A protest is announced on Friday at the University Square, downtown Bucharest, after the Government decision to put on hold the procedure to include Rosia Montana on UNESCO’s heritage list, without a public debate or announcement.
Several thousand people have signed an online petition whereby they ask UNESCO to keep the Rosia Montana file on the agenda, claiming the Romanian representatives who asked for putting it on hold do not represent them, ziare.com reports.
The protest is to start at 18.00h at University Square.
“The Dancila Government has put on hold the procedure to include Rosia Montana at UNESCO! ‘Silence is gold’ is one of the slogans for the campaign Save Rosia Montana, which is ongoing. Our experience during the past 15 years to save Rosia Montana has taught us what silence means. The people in power have always pleaded for the exploitation, not for the patrimony. The politicians were hand in hand with the interests of Gold Corporation, no matter who was in power. (…) In 2013 everything seemed lost. Thousands of people have taken to the streets and stopped a law which could have destroyed the heritage, the nature and the Rosia Montana community. Now we can carry on this campaign, which has shaped the civil society in Romania. We need to get mobilised with the same enthusiasm. We succeeded in 2013, we would succeed now!” reads the message of the organisers posted on Facebook.
The Government has officially put on hold the procedure to include Rosia Montana on the UNESCO heritage list. The application to put the file on hold was made by the Ministry of Culture and sent to the Romanian Ambassador to UNESCO through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Adrian Cioroianu told G4Media.ro. on Wednesday.
The reason behind the decision is that Romania is on trial with arbitration against Gabriel Resources, the main shareholder of Rosia Montana Gold Corporation, which demands USD 4.4 billion damages because the mining of gold was blocked.
The decision to include Roşia Montană in the UNESCO heritage was to be made by the World Heritage Committee at its 42nd session during June 29-July 2 in Manama, Bahrain.