via CAAI News Media

Who Will Win a Trip to Hong Kong in April? Please Check it Out Here

Thursday, 28 January 2010 10:00 DAP-NEWS/ Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 28, 2010– US government would pay your trip to Hong Kong, but you will have to go through the Cambodia’s third annual Client Counseling Competition, which is to take place on January 28 and 29 at the Sunway Hotel in Phnom Penh.

The U.S.-funded competition features teams from eight Cambodian law schools who will compete for a trip to Hong Kong in April to represent Cambodia in the International Client Counseling Competition, said the US release was seen by DAP.

The finalists will compete from 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m., after which U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Carol A. Rodley and President of the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia Chiv Song Hak will present awards to the winners, it said.

The Client Counseling Competition places teams of law students in a simulated legal-office environment, with actors standing in as clients.

It is designed to teach the students practical skills that will serve them in their future careers, in particular how to effectively interview and advise clients.

Panels of experienced legal professionals will observe and score the performances, said the release.

Two Cambodian winners were awarded a trip to India in 2008 for the first competition and followed by the second contest one last year in which two other Cambodian law students won a trip to US, where they sight-seeingtrip Las Vegas.

Opposition Party Leader Gets Two Years in Jail

Thursday, 28 January 2010 09:40 DAP-NEWS

Svay Rieng court on Wednesday sentenced Cambodian opposition party leader Sam Rainsy in absentia to two years imprisonment for uprooting border markers on the border with Vietnam.

The trial took place between 8am and 2 pm and was attend by many people, especially opposition party members and with journalists.

Sam Rainsy led a group of villagers in pulling up the markers as a way to illustrate his claim that Vietnam is encroaching upon Cambodian territory, an issue he has often raised to garner political support. The incident occurred in October of last year.

“I cannot accept the trial today, because it did not take evidence and proof into consideration to find justice,” Sam Sokong, the two alleged villagers’ lawyer told reporters following the trail. “The court did not base its decision on the evidence.”

He added that his clients—local villagers Meas Srey, 39, and Prom Chea, 41, were also sentenced to one year in prison each on the charge of destroying public property and ordered to pay 5 million riels (US$1,204).

However, the other three villagers who escaped were not charged. In total, Sam Rainsy and the two alleged villagers were ordered to pay CR55 million.

Sam Rainsy´s lawyer, Choung Chougni, declined to give comment to journalists, and the two other charged men avoided journalists waiting by the court.

Long Ry, an SRP lawmaker who attended the trial, also rejected the verdict, saying the proceedings were a farce. “The decision was prepared befor- ehand and everything was decided in advance. The court ‘acted’ very well,” he told reporters, but referred other questions to SRP spokesman Yim Sovann.

One government official said criticisms were misplaced, since all Cambo-dian judges followed due process and adhered to the law. “Everyone has different ideas, but we have one law,” said Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, told DAP News Cambodia. “We have to accept the judge’s decision.”

The charges stemmed from an October 25, 2009 incident in which Sam Rainsy joined villagers in pulling out six temporary border markers in Svay Rieng’s Chantrea district. Locals claimed they were placed in their ricefields by Vietna- mese authorities. Sam Rainsy is currently in France.

Cambodia’s Parliament stripped him of his immunity from prosecution in November.

Land Conflicts in Cambodia Dropped in 2009

Thursday, 28 January 2010 09:39 DAP-NEWS

Cambodian National Authority of Land Conflict Resolution announced on yesterday that the land conflicts in country dropped about 2 percent in 2009 compared with 2008 in the same period. But 2007 saw 253 cases, 27 percent less than 2006.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the authority, Soun Siphat, the organization’s secretary general, said “We agreed to receive 213 of 1,271 complaints of the land conflicts from local people and other governmental agencies in 2009, because all 213 cases could be dealt with.”

“The national authority already solved 102 of 213 cases. We have 1271 cases in total of land conflict complaints since 2008. Of the 1,271 cases, 972 were turned back because those cases are not under the power of the national authority to deal with. In 2009, we investigated 69 cases of land conflicts and are investigating a further 51 cases.”

“Phnom Penh is in number one location for land conflict in the country and has 41 cases, and second is Preah Sihanouk province with 23 cases. Kandal has 21 cases,” he said.

Bin Chin, deputy prime minister in charge of the National Authority of Land Conflict Resolution, admitted that more needs to be done to prevent land conflicts, saying the land authority needs an action plan to implement investigation and research complaints.

Land conflicts in Cambodia increased after the land price increased sharply in the past few years. They are often complicated because local people do not have the properly titles after the country passed through civil war. The government has claimed it is trying to land for local people.

The national authority noted that the land conflicts also occurred in grabbing state land illegally, and in some cases local authorities provided different land titles on the same land plot.

In 2009, the Cambodian government terminated the land titling program with the World Bank after it accused the WB of interfering in government affairs. The WB had asked the government to deal properly with evictions of local people.

NiDA Conference to be Held in April

Thursday, 28 January 2010 09:38 DAP-NEWS

A conference will be held in April 2010 by ICT organization NiDA, NiDA said at a meeting at Koh Pech Center in Phnom Penh on Wednesday.

NiDA Secretary General Chhun Vath said that “It is very important to get improve science and telecommunications with modern technology.”

“This event to extent to establish the new Information Technology and expand its benefits to new generations,” he said, expressing hopes ICT could boost the economic environment as it has in Korea, Japan, Singapore, and the US.

Gael Campan, GM of the Sotelko telecoms company, said that the Cam-bodian population is increasing, so mobile phones are increasingly popular for education purposes.

A press release said mobile phone users have grown about 170 percent since 2007-2008, in June 2009 about 4,400,000 customers, showing the potential of Cambodia’s telecommunications sector.

A Sales manager of EZECOM said that “EZECOM is very proud to step into this sector and offer new products as well as services to all customers, such as VOIP as standard to the world over with optic fiber systems.”

PM Hun Sen Breaks Ground on Main Road in Northern Region

Thursday, 28 January 2010 09:37 DAP-NEWS

Cambodian PM Hun Sen on Tuesday broke ground on a new main road linking Kampong Thom province to Preah Vihear provincial town. The road is being constructed with a loan from the Chinese government.

This road will help to integrate Preah Vihear province’s road infrastructure to other places northern Cambodia, especially connecting neighboring Laos and Thailand, the premier said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The project will also help speed up development of the triangle region of adjacent areas of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, he noted.

This 128 km road cost over US$52 million, with US$49 million coming from a Chinese loan. The project will take another “few years to end,” he added .

Roads will connect the provincial town of Preah Vihear to Stung Treng province and help to facilitate the transport in northern part of the country. The new road also links to Preah vihear temple, where Cambodian and Thai troops have conferonted each other since July 2008. Thai troops encroached upon Cambodian soil near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple.

Several exchanges of fire have left dozen of soldiers dead.

Cambodia’s Women’s Affairs to Launch Fresh Campaign to Promote Gender

Thursday, 28 January 2010 07:04 Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 28 (DAP) – Cambodian Ministry’s Women’s Affairs to collaborate with a foreign-funded group Khmer Youth Association to launch a fresh campaign to deepen knowledge among the young’s people about the need to promote gender equality, said the release by the UN development agency on Thursday.

“The campaign also aims at increasing the awareness of youth on the issue and engaging them in the promotion of gender equality,” said the release was distributed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The campaign will be led by the Khmer Youth Association to dissemination by holding a series of workshop and outdoor activities targeting university students in Phnom Penh and two other provinces.

“I thank you all for making the time to join us today for the dissemination campaign of this important report. I am grateful to see so many students here who I know can make an important contribution to improving gender equality in Cambodia,” Khim Chamroeun, education deputy minister, said in an opening speech at a campaign workshop at Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC), where more than 100 students attended the Thursday event.

More workshops will be held in three universities next month in the capital and two other universities and two colleges.

Also, the walking campaign and concert will be held in the provinces of Svay Rieng and Takeo, where it is expected that the campaign will reach 1,000 youths who are directly involved, said the release.

“Gender equality in decision making has a potential that is much wider than women themselves,” Khim Chamroeun said.

“As within the family, women have valuable perspectives to contribute to greater representation of women in decision-making roles in our society,” she said.

The 2008 CGA reports on women’s challenges in the following key areas: gender relations and attitudes, economy, education, health, HIV-AIDS, violence and sexual exploitation, politics and decision making, and mainstreaming gender equality considerations.

It was officially launched in late 2008 with a series of dissemination workshops targeting decision-makers and senior management from all line ministries and key development partners and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

“The first is that equality between men and women is a human right guaranteed by Cambodian constitution, and the constitution also specifically prohibits discrimination against women,” said the deputy minister.

“Secondly, everyone benefits from gender equality, not just women themselves. Better educated and trained women will contribute more to household income and decision making.”

“This in turn can help significantly improve standards of living, especially for Cambodia’s poorest people who suffer the most from gender inequality,” she added.

Her Excellency Khim Chamroeun said the “government is now putting more emphasis on youth as an indispensable factor for the country’s development”, in particularly to promote gender equality in Cambodia.

The government is currently developing a National Youth Policy aiming at building the capacity of young people and promoting their participation in decision making and policy formulation.

The report was developed with technical and financial support from the UN agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund, and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the World Bank, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the Asian Development Bank, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the Cambodia Development Resource Institute.