A group of protesters, who are fighting against the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in Mauna Kea, gathered on Wednesday, July 1, at the Kamehameha Statue in Oahu in the hope of reopening the summit road.
The University of Hawaii (UH) Office of Mauna Kea Management decided to close the said road, including the Visitors Information Station, on Monday until further notice. The group of protesters, however, claims that UH is implementing the restrictions only to a selected few.
The reason for the restriction is due to the series of protests that happened on Wednesday, June 24, in which boulders and rock walls were placed by the TMT protesters along the road. This resulted in damage and threat to public safety, thereby leading to the decision of the UH to temporarily close it.
"The events of last week were unprecedented. We've been taking care of that road for decades," said Dan Meisenzahl, spokesperson from the UH. "We have to grade it twice a week, the gravel portion, and a lot of the rock and boulders that were moved on to the road and have since been moved off, some of them were pried from the mountain side so ... it's going to take us a little longer to assess."
He adds that the team is also concerned about the hairpin turns in the location and the general state of the road, saying it is in "rough shape."
The protesters later removed the obstacles they placed along the road on the afternoon of Friday, June 26; however, according to Doug Chin, Hawaii's Attorney General, the protesters endangered the safety of the public.
Placing boulders along the road on purpose may cause people to get killed, he believes. Camping and staying in the said restricted location without due permission are also violations of state regulations. He adds that the statement he made was not meant to attack the content of the disapproval, but the conduct in which it was executed.
The protesters, who gathered in the Kamehameha Statue in Oahu, also expressed disagreement to the previous statement of Hawaii Governor David Ige, who, as the protesters claimed, called their acts as a form of vandalism.
"This is undoubtedly a silly and irresponsible use of that word," said protester Kahookahi Kanuha. Vandalism refers to the act of purposeful destruction to a public or private property and that the only ones guilty of vandalism in Mauna Kea are those involved in the TMT project and that is ultimately the UH as it approved TMT's "right" to desecrate Mauna Kea, he added.
The protesters say they will persevere to dispute the telescope project, with Kanuha acknowledging that they have a long way to go. Their group does not anticipate to win over the TMT in a day, month or year, but their commitment to safeguard the Mauna Kea is far more superior to any amount of money, he closed.
Photo: CucombreLibre | Flickr
