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Thai demonstrators accuse police of brutality

About 2,000 anti-government protesters marched past Bangkok’s upmarket shopping malls yesterday, accusing police of brutality, upping pressure on the increasingly isolated prime minister.

In a repeat of a similar rally on Friday, supporters of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) handed out leaflets and CDs showing graphic images of protesters injured in a deadly clash with police earlier this month.

“The police try to distort the truth. I insist that what we bring is the whole truth,” Somsak Kosaisuk, one of the PAD leaders, told crowds of people dressed in yellow shirts, which shows loyalty to the Thai king.

Two people were killed and nearly 500 injured on Oct. 7 when police fired tear gas to prevent thousands of PAD supporters from blocking parliament, prompting some protesters to fight back.

A police officer at the scene early yesterday estimated that about 1,300 protesters had turned out and crowds later swelled, blocking traffic on normally busy roads.

About 300 police officers stood on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, the prime ministers of Cambodia and Thailand plan to hold talks this week in Beijing after a long-running border dispute escalated into a deadly shoot-out, a Cambodian official said.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen expects to meet Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat on the sidelines of a meeting between leaders of Asian and European nations on Friday and Saturday.

“The prime minister will bilaterally meet with the Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao [溫家寶] and we have planned to meet with the Thai prime minister as well,” Hun Sen’s adviser Sri Thamrong said.

Somchai later told reporters in Bangkok that no specific meeting had been arranged with Hun Sen.

“The Cambodia issue needs to be discussed between the two countries,” he said. “[Talks] depend on whether there is an appropriate atmosphere and an appropriate time available or not.”

Thai and Cambodian military officials are scheduled to hold talks later this week.
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