New archeological site emerges during rehabilitation works of Bucharest historic centre

Road rehabilitation works in the historical center of Bucharest have stuck some three months after initiation as experts are trying to solve the issue of protection of new archeological findings: digs revealed an old road that connected a former “Old Princely Court” to a nearby inn as well as other vestiges of centuries-old items, HotNews.ro reads on March 20, 2007.

The road works are part of a major plan launched by Bucharest officials to partially redraw the landscape of old Bucharest, a city that has been drastically changed under communism.Digs revealed archeological items dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Should other, older objects be discovered, the site may be isolated by a glass screen to protect the findings until a solution is found.Bucharest Museum chief archeologist Gheorghe Adamesteanu has said that unless such older objects are found, the archeological side may be temporarily be covered in sand.

But the issue poses a major issue to architects over viewing the rehabilitation works as they are pressed by both archeologists and by Bucharest mayor Adriean Videanu, who’s pushing for works to be concluded as soon as possible.The historical center of Bucharest was declared a national interest objective in 2001.

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The “Old Princely Court” area can be identified with the medieval history of Bucharest, though continuity of human life in this part of the town dates back to the 10th and 4th centuries b.C., as attested by archaeological findings. In the absence of old drawings, scale models or engravings, and having at hand few and incomplete documents drawn by medieval Romanian chroniclers, or by foreign travellers, Romanian specialists find it difficult to recuperate the original design of the princely residence.

UNESCO World Heritage List – Romania

Date of ratification of the Convention: Wednesday, May 16, 1990

ROMANIA: Properties inscribed on the World Heritage List

Cultural
Churches of Moldavia (1993)
Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains (1999)
Historic Centre of Sighişoara (1999)
Monastery of Horezu (1993)
Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania (1993)
Wooden Churches of Maramureş (1999)

Natural
Danube Delta (1991)

Open letter to UNDP representative - On the "Rosia Montana" issue

H.E. Soknan Han Jung UN Coordinator Romania/ UNDP Representative Romania
UNDP Romania ‘Making things happen'
UN House Primaverii 48 A Bucharest Fax: +4 021 201-7828


10 March 2007

Open Letter
H.E. Soknan Han Jung
UN Coordinator Romania/ UNDP Representative Romania


It is with great concern that we have taken note of your press release 1 regarding UNDP Romania's involvement at Rosia Montana. Amongst others, the communiqué mentions that UNDP is involved in a Local Agenda 21 (LA21) process which is currently underway and on behalf of several local authorities from the area impacted by Gabriel's Rosia Montana gold mine proposal. It also mentions that UNDP is “a neutral, transparent international organization respected for its integrity that does not interfere or seek to influence the decisions of sovereign governments.” In light of this, we would like to make the following observations:

Whilst to our knowledge, none of the relevant town halls to date posted announcements informing the population about an LA21 initiative, we have reasons to believe that your involvement at Rosia Montana is first and foremost linked to Gabriel Resources who in return wishes to involve UNDP as a partner to favourably influence the decision making process for its opencast cyanide leach gold mine proposal.

In June 2006 a UNDP mission including you, visited Rosia Montana. Representatives of Alburnus Maior were informed by your office that the UNDP mission aims to investigate alternative development solutions in the event that the Rosia Montana gold mine proposal does not receive environmental approval. This has proven to be at least insincere given that at the occasion of an UNDP-Gabriel Resources meeting at the UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre in February 2007, Mr. Zoran Stevanovic, UNDP's Bratislava communication specialist, gave us a completely different perspective. According to Mr Stevanovic, this meeting was organized for Gabriel to ‘pitch their deal' 2 – a deal involving UNDP conditioned by the favorable environmental approval for Gabriel's mine. Given that the ‘deal' is rumored to carry a pledge of $20 million from the part of Gabriel Resources, we believe that UNDP Romania first and foremost wishes to enter a business partnership with this divisive mining company.

As a consequence, we also believe your statement regarding the “ongoing LA 21 process” in the Rosia Montana area to be insincere. The LA21 process is an open and transparent process; involving stake-holders at all levels. UNDP Romania never informed Alburnus Maior about this process or involved it in this process, nor were we given access to the various reports produced by your office as a result of your research at Rosia Montana. Importantly, whilst Greenpeace and Alburnus Maior officially requested these reports 3, we were not given access to these. 4

We are therefore asking you to remove the name of the NGO Alburnus Maior from any statements you have made or wish to make in the future on the Rosia Montana subject.

Whilst Alburnus Maior would welcome a LA21 initiative, it is incompatible with Gabriel's gold mine proposal and as such Gabriel can never be regarded as a legitimate actor in such process.

We understand the accurate message of your above mentioned press release thus to be that UNDP wishes to use LA21 as a maneuver to have a mandate to enter a business partnership with Gabriel Resources in the amount of $20 million and we consider this to be an abuse of UNDP's role in Romania.

Yours sincerely,

Eugen David
PresidentAlburnus Maior

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1 http://www.rosiamontana.ro/UNDP_action/UNDP%20Role%20-%20Update%20-%20Press%20Release.7%20March%202007EN.pdf

2 http://www.rosiamontana.ro/UNDP_action/Transcript%20of%20Bratislava%20UNDP%20conv_engl.pdf

3 http://www.rosiamontana.ro/UNDP_action/Final%20Letter%20to%20UNDP_engl.pdf

4 http://www.rosiamontana.ro/UNDP_action/Greenpeace%20response.pdf

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http://www.rosiamontana.org