[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS, NATIVE PEOPLE: "Suit accuses Army of blocking visits to Makua [HI] sites"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Suit accuses Army of blocking visits to Makua sites

Associated Press
November 8, 2016

The Army is violating a court settlement by restricting access to cultural sites in a valley many Native Hawaiians consider sacred, a lawsuit filed Monday alleges.

Attorneys for environmental law organization Earthjustice filed the lawsuit in federal court in Honolulu on behalf of Malama Makua, a Native Hawaiian cultural group. It’s the latest action in a long-running legal dispute over Makua Valley, the site of decades of military training.

A 2001 settlement allows Malama Makua to access sacred sites twice a month, but the Army suddenly imposed a “blanket ban” in 2014 when it claimed it first needed to obtain clearance from historic preservationists to cut grass on trails leading to cultural sites so that any unexploded ordnance could be avoided, the lawsuit said.

...


For the entire article, see
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2016/11/08/hawaii-news/suit-accuses-army-of-blocking-visits-to-makua-sites/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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