the streets of Phnom Penh to the crematorium.

Since then people from across Cambodia, dressed in mourning colours of white and black, have been lining up to file past his coffin, some holding lotus flowers.

"It's the last day for us all to pay homage to the great hero king and to send him to heaven," King Sihanouk's long-time personal assistant Prince Sisowath Thomico was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

King Sihanouk remained an influential figure in Cambodia until his death, despite abdicating in 2004.

He became king in 1941 while still a teenager, and led Cambodia to independence from France in 1953.

He was a presence through decades of political and social turmoil in Cambodia, despite long periods of exile overseas.

In later life he emerged as a peacemaker who helped bring stability back to his country, after an ill-fated choice to back the Khmer Rouge in its early years.

His record, says the BBC's Jonathan Head, who is in Phnom Penh, is complex and showed many personal flaws.

But none of that was talked about among the crowds paying their last respects - they were simply mourning the loss of a giant personality, who has been one of the few constants in their tragic history.

"I don't have any words to express the sorrow and suffering I feel when knowing his body will soon disappear," Hin Mal, 79, told the Associated Press news agency.

"I love and respect King Sihanouk like my own father."