Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 25, 1993 TAG: 9309250046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA LENGTH: Medium
The elaborate ceremony in the Royal Palace came hours after Sihanouk ratified a new constitution that allowed him to reascend to the throne he first occupied in 1941.
Sihanouk's return and the installation of a new government were made possible by a U.N. peacekeeping mission that guided the nation through National Assembly elections in May.
But he still faces a country where the Communist Khmer Rouge, whose radical policies in the late 1970s led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, controls about 20 percent of the country with 10,000 fighters.
The king faces another challenge: sickness. The 70-year-old Sihanouk says he is suffering from a tumor near his prostate gland. It is not publicly known whether the growth is cancerous, but Sihanouk plans to rush back to Beijing to continue medical treatment.
In his first official act as king, Sihanouk, appointed his son, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, as head of government.
Sihanouk also appointed Hun Sen, head of the former Vietnam-installed government, as the second-ranking national official. Ranariddh's party placed first and Hun Sen's second in the U.N.-organized elections.
In a letter to Sihanouk released by the U.S. mission in Cambodia, President Clinton extended recognition to the new government and said Washington wants to establish diplomatic relations. The United States last had full relations with Cambodia in 1975.
Sihanouk was first crowned king in 1941 but abdicated in 1955 to rule as a political leader until he was ousted in a 1970 U.S.-backed coup. After the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, he went into exile in China and North Korea.
It is believed that Sihanouk will use his ties with the Khmer Rouge to try to persuade the group to give up its 15-year civil war. He is to host peace talks with the guerrillas in November.
by CNB