Thai border areas prepare for impacts from

SURIN, THAILAND, November 1 (TNA) - Authorities in Thailand's border provinces are preparing for impacts from a forthcoming ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on a territorial case related to the Preah Vihear Temple, set on November 11, 2013. In the lead-up to the ICJ’s ruling, concerned parties, including border security units, are preparing for all possible incidents although the situation along the Thai-Cambodian border remains normal. Yutthana Viriyakitti, Governor of Thailand's northeastern Surin Province bordering Cambodia, on Friday discussed with other concerned authorities on the province's prepared measures to cope with any possible incident during and after The Hague-based World Court’s verdict on the case. The Surin governor later told reporters that the prepared plans include those on evacuating locals, securing border villages, coping with demonstrators and assigning local community leaders to provide villagers with correct information to prevent panic. However, the situation along the Thai-Cambodian border in Surin remains normal and Thai and Cambodian people do their border trade, through the Chong Jom border crossing and the Chong Jom market, as usual. In Si Sa Ket, another northeastern Thai province bordering Cambodia, activists from the country's Lower Northeast and East are urging local people to reject the upcoming World Court's ruling, while the situation near the border close to the Preah Vihear Temple in Si Sa Ket's Kantharalak District remain normal. In Chantaburi Province in the Thai East, also bordering Cambodia, a vice president of an association of Thai-Cambodian border trade and tourism, acknowledged that his association has asked Cambodian traders to maintain their border trade, no matter how the ICJ rules. Meanwhile, Cambodian people have crossed the border to buy Thai products in Chantaburi as usual. (TNA)