Nepal Reopens Heritage Sites Despite U.N. Concerns

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/world/asia/nepal-reopens-heritage-sites-despite-un-concerns.html

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KATHMANDU, Nepal — The Nepal government declared several damaged heritage sites open to the public on Monday, in a bid to recover tourism revenues in the region hit by an earthquake, but United Nations officials worried that the buildings were not entirely ready.

Nepal’s many temples and palaces had been a significant tourist draw for the impoverished country, and many were all but destroyed in the April 25 earthquake, which killed more than 8,700 people.

“World Heritage sites, the treasures of the Nepalese economy, should not remain closed forever,” said Nepal’s tourism secretary, Suresh Man Shrestha, who added that he was hoping to garner visitors for “earthquake disaster education tourism.”

More than 700 monuments were damaged in the quake, and Mr. Shrestha said the costs of reconstruction would run into the tens of millions of dollars. The reopened monuments include the Durbar Square complexes in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan, as well as Swayambhunath, a shrine on top of a hill at the northwestern edge of Kathmandu.

“Now, Nepal is safe,” said Kripasur Sherpa, Nepal’s minister for culture, tourism and civil aviation, in televised comments at the reopening of the Durbar Square in Bhaktapur on Monday.

Christian Manhart, the head of Unesco’s Nepal office in Kathmandu, said Monday that the organization had urged the government to delay the reopening of the sites, as he believed that two of them were still either unsafe or vulnerable to theft because the rubble from the earthquake was not yet cleared.

“At Kathmandu Durbar Square there is the huge palace museum — one very big building which is totally shaky,” he said. “The walls are disconnected from one another so this big wall can fall down at any moment.”

The country’s Tourism Department said Monday that the government would instate safety measures, including providing helmets to visitors and security at the monuments, and that the museum building at Kathmandu’s Durbar Square would remain closed. However, Mr. Manhart said that even allowing visitors close to it could be dangerous.

Swayambhunath, the hilltop shrine, was both unsafe and vulnerable to looting because uncleared rubble remains, he said.

Mr. Manhart said he had written the director general of Nepal’s Archaeology Department, Bhesh Narayan Dahal, two weeks ago to urge him to delay the reopening.

“They say that there is some pressure to reopen those sites so they can request entrance fee, which is badly needed for the rehabilitation of the monuments,” Mr. Manhart said of the letter he received in response.

Mr. Dahal was not immediately available to address the message on Monday evening.