Families are pulling out dead bodies out of the graves. They are paid for an empty grave tens of millions of lei from Gabriel the company that wants the gold under. Other peoples have build wood barracks to obtain a better price for their house. Such a barrack is priced euro 40k a piece. A shoddy house costs as much as an apartment in Bucharest (the capital city). 250 families are not for sale. They want to die in Rosia.

"Twenty tons of patrimony nature ancient archaeological remainings Middle Age architecture churches cemeteries - to be dynamited and washed away in cyanide for a gold ring..." - Stefana Bianu vice-president of the Roman World Council NGO.


Dead bodies have no rest in Rosia Montana. Relatives have started pulling them out before the usual 7 years rest. A dead body has little time to get cold - relatives are coming fast with shovels to move it away in some other village. All with legal papers in the light of the day with the help of the priests. Relatives get good money for the empty grave: a few tens of millions of lei from Rosia Montana Gold Corporation. This is the company that tries since years now to get the right to squeeze the gold out of the mountains on which the village is built by washing them in cyanide. The company is called just that Gabriel. There are nine churches in Rosia and eight religions until now the bells were ringing at 10am noon 16 pm at religious festivities and when someone has died.

Now peoples are puzzled they do not know anymore why the bells are ringing for the ones that have just died or for the dead ones to be moved away. Peoples which have no dead body to sell have a different trick to ask money from Gabriel. First they build on their property a plain wood barrack Much like a toy house. At most a 5000 euro investment. Then they advertise they want to sell all the properties barrack included. Peoples go to Gabriel and start negotiating ferociously. They sell themselves pricey. No less than 40k euros for the toy house. Plus the price of the old house of the garden of every tree cow chicken. At the beginning the business went on now it starts stalling. Gabriel resists. "You should have heard the chain saws last spring! And this winter it was hard work as it was a warm winter. I think there were build around 200 such wood barracks" says Calin Capros a native. Barracks have changed the look of the Cornea village in Rosia. Looks like over the old village another one has grown. Barracks everywhere some hidden under the trees some in grapes of fives. Greedy the priest built one barrack on the church's property near its house. In the villages of Rosia houses bear signs. "This house is the property of RMGC" is written on them.

Peoples who refuse to leave have put a sign on their door "This house is not for sale". To have a wood barrack is like a sign "I am for sale but I want more money".

Until a couple of years ago a Romanian with average wage could easily buy a house in Rosia. Now it is expensive the houses are priced like apartments in Bucharest. 70k euro for a wooden house with cave bathroom and two bedrooms. 90k euros if you want to buy also the chickens cats onions the work of a lifetime! The walnuts another story. "Peoples were seeding walnuts in the garden to obtain a better price for the house and the garden. For a small walnut tree three million lei. After concluding the sale with Gabriel walnuts were uprooted and moved on another property to be sold to the company" told us the natives.

But such deals were struck only by peoples sold to Gabriel about 420 families. Over all 1000 should be uprooted according to the Mayor. Employees of the company refused to disclose the figures claiming those are secret informations. The 420 families that were moved to houses in the city are now trying to convince the others to go away. In the winter some more 134 families were moved and then things stopped. The last mohicans: about 250 families. They do not want to even consider leaving. They want to die in Rosia. They are as poor as the ones that left but they are not greedy. "Technically speaking they cannot get out a gram of gold until we leave. Even if they do not open the mine they have destroyed a whole village. Who is responsible for demolishing Rosia? They divided us they depopulated the village. Things started with the priests. They have been the firsts in the village to lobby for the company. They let them measure the churches and then doubled our taxes. And they said every stone of the church can be taken away" says Eugen David. He is the person who created Alburnus Maior the anti-Gabriel NGO. Those days life in Rosia is like a thriller told us the ones still in the village - all kinds of messengers come by to test them if they are for sale. Life has fast pace. "In the last five years nothing happened here by hazard". You cannot tell which is a tourist and which is a spy. And journalists are harassing the "mohicans" to the point that they are tempted to chase them away. "Since the story went out there was no investment made in the village. Who is the one to invest here if it is known that the whole village will be a cyanide lake? For seven years now we are not in the plans of any governmental strategy - for ecological cleanup nor for investments. Because you see the government-owned gold mine left a disaster behind once it was closed" says Vasile Szabo. He says that Gabriel wants to detonate daily 60 tons of explosives. A true earthquake The old gold mine was using a few hundreds kilograms a day and glasses were moving on the tables. "Gabriel does not want to move the whole village. There are other peoples left to stay because they are farther from the mine. Why nobody thinks of the life these peoples will have with a daily earthquake?". We have asked Gabriel employees how much explosives they will use. No answer. They told us instead how much will Rosia benefit: at least 1200 jobs computers for schools the old town will be embellished artifacts will be conserved they will help peoples to open businesses they will offer subsidies for peoples and open centres for jobless persons. Until now though they did one thing only hired 500 villagers.

Last summer in Rosia took place the first International Symposium of Sculpture. After measuring by foot the village Stefana Bianu one of the organizers could not stop saying: "Twenty tons of patrimony nature ancient archaeological remainings Middle Age architecture churches cemeteries - dynamited and washed away in cyanide for a gold ring?"



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