Prince Norodom Ranariddh, head of the royalist Funcinpec party, also made an appearance in Kompong Cham.
The anti-royalist rulers of Iraq and Yemen are both prodding their progeny into positions as sons-in-waiting.
The Russians and Chinese and French will balk, but they can hardly be more royalist than the king.
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Their arrival in Phnom Penh, where the royalist party is in disarray, will likely further erode Ranariddh's position.
The royalist forces holding out along the Thai border will be targeted too.
The PPP has also hired Samak Sundaravej, an ferocious right-winger andarch-royalist, as stand-in leader while Mr Thaksin remains abroad.
But with Spanish royalist officials refusing any autonomy, calls for independence soon followed.
And Bangkok's youngsters, as internet-savvy as their counterparts all over the world, rushed to view the anti-royalist footage on alternative providers.
Bangkok's royalist elite has been chastened by the red shirts' pulling power.
China, where his father King Sihanouk has spent the crisis, is not likely to resume its former backing for a royalist-Khmer Rouge resistance.
To the government camp it looks like another sign that Bangkok's traditional, royalist elite is frustrating the people's will, to protect its privileges.
Bun-Ly's slaying heightened tensions in a capital already troubled by a quarrel between Ranariddh's royalist FUNCINPEC party and Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party.
In the faction-ridden royalist party, many fear that Sam Rainsy is a bigger threat than Hun Sen to the survival of a declining Funcinpec.
"You are touching not just a film star here, but the whole culture of Cambodia, " says a senior member of the royalist Funcinpec party.
The conservative opposition is also lead by Tony Abbott, an arch royalist who used to be the executive director of the Australians for constitutional monarchy.
Even decorators and fashion designers have picked up on royalist themes.
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For critics like Mr Pavin, the rush to prosecute is not really about protecting the monarchy but about exploiting its prestige to legitimise the royalist establishment.
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But if this happens, Mr Thaksin's increasingly angry redshirts threaten to take the place of the royalist yellow-shirts, hitting the streets to bring down the new government.
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He defied the result, bullied his way into partnership with the winner, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the leader of the royalist party, and set about ridding himself of opposition.
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Ranariddh's royalist Funcinpec party can count on significant grassroots support and could be the most potent rival to the CPP, but Hun Sen's "coup" last July has left it devastated.
Four years later, amid renewed street fighting between the CPP and the prince's royalist movement, Mr Hun Sen seized power in a coup, and had dozens of royalist officials shot.
It had faced resistance from soldiers loyal to Prince Norodom Ranariddh, head of the royalist party, after the prince son of the elderly King Sihanouk was deposed last year as joint prime minister.
The coup was the last chance for the army's royalist old guard, led by General Prem Tinsulanonda, the king's chief adviser, to remove Mr Thaksin before he replaced them with his own cronies.
As they see it, a Bangkok-based royalist clique, ranging from the PAD's leadership to elements of the armed forces, the bureaucracy, the courts and palace officials, is conspiring to overthrow democracy to protect its privileges.
But it has increasingly looked like a fight to the death by the country's traditional, royalist elite against a threat to its dominance from an authoritarian but highly popular leader from outside that Bangkok-based clique.
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And, indeed, Mr Abhisit's ascent to power is most obviously attributable to the antics of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the royalist group that last month took over Bangkok's airports in a bid to oust the government.
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During a strategy session with exiled members of his royalist party in Bangkok, Thailand, participants said, the prince agreed to peace proposals endorsed by his father, King Norodom Sihanouk, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
It accuses the Thaksinites, without showing any convincing evidence, of plotting to bring down Thailand's highly respected monarch, ignoring the fact that Mr Samak is a fierce royalist (perhaps why he was chosen to stand in for Mr Thaksin).
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