Roșia Montană/Romania, 29. August 2010 – The ‘Save Roșia Montană!’ campaign is launching today a photographic petition that aims to highlight the strong public support for the historic mining settlement of Roșia Montană to become a UNESCO World Heritage site. The petition consists in members of the public submitting photo portraits featuring a creative message about Roșia Montană’s unique cultural values to Kelemen Hunor, Romania’s minister for Culture and National Patrimony. In spring this year the ministry for Culture and National Patrimony announced that it would initiate the UNESCO listing procedure and the petition aims at encouraging them to act accordingly.
Rosia Montana’s cultural values are threatened from destruction by years of neglect and a large scale gold/silver mine proposed by Gabriel Resources (TSX:GBU). The mining company’s activities to date have already led to the deterioration and destruction of some of Roșia Montană’s exceptional cultural values. In February 2010 the ARA[1] association submitted an official request to the Ministry for Culture to initiate the procedure for the historic mining settlement of Roșia Montană to be listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.[2] The request has since received wide support from experts and expert institutions in Romania and beyond.[3] As a reaction to the request, Romania’s ministry for Culture and National Patrimony announced that during the course of 2010 it would initiate the procedure to list Rosia Montana as an UNESCO world heritage site.
The photographic campaign is available at www.rosiamontana.org/unesco. It displays a first set of photos taken at Roșia Montană during the FanFest[4] festival from 13-15 August 2010. These initial photos and a cover letter[5] were also sent to Kelemen Hunor, Romania’s minister for Culture and National Patrimony who via www.rosiamontana.org/unesco will be able to watch the petition’s evolution over time. Over the coming weeks and months civil society organisations and citizens will organise photo-taking sessions for Roșia Montană to become a UNESCO world heritage site and as such www.rosiamontana.org/unesco will augment day by day. The ‘Save Roșia Montană!” campaign will in parallel release updates on the petition as well as on the nomination procedure for Roșia Montană to become a UNESCO world heritage site.
“The images are living testimonials; expressing creativity, personality and determination. People from all walks of life will be able to directly communicate to Romania’s minister for Culture that they deeply care for Rosia Montana’s cultural values and that they expect him to act according to his promise and not according to pressures in the interest of a Canadian mining company, “says Eugen David, President of Alburnus Maior.
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For more information contact Stephanie Roth at +40740342104 or email at alburnusmaior@ngo.ro For more information on the UNESCO nomination procedure contact Arch. Virgil Apostol at +40731393333 or email asociatie@simpara.ro
