Protest mark Myanmar leader'r visit<\/p>\n
PHNOM PENH (AFP): Myanmar's military leader Than Shwe arrived
\nin Cambodia yesterday for a four-day state visit amid protests by
\nsupporters of pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, which
\nleft two police officers injured.<\/p>\n
Gen. Than Shwe, chairman of Myanmar's State Law and Order
\nRestoration Council (SLORC), was welcomed at the airport by King
\nNorodom Sihanouk and his wife, Queen Norodom Monineath Sihanouk.<\/p>\n
Up to 4,000 people, including dignitaries and schoolchildren,
\ngreeted the general and thousands more lined the streets as the
\ndelegation's motorcade passed, waving flags and pictures of Than
\nShwe and the king.<\/p>\n
Protestors from the officially unrecognized opposition Khmer
\nNation Party (KNP) who tried to demonstrate as the motorcade
\npassed their office were physically stopped by police who ripped
\ndown their banners.<\/p>\n
Barricades erected to keep KNP protestors from the motorcade
\nroute remained in place several hours later and police manning
\nthem refused virtually all access to the office and nearby
\nresidences.<\/p>\n
It was not clear when the barricades would be removed.
\nSecurity forces earlier fired warning shots in central Phnom Penh
\nto stop a banned protest march by the KNP.<\/p>\n
The two police were injured after KNP president Sam Rainsy,
\nleading about two dozen supporters with placards, broke through
\none of the barricades on foot.<\/p>\n
In the ensuing melee, the two were injured, one sustaining a
\nbroken leg, when they were hit by a KNP car which ran the
\nblockade, according to Mok Chito, the chief of Phnom Penh's
\ncriminal police. The other officer suffered an unspecified arm
\ninjury.<\/p>\n
The driver of the car was later arrested, along with one of
\nSam Rainsy's bodyguards, who witnesses said was first beaten by
\npolice.<\/p>\n
In an apparently related incident, police surrounded the
\noffices of the Khmer Students Association, also on the motorcade
\nroute, denying the group's members entry or exit from the
\nbuilding, witnesses said.<\/p>",
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