Ranariddh returns to Cambodia, vows to work for unity
Ranariddh returns to Cambodia, vows to work for unity
PHNOM PENH (AFP): Prince Norodom Ranariddh returned to a rapturous welcome amidst tight security in Phnom Penh yesterday after nearly nine months in exile since being deposed as co- premier.
The prince appeared to hold out an olive branch to his bitter rival Hun Sen, the second prime minister, who ousted him in fierce fighting last July.
"I am available to see him anytime," the prince told reporters, referring to Hun Sen. He added he was willing to work with any politician to help progress toward elections scheduled for July.
However diplomats cautioned that deep animosity and distrust remains between the two. "It looks like an olive branch," said one Asian diplomat. "But I have my doubts. There is bad blood between them."
Thousands of supporters and opponents of the prince staged rival rallies to mark his arrival from Bangkok.
"I am truly delighted and deeply moved to be back in our beloved Cambodia with our people after an absence of eight months," the prince said in a statement.
He was greeted by applause from supporters at the airport, but there was no red-carpet welcome for the son of King Norodom Sihanouk.
On the plane, he confided to reporters that he was "apprehensive" about the future. "When you are absent for nearly nine months you can't help having feelings of apprehension," he said.
"I was in exile because of a coup, my father was in exile because of a coup, but all the time we come back," he said referring to his father's exile -- mainly in China -- from 1970 to 1993.
There was tight security from police and army at Phnom Penh airport, and the prince and his top-level entourage of diplomats was whisked away without addressing waiting crowds.
The delegation included the UN Secretary-General's special representative to Cambodia, Lakhan Mehrotra, Brazil's ambassador to Thailand Arnaldo Carrilho and former U.S. congressman Stephen Solarz.
Thousands of people lined the road leading from the airport. And at least 1,000 more rapturous supporters waited outside his hotel, where he stood on a balcony blowing kisses.
The prince returned as part of a Japanese-brokered peace plan aimed at ensuring the July elections are free and fair, but reports that another of his supporters had been killed over the weekend heightened fears for his safety.
More than 40 royalist supporters have been killed since the prince was ousted and no one has yet been arrested for the murders.
Under the Japanese plan, the prince, who was convicted in absentia on charges of weapons smuggling and colluding with the Khmer Rouge, was granted a royal pardon by the king.
The international community had been pushing for the prince, who narrowly won UN-organized elections in 1993, to return and participate in the polls and said the vote would not be recognized if the prince was excluded.
In his statement, the prince thanked other nations for their work toward a peaceful solution of the Cambodia crisis.
"From now on I will I shall work hard to gather, reunite, and reinforce FUNCINPEC, which remains one of Cambodia's major political forces.
"I shall work in cooperation with the established Cambodian institutions, all political parties including (Hun Sen's) Cambodian People's Party."
The prince later met UN officials and diplomats as well as the steering committee of his royalist FUNCINPEC party.
Just hours before his arrival about 2,000 people marched through Phnom Penh to protest the return, predicting it would herald a return to violence.