PRIME Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet has requested that City Hall help a group of 13 families due to be evicted by the end of the month from Boeung Kak I commune in Tuol Kork district receive compensation terms they deem acceptable, a villager’s representative said Wednesday.

“We received a letter from the prime minister’s Cabinet on January 19, saying they had written to City Hall on our behalf,” Him Sosary said. “They want to find a resolution for us.”

The 13 families agreed last month to tear down their homes and relocate in exchange for a 4.8-metre-by-12-metre plot of land and 1 million riels

(US$239). But they changed their minds after determining that the two proposed relocation sites were too far away from the capital.

District officials have accused the families of living on a public road. Tuol Kork Governor Seng Ratanak reiterated that argument on Wednesday, saying, “They live on the road, and they have to move because they have no land titles.”