Protest mark Myanmar leader'r visit

Protest mark Myanmar leader'r visit

PHNOM PENH (AFP): Myanmar's military leader Than Shwe arrived in Cambodia yesterday for a four-day state visit amid protests by supporters of pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, which left two police officers injured.

Gen. Than Shwe, chairman of Myanmar's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), was welcomed at the airport by King Norodom Sihanouk and his wife, Queen Norodom Monineath Sihanouk.

Up to 4,000 people, including dignitaries and schoolchildren, greeted the general and thousands more lined the streets as the delegation's motorcade passed, waving flags and pictures of Than Shwe and the king.

Protestors from the officially unrecognized opposition Khmer Nation Party (KNP) who tried to demonstrate as the motorcade passed their office were physically stopped by police who ripped down their banners.

Barricades erected to keep KNP protestors from the motorcade route remained in place several hours later and police manning them refused virtually all access to the office and nearby residences.

It was not clear when the barricades would be removed. Security forces earlier fired warning shots in central Phnom Penh to stop a banned protest march by the KNP.

The two police were injured after KNP president Sam Rainsy, leading about two dozen supporters with placards, broke through one of the barricades on foot.

In the ensuing melee, the two were injured, one sustaining a broken leg, when they were hit by a KNP car which ran the blockade, according to Mok Chito, the chief of Phnom Penh's criminal police. The other officer suffered an unspecified arm injury.

The driver of the car was later arrested, along with one of Sam Rainsy's bodyguards, who witnesses said was first beaten by police.

In an apparently related incident, police surrounded the offices of the Khmer Students Association, also on the motorcade route, denying the group's members entry or exit from the building, witnesses said.