Journalists banned from Sihanouk homecoming
Journalists banned from Sihanouk homecoming
PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Journalists have been banned from covering King Norodom Sihanouk's homecoming today after prolonged medical treatment for cancer in Beijing and a traditional spring trip to North Korea.
"No journalists are allowed to enter Pochentong airport" for the ceremony, a notice posted by the ministry of information and seen by Reuters yesterday said.
There would be no huge VIP welcome for the 71-year-old monarch, a palace official said, citing his poor condition.
Even the crowds of flag-waving schoolchildren who are normally trotted out to the roadside to cheer his speeding motorcade have been told not to come.
The ceremony would be deliberately "low key", the official said.
Prince Ranariddh, Hun Sen and acting head of state Chea Sim will be the only people allowed to greet him upon his arrival, the officials added.
The Cambodian Daily newspaper reported yesterday that while Sihanouk's Chinese doctors had reported success in treating prostate and bone marrow cancer, arteriosclerosis, a hardening of the arteries, had now set in.
"The king says he fears it may cause him to suffer from a major stroke in the future," the newspaper said.
Diplomats as well as Cambodian government officials, however, had believed that King Sihanouk was likely to die by mid-1994 and would return to Cambodia for his final days.
But recent reports from the Royal Palace say the king's cancer has gone into remission. However, they warn of a possible stroke from arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.
The cancer has spread to his bone marrow and King Sihanouk has been undergoing chemotherapy in a Beijing hospital. But he is returning to spend about a month in Cambodia in order to celebrate Khmer New Year with his compatriots on April 13-15.
Sihanouk is arriving from Pyongyang where he had his traditional spring visit with North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, whom Sihanouk aides say the king calls his "best friend".
Sihanouk was elected king in September by a special council after promulgating a new constitution reinstating the monarchy.
King Sihanouk has gone bald due to months of chemotherapy, and palace officials do not want him photographed. Whether he will walk of his own volition off his plane, or be carried off, will be left to speculators or spies to say.
A special room has been set up at Calmette Hospital in case he needs emergency medical attention, and French doctors were asked to disinfect his room to cut down on the possibility of infection, medical sources said.
The king will only be able to receive visitors for one hour each morning and one hour each afternoon during his stay.
The diplomatic corps hopes for at least one window of opportunity, as do chosen "representatives of the people" who traditionally ask the king to solve their problems during the Khmer New Year.