Former Cambodian king to return to homeland for visit in July

Jun 30, 2009, 5:40 GMT

   Phnom Penh - Cambodia's former king Norodom Sihanouk will return to his homeland for a two-month visit after being successfully treated for cancer in Beijing, according to a handwritten message on his personal website.

   The 86-year-old retired monarch said he would return to Cambodia in July to stay at a royal residence in the northern city of Siem Reap.

   'Between July 9 and September 2009 I shall have the honor and the joy to live in Cambodia among my beloved relatives,' he said.

   But Sihanouk said he would have to return to Beijing after two months to continue his medical treatment.

   He announced last week that he had beaten a third bout of cancer after his Chinese doctors successfully treated him for B-cell lymphoma, which attacks blood cells crucial to the body's immune system.

   Sihanouk abdicated and was replaced by his son Norodom Sihamoni in 2004, but the king-father remains an important figure in Cambodian politics.

   He was appointed king by Cambodia's French rulers in 1941, but in 1955 Sihanouk abandoned the throne to become prime minister.

   After being overthrown in a military coup in 1970, Sihanouk sided with the Maoist Khmer Rouge, who came to power in 1975 and oversaw the deaths of up to 2 million people until Vietnam invaded in 1979.

   He was forced out of office again and remained virtually imprisoned in the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh during most of the Khmer Rouge's rule.

   Sihanouk returned to the throne in 1993, but frequently traveled to Beijing for treatment for a range of illnesses.