Recently a Khmer personality (whom I prefer not to name here) said and wrote that

His Highness Prince Sisowath Youtevong, head of the Democratic Party in the 1940s,

died in prison (sic!).

This is an act of extreme, dishonest, odious and unacceptable distortion of the historical

truth.

In reality, Prince Sisowath Youtevong, in his lifetime, never knew prison or ill-treatment

whatsoever.

Prince Sisowath Youtevong died from sickness (tuberculosis) in full glory, that is

to say as President of the Council of Ministers of the Royal Government of Cambodia

(1st Kingdom).

As the young King of Cambodia (1st Kingdom), I had the honor to be at the bedside

of Prince Sisowath Youtevong when he was gravely ill.

I had the honor, on his death, to preside at the official funeral ceremony for Prince

Sisowath Youtevong, of the Prime Minister of the (First) Kingdom of Cambodia.

Samdech Son Sann, former pillar of the ex-Democratic Party, and family members of

HRH Prince Sisowath Youtevong, including those living at the actual time in Phnom

Penh, can testify before History and the Cambodian people that Prince Sisowath Youtevong,

in his lifetime, never knew prison and that he died in the residence of the Head

of State of the Royal Government of Cambodia (1st Kingdom).

- King Norodom Sihanouk, Royal Palace, Phnom Penh.