It is with great attention and interest that we have read the article The Significance of Le Morne Heritage Trust Fund by Mr Satyendra Peerthum, as conspicuously published in the l?express issue of Wednesday 21st April 2004, page 7, actually the day following the first reading in the National Assembly of the Le Morne Heritage Trust Fund Board Bill. Government should no doubt be congratulated on its decision to set up, at long last, the said Board with a view to managing and preserving the Le Morne site, recognizing at the same time Le Morne Mountain and the land at its base as being of cultural, historical and natural significance.

The article however remains astonishingly conspicously silent on the fact that it is only thanks to the promoters of the Cable car (téléphérique) project that Le Morne has won the high profile it has in fact always deserved, so much so that now government is looking for Unesco blessing to include Le Morne Mountain on the Unesco World Heritage List.

The article again astonishingly is silent on the fact that it is thanks to the Cable car (téléphérique) project that Government cultural and scientific officials and experts have had access to the top of the mountain. The same at NO COST!

Relevant is it also to highlight that it is thanks to the availability of the helipad that archaeologists and other experts have discovered in September 2002 several artifacts in three small caves, near the summit which may finally provide the long awaited and much needed physical evidence that maroons did occupy it.

If anything, the Cable car (téléphérique) project has been a major catalyst and contributed in a very meaningful way towards the enhancement of our island?s history and treasures. As promoters of this project, we consequently cannot but rejoice at witnessing that substantial efforts are being deployed to winning Unesco agreement to inscribing Le Morne Mountain and its base, over and above the existing 582 sites, on the World Heritage List for Cultural values.

A very few examples of those sites are listed below to enlighten your readers, as well as any other persons who may have not grasped the need for ALL MAURITIANS AND TOURISTS to visit the top of Le Morne.

NATURAL WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Great Barrier Reef (1981)

Rocky Mountains Park (1984)

Gros Morne National Park (1987)

Iguazu National Park (1986)

Morne Trois Piton National Park, Dominica (1987)

Galapagos Island (1978-2001)

Mont Kenya Natural Park (1997)

Lake Malawi (1984)

Island of Mozambique (1991)

Aldabre Atolls (1982)

Lake Baikal (1996)

Vallée de Mai. Seychelles (1983)

WORLD HERITAGE FOR CULTURAL VALUES

The Mont St Michel and its Bay (1979)

Angkor (1992)

The Pyramids? fields from Giza to Dashur (1979)

The Palace of and Park of Versailles (1979)

Acropolis (1987)

The Great Wall Of China (1979)

The Taj Mahal (1983)

Vatican City

Persepolis

Massada (2001)

Venice and its lagoon (1987)

Pompei Archaeological Area (1997)

Hiroshima Peace Memorial (1996)

Petra (1985)

Madagascar?s Royal Hall of Ambohimanga

Prehistoric City of CHITCHENITZA (1988)

Auschwitz Concentration Camp (1988)

Kremlin & Red Square, Moscow (1990)

Island of Gorée (1978)

Robben Island (1999)

Ancien City of Damascus (1979)

Stonehenge (1986)

The above list, by no means exahustive, illustrates the need for humanity to classify such sites as important milestones in its history, to which with some another thirty-five industrial sites such as the Darjeeling Railways in the Himalayas are to be added.

What the various elements of that list and others not herein included, have in common need be stressed. All those 582 sites are accessible (and some by a cable car) to everybody in the world as they no longer belong to a government, to institutions or to a selected few. They belong to the world and, as is the case for Le Morne. It belongs to all Mauritians and to the whole world. Consequently it becomes a must that the top of Le Morne be visited by one and all if they so and no doubt desire.

It is however quite surprising that the article of Mr Satyendra Peerthum makes no reference to Government plan to make this historical site accessible to one and all as in the case of the other 582 sites. As a matter of fact, saving and preserving those sites call for considerable effort wherein means of transport is just a must. Precluding access to the top of the mountain would in our view defeat the exercise of seeking Unesco acceptance to classify Le Morne among The Cultural Heritage sites.

Besides one cannot conceive that such a powerful educational tool, apart from the substantial advantages to be derived for Mauritius be ignored and the population kept in darkness under the dubious and questionable pretences of profanation.

Let?s also hope that the plan, as cited in Mr Peerthum?s opinion, for a monument to be erected in tribute to the Le Morne maroons and as slave museum, created in memory of Mauritian slaves is NOT placed at the bottom of the mountain. Should that be the case it would, in our views, represent an affront to the descendants of slaves, such as has recently been voiced by the Rastafarian Group. It would be tantamount to saying that a monument be placed at the entrance of Robben Island and that no one would have access to visiting the prison camp of Nelson Mandela or a monument of the Jewish community be placed at the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp with no access provided to the world to visit the site itself.

As regards the Environment and Mr S. Peerthum?s opinion that this pristine site should be preserved, let this gentleman and all our countrymen be reassured again that the positioning of a Cable car (téléphérique) will in no way endanger the natural environment of the place, but no one in Government has till now taken the initiative of developing a constructive dialogue, which, given the significance of the project, is the least that would have been expected.

L. Francis PIAT (G.O.S.K.) Chairman

Innovative Leisure Ltd