Operation clean-up

City officials and Bangkok residents joined hands yesterday for a mass cleanup of the ravaged city centre.

Thousands of people helped clear debris from many sites hit hard by the marathon redshirts protest in what was a major bid to see a return to normality after weeks of clashes and the fearsome arson attacks and looting of last week.

Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra led more than 2,000 workers and volunteers in a major operation to tidy up many locations which saw conflict between protesters and troops before and during the crackdown.

Six locations adjacent to the Rajprasong intersection were cleaned yesterday to enable Bangkokians a chance to resume their normal lives today. Schools in the capital are due to start the new semester today after a week's delay because of the chaos.

Businesses and state agencies will reopen their offices today after a weeklong holiday due to the crisis.

"We have to forgive what happen in the past and look ahead to rebuild a bright future for Bangkok," Sukhumbhand said.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration was working on a plan to rehabilitate the capital - to help the business sector renew tourism, he said.

The authority would host a merit making with 1,000 Buddhist monks taking part in a ceremony at Rajdamri Road from Rajprasong to Sala Daeng, where many people died in the protest, he said.

Workers found some 10 homemade bombs hidden near a building on Rajdamri road but managed to defuse and remove from the area.

The authorities aimed to have all business resumed by today as many roads in the areas near Rajprasong were open to traffic since yesterday evening.

A large amount of rubbish was seen in Rajprasong intersection, where was the main rally stage, but workers said they would make it clean as soon as possible and the authority would open the intersection for traffic by today.

Situation in Bangkok areas looked clam yesterday but the Center for Resolutions of Emergency Situation extended curfew for another two more days on Monday and Tuesday but shortened period to bar people from public only between 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.

The decision to extend the curfew was made after a group of unknown gun men sprayed bullets into a Bangkok branch in Lad Phrao shortly after Saturday mid night.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said the curfew would be lifted soon but the state of emergency would stay for a certain period of time until the government was sure that the situation would really return to normal.

Many volunteers joined the big cleaning day in a spirit to help the country resume to peace and order although they are not Bangkok residents.

They all looked enthusiastically ready to help cleaning up dirty areas which were caused by RedShirt protesters.

Most of them brought their own cleaning tools, garbage bags, brooms, trowels, rags. For those who didn't, BMA provided some of the tools as well. Many companies and independent groups gave out water, food, energy drinks to support the volunteers throughout the day.

"I'm not originally from Bangkok. I used to think Bangkok as urbanized area where people live separately and have no interaction with others. Now I clearly see the real Thai tradition of helping each other still exists," Sininart Swadpoon, a member of Lakorn Varasarn Team from Thammasat University.

Along the way, numbers of foreigners also lend their hands to clear all the trash on the roads. Social network in the internet brought many people into the cleaning activities yesterday.

"My girlfriend heard about the event from Facebook so, we decided to help cleaning and to get things back to normal. I was surprised to see how big the mess was," said Chris Garben, an American who joined the cleaning with his Thai girlfriend, Meg Sukjit.

 "We heard it from Facebook. Our group actually came here yesterday to take photos and put them on Facebook to encourage our friends to take part in the event." said Rachya Rungsaroj who joined the cleaning with many friends connected by the Facebook.