VOA bridge focuses on Chornobyl (04/28/96)

VOA bridge focuses on Chornobyl

WASHINGTON - Yuri M. Shcherbak, Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., and Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky, founder of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, examine the ramifications of Chornobyl - past, present and future - during a joint radio bridge between the Voice of America and the National Radio Company of Ukraine, beginning April 22.

The program commemorates the 10th anniversary of the worst nuclear disaster in history. The hourlong bridge was recorded on April 18 and is being broadcast by both services in 15-minute segments on April 22, 23, 24 and 25.

Ambassador Shcherbak took part in the broadcast from VOA's Washington studio. He founded the Green Party of Ukraine in 1988 and a year later won a seat in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, where he initiated the first parliamentary investigation into the nuclear accident at Chornobyl.

Dr. Matkiwsky took part in the broadcast by phone from Union, N.J., where he is chairman of the Department of Surgery at Union Hospital. In 1989, Dr. Matkiwsky and his wife, Nadia, established the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund.

Wolodymyr Bilajiw, chief of VOA's Ukrainian Service, moderated from Washington and Olexander Dykyi, chief editor of the World Service Radio Ukraine, from Kyiv. Mykola Marynenko, senior Ukrainian radio journalist for the National Radio Company of Ukraine, joined Mr. Bilajiw at VOA. He has been in Washing-ton as part of an intern exchange program.

Kostyantyn Rudya, advisor to the minister of environmental protection, and Mykola Lyabakh, editor-in-chief of the Chornobyl Interinform press agency, took part in the discussion from Kyiv. VOA's current Ukrainian correspondent, Israel Kleiner, also was in the Kyiv studio.

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