Thai Government Extends Curfew as Clean Up From Crackdown – Voice of America

The Thai administration has comprehensive an during the night curfew for three days as safety in Bangkok is still unsure after the army broke up an anti-government protest camp. The city has started to clean up from the months of protests and street violence, nearly a week.

City workers with bulldozers and trucks Thursday began payment away again after the Thai Army closed the red-shirt complaint camp in Bangkok city middle.

Workers dismantle the demonstrators' barricades, rubber tires and wicker poles near the commencement of Silom Road, the city's financial borough.

Pratsarn, a administrator from the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority, said it will take at least two days to clean up the area, partly for the reason that the army has to do it safely. He says that the army gave authorization for the cleanup crew after verification of unexploded equipment.

Many of the red-shirt leaders had surrender Thursday, and urged his faction to go home, but some demonstrator refused and resisted attempts to capture them.

The army report small pockets of hostility in Bangkok Thursday, when it sought down confrontation fighters. But in general, the city was calm, the day after the army used non-breakable vehicles to push the protest camp at Rajaprasong, an exclusive shopping center and inhabited area.

At least nine people died during the process, bringing the death toll to more than 70 since the protests begin in mid-March.

Satish Sehgal Bangkok is a publisher, who lives near the Bon Kai area where there was strong fighting on Wednesday. He said security in Bon Kai are still unconfident, roads have reopened, because some red-shirts are still vigorous in the area.

"I think are just waiting to clear the area of the Bon Kai because it seems that activists and some terrorists are still hiding in a variety of buildings around this area," he said. "The army is still look for weapons and explosive into Rajadamri Road. But apart from that it is only matter of time that things go back to normal. "

The Government has comprehensive the night curfew imposed on Wednesday in Bangkok and additional than 20 other provinces for three nights.

The red shirts, many of which supports former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, had demanded that the administration resign. They said they were deprived of their vote, when Mr. Thaksin, who overthrew in a coup in 2006 and elected posts, the pro-Thaksin administration removed by court decisions.

Mr. Thaksin, who live abroad to avoid custody for corruption, the army warned the protests could trigger violence elsewhere in the country. He has asked for outside arbitration to resolve the crisis, the administration denies.

The administration says Thaksin helped coordinate the protests, a charge he deny.