(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />Mourners from all over Cambodia gathered in the capital on Monday (February 4) to pay their last respects to their former king Norodom Sihanouk.<br/> <br />Sihanouk's body will remain in a purpose built crematorium in Phnom Penh until the cremation ceremony later on Monday at 1800pm (1100GMT).<br/> <br />People were allowed to enter the crematorium to pay their final respects in the morning. Others prayed in front of the Royal Palace.<br/> <br />Sihanouk, once an absolute ruler who freed Cambodia from colonialism before becoming a tragic pawn through decades of turmoil, died in October in a Beijing hospital. He was 89.<br/> <br />Despite his political flip-flopping, diminished influence and latter years in exile, Sihanouk will be remembered with fondness, as a man groomed to be a puppet of France who defied his colonial masters and tried to prevent a repeat of Cambodia 's bloodstained past.<br/> <br />Sihanouk's portrait is commonplace in homes and buildings across the Southeast Asian nation of 14 million people.
