Thailand cleans up fast ahead of APEC summit

Thailand cleans up fast ahead of APEC summit

Uamdao Noikorn, Associated Press, Bangkok

Thailand's congested, bawdy and frenetic capital is being cleaned up fast so visiting foreign leaders won't see its infamously seedy side.

Prostitutes, beggars, homeless people, and even stray dogs are being swept off Bangkok's streets ahead of next month's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.

A week-long vacation will be declared to ease its notorious traffic jams.

Concerns over tidiness are running second only to anti-terror precautions and other security priorities ahead of the APEC summit to include VIPs, like U.S. President George W. Bush.

Obsessed with image and holding a traditional Asian fear of losing face, the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is spending 554 million baht (US$13.85 million) to spruce up the so-called City of Angels.

Much of the snap beautification is conventional: Workers are planting trees and building fountains near summit venues.

Patches of green turf are being laid along the banks of the muddy Chao Phraya river where guests from the 21-nation Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will be treated to the rare spectacle of a royal barge procession.

Colorful umbrellas will be given to street vendors to create vivid tableaux for official motorcades that speed through streets normally choked with traffic.

Even the lawn outside the prime minister's office is being replaced with another type of grass that has "a softer, carpet- like feel," according to the prime minister's secretariat office.

"We need to do everything to show the nation's beauty: It's everybody's duty. Thousands of people will come to this event," said Yongyuth Tiyapairath, the prime minister's secretary- general.

More controversially, deadlines have been set to banish streetwalkers from major thoroughfares, round up stray animals, and keep the sellers of traditional garlands from peddling their wares at intersections, he said.

Prostitutes are the first targets of the urban cleansing campaign. Since August, police have stepped up street patrols and increased the number of arrests in a city infamous worldwide for its red-light districts.

"We actually arrest them every day as the sight of them is an eyesore," said Maj.Gen. Phadet Thalawonghe who is heading the operation. "But they always return without fail after paying fines."

Another target is some 3,000 canines that roam the streets near key venues. Once rounded up, they'll be spayed and sent into exile at a dog shelter in northeastern Thailand.

But hunting down homeless hounds is also hard.

"Sometimes we don't see any dogs at all during a roundup. It turns out residents hide the dogs in their homes and release them after we leave," said a city worker, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Homeless people will face much the same treatment as dogs, under a plan by outspoken Bangkok Gov. Samak Sundaravej.

Some 10,000 beggars and vagrants, including street children, will be picked up over the next two weeks.

If they have nowhere else to go, they'll be sent to camps near a train terminal, by a canal and in a park.

"Give them a chance to go back home first, then put (the rest) together in one place and feed them from the state budget like my previous operation against street dogs," Samak was quoted saying by The Nation newspaper.

Responding to public disapproval of Samak's remarks, Prime Minister Thaksin -- a multimillionaire before he entered politics -- says vagrants would be given training and jobs. The mentally ill and sick will get cared for.

"Don't worry about these people being mistreated," Thaksin told reporters.

Even so, there is widespread skepticism about the cleanup.

Fruit seller Nittaya Kampan, 45, said the government is "wasting time and money" on a short-term solution to the city's ills.

She complained that her family's income would be cut greatly from the ban on garland selling -- a job her 11-year-old son, Aek, does every day after school. Garland vendors, usually children, sell their fragrant floral wreathes at intersections to drivers for good luck Thai-style.

She said the umbrellas to be given out to acceptable street vendors "won't be of any use because people will have a weeklong vacation and I'll have no one to sell my fruits to anyway."

APEC is the world's largest trade cooperation group, with a combined population of over 2.5 billion and total gross domestic product of $19 trillion.

Its members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States.