From the Christian Science Monitor:

Antigovernment protesters ended a three week occupation Tuesday in the Thai capital after four days of chaos that prompted the deployment of combat troops under emergency rule. The negotiated end to a tense standoff throws a lifeline to the beleaguered government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva, which protesters had sought to topple.

By midday, thousands of red-shirted demonstrators, who had camped at the prime minister’s official compound, were filing out past security checkpoints, weary but defiant in the face of overwhelming military force. Protest leaders who had surrendered to authorities said they had agreed to stand down in order to avoid further bloodshed but insisted that their campaign would resume.

So things seem to have come to a rather quick conclusion over the last 48 hours.  The government was able to clear the streets of Bangkok, the protest leaders were arrested or turned themselves in, and the main protest (at Government House) stopped and people boarded government supplied buses to return home.  While not without incident, it was interesting to see that the general population of Bangkok seemed to be tired of the protests–even confronting the “red shirts” on more than one occasion, and supporting the efforts to clear the streets.

We’re glad to see a quick resolution, and hope that the government will become more stable and be able to address the underlying social inequalities that play into the hands of the politicians using these groups (the yellow shirts and the red shirts).