Cambodian police break up Labour Day march

PHNOM PENH, May 1 (Reuters) Riot police broke up a peaceful Labour Day march in the Cambodian capital today, drawing criticism from rights activists and the opposition who reject the official line that the dispersal was to prevent traffic jams.

Police armed with AK-47 rifles and electric batons chased protesters out of public parks in the centre of Phnom Penh and used fire trucks to block garment workers from gathering outside the National Assembly.

''They should not disperse us just because we come to express our opinions over work conditions,'' said garment worker Sour Channy, 26,, who is demanding a doubling of her 40dollars-a-month pay.

The impoverished southeast Asian nation, which is still recovering from the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s, is a fledgling democracy but long-term Prime Minister Hun Sen is often accused of autocracy and intolerance towards dissent.

The protest was the first since opposition leader Sam Rainsy's return from a year of self-imposed exile after he lost his parliamentary immunity. Several prominent rights activists were also briefly imprisoned at the start of the year.

International Labor Day is a public holiday in Cambodia, which was under communist Vietnamese occupation in the 1980s, but government officials said workers should not march on the streets in case they caused a public disturbance.

''They can gather in their factories or offices, but should not come out. We do not want passengers to miss their flights on the way to the airport,'' government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told Reuters.

Although no injuries were reported, Sam Rainsy said it was a sad reflection on the country.

''I regret this happened as it means Cambodia has no real democracy,'' he told a crowd of 600 workers at a stand-off with police.

Reuters SHB DB1047