Dear All,

  Please find below an unofficial English translation of HM's recent article about what he accepts and does not accept about people's view and action towards the SRN.

  Thank you,

  M. Preuk

  ------UNOFFICIAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION------
  original text in French: http://www.norodomsihanouk.info/mes2006/septembre/textes/2109/2109txt...

  I accept that they praise the S.R.N.
  but I do not accept that they pretend to imitate it
   in the current pro-Cambodia politics,
  By Norodom Sihanouk

  September 19, 2006

  1-      In a written Speech given a few months ago, at the Royal Palace, H.E. Samdech Chea Sim rendered justice and praised the S.R.N. (Sangkum Reastr Niyum). And, a few days later, H.E. Samdech Heng Samrin, also at the Phnom Penh Royal Palace, did the same thing.

  These 2 official speeches can be found on my Internet Website and in my BMD.

  Of course, the great CPP had the nobility of heart and spirit to perform this historical act in favor of the S.R.N., but [the CPP] equally had the wisdom to not claim that the CPP “imitates” the S.R.N.

  2-      The newborn “Sangkum Cheat Niyum” of H.R.H. Prince S.Thomico, proclaims to the world that it – Sangkum Cheat Niyum – will imitate the Sangkum Cheat Niyum in its politics and its pro-Homeland, pro-People, pro-Nation action.

  In this regard, I cannot accept that one pretends one can do again for Cambodia what the S.R.N. had done for the Homeland, the Nation, the People between the years 1955 and 1969.

  Here are some reasons why I do not accept this proclamation and this claim by H.R.H. Thomico and his S.C.N.:

  a-      The geographical, political, diplomatic characteristics of our Country, the “way of life”, the “philosophy”, etc… of our People itself are not at all the same as they were under the SRN. And it would take a super-Tevoda or Indra himself to change right now the 2nd Kingdom to the 1st Kingdom.

  b-      H.R.H. Thomico himself, during the S.R.N. era, was anti-SRN.

  On the day following the Lon Nol and Sirik Matak (own uncle of Thomico) Putsch, while his own Father (Samdech Sisowath Methavi) and his own Mother (Princess Nanette Izzi Methavi), nobly and heroically, chose to follow me until their death, Prince Thomico decided to fight “without ever backing down” (in his own words) for the “Khmer Republic” of Lon Nol, his idol and his model. Therefore, the “vintage 2006” choice of the SRN model and of the Royalism, made by Thomico and his SCN cannot be explained.

  3-      In regards to the current Funcinpec, it would not be right to qualify the last of these “Mohicans” as [being] pro-Ranariddh, or pro-Marie Eng, or pro-Phalla, and not at all Royalists or Sihanoukists. In 1993, H.R.H. Samdech K.P., on the morrow of the victory of the Funcinpec to the (UNTAC) legislative elections, confessed to me that his Wife (Princess Marie), H.E. Sam Rainsy and himself were absolutely against the granting (Samdech N. Ranariddh and his propagandists told the People about “transter”) of State or Governmental Power to N. Sihanouk by the triumphant Funcinpec.

  Signed: N. Sihanouk

  Translation notes:

  1- The Mohicans are a Native American tribe who lived in and around the Hudson Valley. The Last of the Mohicans (1826) is a novel by James Fenimore Cooper. The story involves a dying tribe called the Mohicans in which only two are left as well as one adopted white man, thus the title of the book.

  2- Marie Eng is also known as Princess Marie Ranariddh, wife of Prince Ranariddh. She is also the sister of Roland Eng, one former Cambodian ambassador to the US.