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Major Environmental Demonstration in Washington
(April 1 and 2, 2000)
Four times during the past two months, Central Europe has suffered environmental disasters on the scale of the Chernobyl accident. All originated in Romania.
On January 30, 2000, a cyanide spill from a Romanian-Australian mining operation released massive amounts of cyanide and heavy metal byproducts from the Aurul gold mine in Romania into the Tisza, the second largest river of Hungary. The Tisza carried the toxic material into the Danube, which is winding its way through Vojvodina in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria into the Black Sea. The cyanide killed over 1,000 tons of fish and most of all other life forms in the Tisza and caused untold environmental and economic damage in the lower Danube basin. The heavy metals poisoned the groundwater and are traveling up the food chain, threatening the lives of not only the remaining five pairs of giant osprey in the world famous Hortobágy nature reserve park, but also the drinking water supplies of two million people.
Less than six weeks later, on March 10, 2000, heavy rain and melting snow burst a dam at the Baia Borsa lead and zinc mine in Northern Romania, 115 miles from the Hungarian border. Some 20,000 tons of heavy metal sludge were released into a tributary of the Viso river, which then carried it, once again, into the Tisza. The river, once called the "Blonde Tisza, has turned black.
Four days later, on March 14, another heavy metal spill occurred at Baia Borsa.
A fourth spill occurred just this week.
This weekend's environmental demonstration in Washington, in front of the Romanian Embassy (1607 23rd Street on Sheridan Circle) from 11 AM to 2 PM is organized by the 'NGO Coalition To Save Our Rivers' and it has the following goals:
It wants to focus attention on the need for developing an infrastructure of international regulations and safety enforcement mechanisms, which must accompany the globalized operation of the multi-national firms as they expand their operations around the planet. The demonstration will also focus on the responsibility of such existing institutions as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Court
and the European Union. It will point out the need for these institutions to assist such post-Communists states as Romania to adopt acceptable environmental safety standards in their industrial operations and to provide funds for the restoration of the environment of the damaged downstream states, such as that of Hungary.
The giant osprey with its 5 or 6 foot wingspread of the Hortobágy is not only the property of a nation it is the treasure of all mankind. We must not wait until all of our rivers are dead, until all fish
are murdered to realize that money is not edible. We must jointly protect life on this planet and the time to start developing the legal and financial infrastructure for doing that is right now.
NGO COALITION TO SAVE OUR RIVERS
(For Further information and details concerning this program you can contact our Help Committe (help-committe@hunor.net) or
visit http://www.duna.org/cyanidespill/
For in depth information concerning the Danube, please visit:
http://hunor.net/duna.htm.
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Unfolding environmental disasters: 
Threatened Wildlife: at the Gemenc Forest, Hungary's famous game park, on the bank of the Danube
Threatened Wildlife: at the Gemenc Forest, Hungary's famous game park, on the bank of the Danube
