Chornobyl anniversary marked with conference at United Nations (05/05/02)

Chornobyl anniversary marked with conference at United Nations

by Andrew Nynka

UNITED NATIONS - Activists and environmentalists participating in an international conference on health and the environment gathered here on April 26 to mark the 16th anniversary of the explosion of the No. 4 nuclear reactor at Chornobyl and stressed that the catastrophe's outcome continues to stain much of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other parts of Europe with various illness and environmental plague.

As part of the 11th International Conference on Health and the Environment organized by World Information Transfer (WIT), conference organizers focused on the theme of "childhood antecedents to adult illness" and, during the April 26 session dedicated to Chornobyl, stressed that youth "will continue to suffer the consequences of the worst technological catastrophe in human history."

This year's conference was particularly relevant since recommendations from its speakers will be submitted to various governments for consideration at the United Nations Children's Summit in May, as well as the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September.

Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations Valeriy Kuchinsky, a conference collaborator, urged the international community to have "a greater determination to continue to help raise public awareness" of the Chornobyl catastrophe.

Experts argue that although much of the nuclear fallout from the reactor explosion has been contained and is not an immediate threat to the global community, there is still much work left in informing the world of Chornobyl's consequences and the plight of those living in and around the contaminated zone.

Environmentalists and Chornobyl aid workers have long feared that since Chornobyl's final working reactor, No. 3, was shut down in December 2000, the international community could consider the problem fixed - focusing valuable aid and attention away from what many see as a continually developing, complex and persistent problem.

Carolyn Mcaskie, who spoke in place of Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kenzo Oshima, called life around the contaminated zone "a downward spiral of living conditions." The United Nations emergency relief coordinator added that the international community should be more aware of Ukraine's, Russia's and Belarus' efforts in "shouldering the major burden while building a major market economy and trying to build new democracies."

Friday's keynote address, delivered by Ukraine's Minister of Health Prof. Vitali Moskalenko, focused primarily on the myriad statistics concerning birth abnormalities and increased cancer rates since the initial blast - the result of a failed experiment to squeeze more energy production - scattered tons of nuclear materials in a 10-kilometer periphery and left uncontrolled flames spewing radioactive smoke into the atmosphere in the early morning hours of April 26, 1986.

The professor went on to say that the international community must not turn its back on the three most affected countries when so much is still left to be done, highlighting his belief that "there is no place [in the world] for the relics of nuclear catastrophe." According to Prof. Moskalenko, a physician and a Ph.D., the explosion at reactor No. 4 equaled 500 Hiroshima bombs and touched the lives of some 3.5 billion people.

Also participating in the conference were WIT Founder and Chair Dr. Christine K. Durbak, Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations Sergei S. Ling, Ambassador of Jamaica to the United Nations Patricia Durrant and Undersecretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict Olara A. Otunnu.

As part of the commemoration, the governments of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, along with Ukraine's Ministry of Health, held their annual Chornobyl Children's Charity Bazaar here on April 25-26. According to representatives from the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations, a portion of the funds raised will go to needy children affected by the nuclear catastrophe and a hospital in Ukraine designated by Ukraine's Ministry of Health. Bazaar vendors included representatives of the Ukrainian American community who sold various Ukrainian crafts, arts and food.

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