About two dozen police and military police officers flanked by a truck mounted with a blaring loudspeaker ordered tourist boats to leave the riverbank along Phnom Penh's Sisowath Quay on Monday.

Daun Penh District Governor Sok Sambath said the evictions were part of an effort to protect the riverbank from erosion."They crash into the riverbanks," he said of the popular tout boats, adding that they were permitted to drop anchor on the opposit side of the river.

But Sok Sambath claimed that the boats rarely obey orders for long. "They go and come back," he lamented. Nos Ibrahim,58,the owner of three tourist boats, said about 30 boats were told to leave the riverside Monday morning. "There are not customers,"he claimed of the opposite shore. Police dispersed all boats by about 9:30am.

Most fled north or to the eastern bank, but a few lingered just offshore, a few meters from police, before another blast of the loudspeaker sent them on their way. By 1pm, just as Daun Penh's governor had feared, most of the boats had returned to their usual berths.