Street protests are snowballing in Romania against a Canadian-led gold mining project by Gabriel Resoures in the Rosia Montana area in the Apuseni Mountains. More than 20,000 people joined a protest march in Bucharest on Sunday, and thousands in other Romanian cities took to the streets.  This will be a disaster for the Environment because for the Gold Excavation, 12,000 tons of cyanide would be used yearly and 13 million tons of mining waste produced each year, according to a project presentation submitted by the company to the Ministry of Environment. 

Chevron is also destroying the Sacred Land of Rosia Montana by fracking for gas, which has already caused multiple earthquakes, and will make the drinking water unfit for human consumption.

The protests erupted after the Romanian government proposed a draft law Aug. 27 that gives extraordinary powers to the project promoter, Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (in which Canadian group Gabriel Resources is the majority stakeholder).

According to the text, the company can relocate people whose homes are on the perimeter of the mine. Additionally, the law asks state authorities to grant the company all necessary permits within set deadlines regardless of national legislation, court rulings or public participation requirements.

Gold Corporation plans to build Europe’s largest gold mine at Rosia Montana to extract 300 tonnes of gold and 1,600 tonnes of silver over 17 years. The operation would involve the destruction of three villages and four mountains.

In all, 12,000 tonnes of cyanide would be used yearly and 13 million tons of mining waste produced each year, according to a project presentation submitted by the company to the Ministry of Environment.

The proposed law is meant to give the project a definitive green light after over 14 years in which Gold Corporation has not been able to secure all necessary permits.

In 2004, the Romanian Academy of Science – the most authoritative scientific body in the country – called for the project to be scrapped because environmental and social costs far outweigh benefits. Apart from environmental risks and displacements, the large-scale mining proposed by Gold Corporation would threaten the cultural heritage in Rosia Montana, a mining area since Roman times.

Hundreds of people in the 3,000-strong village have been opposing the project for years, setting up the NGO Alburnus Maior and successfully battling the corporation and state authorities in courts.

Contributing to the growth in public sympathy for the movement has been the seemingly close alliance between Gold Corporation, politicians across the political spectrum and mainstream media.

Political arch-rivals, such as centre-right President Traian Basescu and Socialist Prime Minister Victor Ponta, have at various points declared themselves in favour of the project.

Most major media outlets in the country have run Gold Corporation advertisements while failing to cover arguments against the exploitation. In a country where corruption is a big feature of public life, this consensus in favour of gold mining at Rosia reeked of backroom deals.

The predominant discourse about Rosia Montana in the public sphere has been that gold mining would create employment and enrich state coffers. According to the most recent agreement between the Romanian government and the company (annexed to the Aug. 27 draft law), Gold Corporation would employ 2,300 people during the two-year construction phase and 900 during the 17 years of exploitation. Over the duration of the operation, the Romanian budget is set to win 2.3 billion dollars while other benefits for the Romanian economy are estimated at 2.9 billion dollars.

The popular mobilisation now targets the Parliament, whose vote will effectively decide the fate of Rosia Montana. If the law is approved, even if it is challenged as unconstitutional in the Constitutional Court (the premises for such a procedure exist since a judicial committee in the Senate issued a negative opinion on the draft law), construction could begin immediately, pending the supreme court ruling.

“We cannot tell what will happen with this project, but all that we can say is that we keep fighting, that united we will save Rosia Montana,” Eugen David, leader of Alburnus Maior told IPS. “We are under siege right now in Rosia Montana, but in the end we will manage to lift it.”

The protests that began on Sep. 1 are remarkably strong for Romania. Since their start, misinformation in the public space has been abundant: the main television channels originally failed to cover the protests despite their size; on Sep. 10, media wrongly announced that the draft law had been rejected by the Senate; and Ponta declared that the project could not go ahead against popular will, only to later express again support for the project.

In spite of this, protesters – who function according to a non-hierarchical structure and have no official leaders – have skillfully kept the public informed and engaged via Facebook. The weekly hours-long marches go through neighbourhoods with the goal of spreading the word about opposition to the project and showing that protesters are not hooligans as depicted on TV.

Their strategy seems to have worked since numbers this Sunday were bigger than ever. The first days of mobilisation brought mostly youth to the streets, but older participants and youth-parent couples are increasingly visible. After two weeks of well-mannered street actions, police presence on Sunday can be considered symbolic.

“It is very interesting that such a revolt began with a case of protecting the environment, but this is not only about the environment,” Claudiu Craciun, an active participant in the protests, told IPS. “It is also about the right of people to keep their properties, about our duty to safeguard a patrimony that belongs not only to us, but also to the world and to future generations.

“The Rosia Montana case – in which you see legislation custom made to serve the interests of a corporation – highlights some failures of both democratic institutions and of the economic system, capitalism in a broader sense,” Craciun added.

“Rosia Montana is the battle of the present and of the next decades,” the activist said. “It illustrates the end of post-1989 cleavages [communist vs anti-communist, European vs. non-European] and the emergence of new ones. People today confront a corrupted political class backed up by a corporation and a sold out media; and they ask for an improved democratic process, for adding a participatory democracy dimension to traditional democratic mechanisms.”

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/17/romanians-mobilise-gold-mine

Courtesy of | Sarah in Romania

On Monday, hundreds of villagers from Pungesti blocked roads in a human chain to halt vehicles intent on drilling a first exploration well for Chevron. The convoy was forced to turn back as protesters, some in horse-drawn carts, called for the US energy giant to “go home”, reported AFP.

Demands for PM Ponta to resign were just as loud. The crowd (and not only here in Pungesti) accuse him of going back on his pledge to block shale gas drilling made before he took power by granting Chevron exploration permits. Romania’s government sold Chevron the rights to frack the shale beneath more than a million acres of land and since July of this year, they have permits to prospect three villages in this part of Eastern Romania – Paltinis (Bacesti), Popeni (Gagesti) and Silistea (Pungesti), as well as for shale gas exploration on the Black Sea coast. See more HERE for a chronology of Vaslui’s County Council’s approvals, decisions, authorisations, etc. Jeez…

Protesters were also furious at having been subjected to pressure tactics from representatives of Pungesti Townhall – when you read the chronology of events hyperlinked in the previous sentence, you can well imagine the type of pressure these people have had to put up with. One example given is a declaration from the mayor that anyone receiving state benefits would have them taken away if they dared show up at the rally. Isn’t that charming – but more on the mayor of Pungesti later.

Protests continued yesterday, but today things turned very nasty indeed in Pungesti.

This afternoon, the police chief of Vaslui authorised the ‘removal’ of protesters by force if they wouldn’t budge of their own accord. The protesters refused to break the chain of grasped hands they had formed on their knees to keep Chevron out. Around 300 jandarmi armed with shields mobilised en mass and in the confrontation, Costicã Spiridon aged 81 said to be the heart of anti-Chevron resistance at Pangesti and one of its leaders, was punched by police. There are unconfirmed reports that Mr Spiridon died later in hospital, although this has not yet been stated throughout Romanian media.

“They dragged him from a pond and left him for 5 minutes without any medical assistance. I saw how a policeman hit him,” his daughter said.

Another protester aged 76 was victim of a heart attack (not fatal as far as I know) following a skirmish with police and at least three others were injured. There is also a report that police bullied a three year old child… The stories coming in of police brutality and maltreatment are truly shocking.

The spokesman for the Vaslui Police, Lucian Modaranu, stated they had intervened on the orders of the region’s police chief, Radu Renga. In an interview with Realitatea, Renga said that police had to to re-establish law and order. Irina Drãgan, spokeswoman for the Romanian Police, denied that any such force as mentioned above was used.

Whether or not police ‘intervention’ was necessary (and physical violence definitely was NOT), the citizens of Pungesti have a perfect right to protest and to defend themselves against any aggression. At present, there are reportedly around 500 people rallying in Pungesti.

Traffic police have blocked all access by road for 2km in an effort to prevent anyone else from joining the demonstration and are checking all vehicles for banners, posters, etc. There is a very real and palpable fear in Pungesti this evening.

Blogs, FB and other social networks are justifiably rife with info, photos, witness statements, overwhelming anger and incredulity.

Meanwhile in Bucharest, a meeting of solidarity was organised for 18h this evening at Piata Universitatii via social networks. The just-dismissed (by fax today – how elegant) Director of the Institute of Geology, Ștefan Marincea, joined the demonstration adding his voice to the crowd of several thousand. He is convinced – and is surely right – that his abrupt dismissal is due to his stance against the Rosia Montana project.

Demands for the Minister of the Interior Radu Stroe’s resignation filled the air, followed by “Jos guvernul criminal, jos guvernul tradator!” “Jandarmeria apara hotia!” The demonstrators hit the road, blocking Bds Elisabeta and N. Balcescu. News flooded in during the course of the evening that two men had indeed lost their lives at Pungesti earlier today… Follow this LIVE TEXT from Bucharest for more info on what’s happening.

So now back to the mayor of Pungesti, Mircia C Vlasă, who is said not only to have bullied and pressurised the citizens of his town, but also to have leased land to Chevron without taking the opinions of local residents into account. At this precise moment in time, he is on some mysterious holiday. Needless to say, this is not the first time he has been embroiled in scandal – he has a track record as long as your arm for dodgy dealings. Enfin bref, this mayor who has repeatedly declared that shale gas drilling brings no danger to the area (since when did he become an expert?) is nowhere to be found. I wonder how much swag he has pocketed from the deals with Chevron…

The people of Pungesti have been protesting against shale gas drilling in their region since at least early spring. Once again, the jandarmi showed up to intimidate them back then too, refusing access to anyone who wasn’t from the town.

This article says that Chevron was there in September handing out t-shirts, caps, kites and beer at the fair held weekly in Silistea, the village where the first drilling equipment is set to be placed. Moreover, one of the local counselors served sarmale to the locals in order to appease them. Les douceurs…

This site reports the following: ‘Several European countries have already embraced a precautionary approach [to fracking]. France was the first European country to ban fracking in 2011. Most recently, France’s Constitutional Court upheld a ban on fracking, while the country reaffirmed its intention to focus on developing renewable energy instead. In 2012, Bulgaria adopted a moratorium on fracking and immediately revoked an exploration permit previously granted to Chevron, invoking insufficient proof of the environmental safety of the practice.’

The exploration for shale gas in a community clearly rejecting the opinions of its residents goes against Chevron’s officially stated commitment to protect the people and the environment and to consult communities regarding local needs. Chevron faces not just the Pungesti’s opposition, but a very clear NU from the majority of the Romanian population.

Romania is a democratic country and part of the EU. We are in 2013. HOW can people be ridden over rough shod at such a level? And HOW can violent police intervention causing fatalities and injuries serious enough to require hospitalisation have been authorised against peaceful protesters? It is an outrage. Corruption and greed are quite simply ‘punished’ with rewards.

It is repugnant. What is happening in Romania today from Rosia Montana to the demolitions in Bucharest at the hands of the megalomanic mayor oprescu to Chevron, seems as though the country of my heart is having her very soul ripped out – her mountains, her land, her history, her beauty and her patrimony all worthless next to grubby little hands intent on money and gold.

For SHAME.