By Prak Chan Thul
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Twenty-four members of the Cambodian Bar Association signed contracts to work as free defense counsel for the French NGO Avocats Sans Frontieres on Friday, ending a controversy spawned by the 22-month feud over the Bar's presidency. The group includes 12 lawyers hired by the Bar for the NGO's project when they were still legal trainees. In June, four members of the Bar not selected for the program blasted the Bar's selection of the legal trainees, saying they were not yet bar-accredited lawyers and could not work on the project. The 12 trainees were made members of the Bar when it met for only the second time in 22 months on Aug 9. One of the complaining lawyers, Hong Chansokha, was among the final 24 lawyers accepted for a position. "I compromised. I don't want to have the dispute anymore," he said on Friday. Bar Resident, Ky Tech, whose refusal to step down when beaten in an October 2004 election has sparked the deadlock, hailed the contract signing as a return to normalcy. However Suon Visal, the victorious presidential candidate who was not allowed to take office, said that the Bar dispute is not over yet, adding that new elections are unofficially slated for Oct 16.
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