Andreea Pocotila
The Open Society Foundation (OSF) yesterday made its opposition public to the gold mining project in Rosia Montana, where the Toronto-based Gabriel Resources company plans to extract over 300 tons of gold and 1,600 tons of silver. Over the last six years, the project has raised controversy and scandal, as the local community was split between supporters and opponents. Gabriel Resources promises the project will boost the economy of the area and will improve the current bad environmental conditions.
However, the OSF representatives yesterday said the project will have devastating effects on the environment and cultural vestiges in the area.
"We will use all legal and civic means to stop this project from being carried out," said a press release from the NGO and signed by the organization's president, Renate Weber.
The OSF press release was the answer the organization gave to an invitation launched by the Gabriel Resources Vice President John Aston. He had invited the NGO to state its point of view regarding the environment impact assessment recently released by the company.
The controversy caused by the mining project raised the attention of the international mass media. Last Friday, British newspaper The Guardian published an article about the campaign initiated by actress Vanessa Redgrave against the gold mine. Redgrave dedicated her lifetime achievement award at the International Transylvania Film to a local community organization, Alburnus Maior, which is the main opponent of the mining project planned by Gabriel Resources. In return, the NGO gave the actress a square meter of land in the village of Rosia Montana. The Canadian company was outraged by the actress's remarks and gave its response in an advertisement in The Guardian. The ad - paid by Gabriel Resources - is an open letter signed by locals who support the project.
"If you help a small group of outsiders stop the new mine, without having any connection with our community, they'll leave our village and go on to the next battle against development. You will have your meter of land in our village - and your fine home in London. Where will we go? How will we live?" says the letter.
The Guardian yesterday published three other open letters about the Rosia Montana mining project, but this time from opponents of the project. One of the letters, signed by approximately 50 artists, including Romanian writer Horia-Roman Patapievici and singer Mihnea Blidariu, says: "Gabriel Resources' mine proposal is not about creation, it is about destruction. That's why it intends to impose it upon the community and that's why it buys ads to shut critics up."
Another letter was signed by Alburnus Maior project coordinator Sorana Olaru Zainescu, who says "the open-cast mining project will last 16 years and it doesn't solve the problems of jobs and environment in the area."
The third letter came from Cambridge Professor George Comori, who pointed out "Romania is already one of the most environmentally degraded countries in Europe - we don't need another major pollutant in the area fuelled by sheer greed and company profit."
Copyright © 2004-2006 Bucharest Daily News
An aristocratic title is not enough to ensure a noble behaviour. A person's greatness comes from acknowledging the mistakes and agreeing to correct them.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
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