Cambodian prince and politician Norodom Ranariddh dies at 77

Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Ranariddh, former prime minister and the son of the late King Norodom Sihanouk, died on Sunday in France, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith announced on his Facebook page. He was 77.

Ranariddh had been in poor health since a car accident in Cambodia in 2018. An aide to Ranariddh, who spoke on condition of anonymity because who was not authorised to speak to the media, said he went to Paris in late 2019 for medical treatment of a broken pelvis.

Ranariddh’s career was always in the shade of his charismatic father, Sihanouk, and his wily and ruthless political rival, Hun Sen, with whom he shared power before being pushed aside. Hun Sen remains prime minister.

Ranariddh traded on his position as the son of Sihanouk, but lacked his father’s strong personality and political adroitness. Ranariddh’s half-brother, Norodom Sihamoni, became king in 2004 after the abdication of Sihanouk, who died in 2012. Sihamoni’s Facebook page confirmed Ranariddh’s death.

Ranariddh, a French-educated law scholar, entered public life in 1983, when he took over leadership of Funcinpec, an armed resistance movement against the Vietnamese-installed government led by Hun Sen that succeeded the brutal 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime.

Ranariddh converted Funcinpec into a royalist party that won UN-sponsored elections in 1993. The elections were part of a peace process following the fall of the Khmer Rouge and three decades of civil war.