Message and solemn declaration of Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, Head of State of Cambodia (March 23, 1970).

KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA
NATIONAL UNITED FRONT OF KAMPUCHEA

HESSAGE AND SOLEMN DGCUMTION

OF

SAMDECHj NORODOM SIHANOUK
HEAD OF STATE OF CAMBODIA

(March 23. 1970)

Published by the Royal Government of
National Union of Cambodia (RGNUC)

W6?

MESSAGE AND SOLEMN DECLARATION BY
SAMDECH NORODOM SIHANOUK,
HEAD OF STATE OF CAMBODIA

I pay my highest resp'ects to Her Majesty the Queen,
and entend my respectful regards to the Buddhist clergy
and my dear compatriots.

I convey to you my most sincere, constant and affec-
tionate feelings.

The handful of reactionary bourgeois elements and
princes, who were able to climb to the highest positions
thanks to the Sangkum Reastr Niyum and its President
and consequently seize all kinds of privileges^ have not only
expressed their **gratitude" by "deposing" me illegally but
moreover have slung mud at me, vilified me with monstrous
slanders and base accusations including the accusation of
my betrayal of the motherland "to serve foreign interests".

But my grief at these slanders and accusations is not so
acute as my grief at the present very unfortunable fate of
our country which is being wantonly ravaged by the group
of ti-aitors and renagades who have unbridledly imposed on
the nation a dictatorship (after having violated and thrown
overboard the Constitution of the Kingdom) and is leading

olir country straight to anarchism and war provoked by U.S.
imperiaUsm. Our country of Khmer had been known m
the world as an oasis of peace and stability (for many years
up to the eve of the crisis created by men of the March
1970 coup d'etat).

At present the liberty, democracy, reiative prosperity,
natiSoalmiity^mdu^jv^ ^^^^Ifli^^l"^

agohave^eerTdestroyed, reduced to nothing^

Our soldiers have been ordered to give up defending
the frontiers and the country's territory to set themselves
against their own compatriots and ruthlessly repress aU
those who dare to show even the sHghtest verbal opposition
to the new fascist power which serves U.S. imperialism.

This is not an accusation made by me but an obvious
fact seen by all clear-sighted observers in the world.

The Lon Nol-Sisowath Sink Matak-Cheng Heng clique
declared that I was a "traitor" and that I had "sold out"
my country to foreign countries, because I wanted to make
our nation avoid, on the one hand, losing its good reputation
of wisdom and maturity and, on the other, running into
great danger in the future by provoking recklessly and with
undue hostility socialist Viet Nam which the U.S.A. the
richest and biggest military power of the world, failed to
bring to its knees.

My devotion and loyalty to the nation have become a
crime of high treason owing to the "good will" of my en-
nemies.

However, their "condemnation" does not disturb me
much since they themselves are genuine re nag ades who have
ingatiahlp greed for pnwpc^^ ^ealth and fame, and are mere
cowards who, only dgrejo ^tack Sihanouk in his absence
and stab hi m in the backTZT ' "

Therefore this despicable clique will not be able to
affect me or make me fall back from my unshakable deter-
mination to defend the supreme and long-term interests of
my motherland and her liberty.

The milUons of Khmers at home and the thousands of
Khmers abroad will certainly very soon uphold the banner
of revolt against the reactionary Lon Nol-Sirik Matak-Cheng
Heng clique and its masters — the U.S. imperialists. The .
patriotic Khmers will overthrow these traitors and drive
their accomplices and their U.S. masters out of our country.
After victory, our patriots will build up a new Kampuchea
whose power will remain for ever in the hands of the pro-
gressive, industrious and pure working people, who will
ensure that our motherland will have a bright future with
social justice, equality and fraternity among all Khmers.

The treason, cowardice, slanders and the despicable
attacks by the reactionaries have opened my eyes and made
me painfully aware of my unpardonable naivety and my '
misjudgement which made me believe that a free, democ-
ratic, peaceful, prosperous and happy country could be built
with the help of such notorious personages, the corrupt
bourgeois elements and princes, fascists, reactionaries a^
those making up the present "government" and "parliament"
of Phnom Penh.

The "heavy blow" they dealt me and are still dealing
me serves as a painful but very useful lesson to me, a lesson
I will never forget all my life.

In view of this misjudgement, I should resign the func-
tion as Head of State after our people's certain victory over
their enemies, reactionary oppressors and their masters -—
the U.S. imperialists. And on that very occasion I will give
our progressive youth and working people the possibility of
fully assuming the responsability of national construction
and defence with the co-operation of the entire nation.

j }^ the present circumstances my task has not yet been

fulfilled, because I will never aUow the treacherous reac-
tionaries, with the backing of the power of U.S. dollars and
at bayonet point, to go on wantonly trampling underfoot
the ideals, laws and basic principles of the state with im-
punity.

And it is in this spirit that I solemnly declare as follows:

1) In my capacity as legal Head of State of Cambodia,
a supreme position given me by the Khmer people unani-
mously, I irrevocably dissolve the Lon Nol government and
the two chambers of parliamtot who have betrayed their
constitutional oaths and the Constitution of the Kingdom.

2) I call on all my compatriots and all the foreigners
residing in Cambodia not to recognize and carry out decre
(prakas, kret),) laws (kram), orders, messages, circulars,
judgements, all kinds of decisions, and verdicts — "works"

which the Lon Nol-Sirik Matak-Cheng Heng clique and their
accomplices or servants have produced or are going to
produce.

3) A new National Union Government will be estab-
lished. A Provisionsil Consultative Assembly will also be
estabUshed (for assisting the government), whose members
will be qualified representatives from all circles of the
Khmer society (monks, peasants and farmers, worka-s and
other labourers, merchants, industrialists, armymen, police-
men, provincial guard, youth and intellectuals, functionaries,
women, etc. . . . ).

4) A National Liberation Army will be formed.

5) All Khmer people at home and abroad (the clergy
and laymen, armymen and civilians, men and women) —
who cherish the ideals of independence, democracy, neu-
trality, progress, socialism. Buddhism and nationalism, and
stand for territorial integrity of the country within her
existing frontiers, antirimperialism and anti-neo-coloniaiism
— will unite to form a united, front under the official name
"the National United Front of Kampuchea" (Abbreviation:
"N.U.F.K.").

The essential tasks of the N.U.F.K. consist in:

One. Liberate our motherland from the dictatorship
and oppression by the reactionary and pro-imperialist L.on
Nol-Sirik Matak-Cheng Heng clique.

Two. Struggle against the U.S. imperialists who have
invaded our Indo-China and are oppressing its peoples and

5

breeding injustice, war and all kinds of calamities, hostility
and disimity, troubles, crises and misery among our three
peoples — the Khmers, Vietnamese and Laotians; and this
struggle wiU be waged side by side with the socialist,
progressive, anti-imperialist countries or peoples, far and
near, with their complete support.

Three. Rebuild our country and make her advance as
rapidly as possible along the road of progress following our
victory over our enemies. This task of reconstruction is
tobe accomplished by all of us, the Khmers, in comradeship,
solidarity and perfect unity as in times of hard fight.

I am longing very much for my beloved motherland
which is and will always remain the sole nurpose of my
life.

I also miss very much my poor mother, our Buddhist
clergy and our beloved people.

If I am not to die in the struggle our patriotic and
progressive people and ourselves are going to wage together,
I will surely salute and embrace them when we win in-
evitable victory over the imperialists and their lackeys.

In the course of this struggle, I call on all those of my
children (compatriots), military and civilian, who can no
longer endure the unjust oppression by the traitors and
who have the courage and patriotic spirit needed for liber-
ating the motherland, to engage in guerrilla warfare in the
jungle against our enemies.

If you are armed and have already mastered military
skills, I will provide you at opportune moments with muni-
tions and new arms. If you do not yet have arms but wish
to acquire military skills, I will take necessary measures to
send you to the military school of the National United
Front of our Kampuchea, which is being established way
out from your barracks and villages and this is for the
purpose that the enemy will not be able to reach or locate it.

Those of my children (compatriots) who live in and
around Europe and wish to serve the motherland and the
people by joining the Liberation Army or the National
United Front of Kampuchea, please come to call on me in
Moscow or Peking.

Long live Cambodia!

N. Sihanouk
March 23, 1970

INDOCHINA SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE
P.O. Box*C*» Old Chelsea Sta.
N.Y.,N.Y. 10011 (212)982-7162