Mourning in the Streets as Sihanouk Cremation Ceremonies Begin

The funeral procession for Cambodia’s former king, Norodom Sihanouk, began Friday, starting in the pre-dawn hours as soldiers and military in ceremonial garb gathered in Phnom Penh, where between 1 million and 3 million mourners are expected to travel in coming days. Sihanouk will be cremated Monday, after days of ceremony, as Cambodians remember his legacy, which began with the country’s independence from France in the 1950s, carried into the Khmer Rouge era, and only ended in 2004, when he abdicated and passed the throne to his son, Norodom Sihamoni. (VOA Khmer’s Say Mony reports from Phnom Penh)