
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993                   TAG: 9309040058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA                                LENGTH: Short

CAMBODIA MAY RESTORE MONARCHY

After hard-won elections to build democracy, Cambodia is turning once again to the man who ruled the country for three decades and bringing back Prince Norodom Sihanouk as king.

"My father will be king," Prince Norodom Ranariddh told The Associated Press after returning from talks with his father in North Korea about whether Cambodia should again become a constitutional monarchy.

The announcement comes less than four months after elections that were supposed to bring democracy to Cambodia after two decades of war. The elections were the cornerstone of a 22,000-person, $2-billion U.N. mission, the largest and most expensive U.N. peacekeeping operation ever.

Ranariddh is co-chairman of Cambodia's interim government, along with Hun Sen, who was premier of a Vietnamese-installed government. The May elections were held under a 1991 peace accord that ended a 13-year civil war between Hun Sen's government and three guerrilla groups.

Hun Sen appeared upset when the two leaders arrived at Phnom Penh's airport. With a grim expression on his face, he turned to reporters and said "monarchy" before getting in his car and speeding off.

Sihanouk, 70, did not run in the election. Although many U.N. officials and lawmakers see him as the country's sole unifying figure, many also believe that endowing him with royal powers amounts to a step backwards from democracy.

by CNB