REPRESENTATIVES of some 500 vendors in Ratanakkiri province arrived in the capital yesterday to present a letter to the cabinet of Prime Minister Hun Sen seeking intervention in their dispute with a private firm that has been granted development rights in Banlung district.

Srey Pao, one of five representatives who made the trip, said the submission of the intervention request came one day after vendors prevented employees of the Taiy Seng Company from putting up a fence near the market, on the grounds that it would drive away customers.

“They just want to take over that land and construct flats,” he said of the company. He also accused officials of overlooking the effects of the company’s work on the market because the company had vowed to construct a new Banlung district hall and an administrative building for Laban Siek commune.

Banlung district Governor Ly Vin said yesterday that the government granted development rights to the company in September, and that it would construct flats and also “something back for local authorities as compensation”. He declined to elaborate, but said he believed that “the construction plan will not affect the villagers”.

Ly Hong Sin, the director of the company, declined to comment yesterday.