The following is an unofficial translation from French of King Norodom Sihanouk's
appeal to Hun Sen for Norodom Sirivudh's release and exile to France.
Beloved Excellency,
M. Second President of the Royal Government of Cambodia.
First of all, permit me to pay a sincere and warm homage to Your Excellency and your
great party, the Cambodian People's Party, which, in 1978-79, led an historic struggle
to save Cambodia and the Cambodian people from genocide and which re-established
Buddhism as the religion of the nation and the Cambodian State, which, in 1991, with
FUNCINPEC and HRH Samdech Norodom Ranariddh, gave me complete justice and which,
in 1993, restored the Cambodian Monarchy and elected me as the Constitutional King
of Cambodia.
All these historic benefits given to our Kampuchea, to our people, to our Monarchy
and to myself, I will never forget them and will always be grateful to you for them.
The purpose of my current letter to Your Excellency concerns my younger brother Norodom
Sirivudh.
My son, Norodom Chakrapong, committed serious mistakes which earned him a heavy prison
penalty. But thanks to the benevolent solicitude of the Royal Cambodian Government
of which Your Excellency is the Second President, Norodom Chakrapong benefited from
your semi-pardon in the form of an exile to a friendly country.
My younger brother Norodom Sirivudh has said against Your Excellency some words completely
unjust, unjustified and unpardonable.
But, as Your Excellency is a great pillar following nobly Buddhism of which the Dharma
encourages us to be tolerant and to give pardons to offenders, permit me humbly to
solicit from Your Excellency Samdech your compassion for the three young children
of Norodom Sirivudh and a semi-pardon for my younger brother Norodom Sirivudh in
the form of his being expelled from Cambodia and sent in exile to France.
In the case where Your Excellency Samdech would be so kind to give this semi-pardon
to my younger brother Norodom Sirivudh, I would not fail to persuade him to leave
Cambodia definitively in order to start his life over in France.
As to Cambodian justice, it could follow its course in the case concerning Norodom
Sirivudh who made very unfortunate death threats against Your Excellency Samdech.
Please allow me, for family reasons, to humbly request Your Excellency Samdech, this
is not to stop the process of natural justice against the offender Norodom Sirivudh.
It is only, in your Buddhist gentleness, a semi-pardon to Norodom Sirivudh in the
form of being expelled from Cambodia and sent to exile in France.
As his King, his elder brother and head of the Royal Family, I will at the same time
persuade Norodom Sirivudh to leave Cambodia and go to live in France, as Norodom
Chakrapong has done and continues to do.
With the expression of my hearty gratitude, please Your Excellency, accept the assurances
of my very high consideration and my most profound affection.
- Norodom Sihanouk.
Phnom Penh, 12 December 1995.
