BELARUS/RUSSIA: PEOPLE MARK THE ELEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER WITH MARCHES AND CEREMONIES

Record ID: 648265

  • Title: BELARUS/RUSSIA: PEOPLE MARK THE ELEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER WITH MARCHES AND CEREMONIES
  • Date: 26th April 1997
  • Summary: MINSK, BELARUS (APRIL 26, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/SV OF DEMONSTRATORS BEGINNING MARCH IN CENTRAL MINSK (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. SLV MILITIA 0.15 3. SLV/SV DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING/CARRYING FLAGS AND PLACARDS (4 SHOTS) 0.48 4. CU DEMONSTRATOR MARCHING WITH SIGN READING WE ARE STRUGGLING AGAINST A POLITICAL CHERNOBYL (RUSSIAN) 0.53 5. SLV/SV OF DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING ARM-IN-ARM (2 SHOTS) 1.13 MOSCOW, RUSSIA (APRIL 26, 1997 (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 6. LV OF MILITNO CEMETERY WITH CHERNOBYL MONUMENT 1.19 7. CU CHILD PLACING FLOWERS ON GRAVE 1.25 8. MCU WOMAN AT GRAVE 1.31 9. CU GRAVE WITH FLOWERS 1.36 10.LV/CU OF MOURNERS AT GRAVES/PLACING FLOWERS (4 SHOTS) 1.56 11.SV/CU MONUMENT WITH WREATHS (2 SHOTS) 2.05 12.MCU PULL OUT SLV MOURNERS DRINKING VODKA 2.19 13.CU VODKA ON GRAVE 2.23 14.MCU CHILD 2.28 15.CU GRAVE 2.32 16.MCU SOLDIER 2.36 17.SV EMERGENCY MINISTRY TROOPS MARCHING IN TRIBUTE 2.42 Initials P3 S3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 11th May 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MINSK, BELARUS / MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • City:
  • Country: EUROPE ASIA Belarus Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVAAIUZMCIFESY147WSH8LI1ZL6
  • Story Text: Thousands of people across the former Soviet Union have marked the eleventh anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with marches and ceremonies.

    In Belarus, the anniversary has fuelled protests against hardline President Alexander Lukashenko. Thousands of anti-Lukashenko demonstrators began marching in the capital Minsk on Saturday (April 26) afternoon, in a repetition of last year's protest.

    Downwind from Chernobyl, Belarus was very badly affected by the explosion, which blew the reactor's roof off.

    Eleven years on, a lack of cash is hampering the efforts of the Soviet successor states to deal with Chernobyl's legacy.

    The Russian government promised on Saturday it would continue to care for those who suffered.

    Moscow also organised an official mourning ceremony at Militno Cemetary, burial site for 19 of the "liquidators" -- the power workers and soldiers who were sent in to clean up the mess and seal off the flow of deadly gases. Many of the "liquidators" were conscripts.

    Western areas of Russia, close to the Ukraine and Belarus borders, have an incidence of cancers and other diseases which is many times greater than elsewhere in the country.

    Ukrainian estimates show about two million of its 52 million people live in contaminated areas around Chernobyl, including 479 people who have returned voluntarily to live in the 30-km (19-mile) exclusion zone around the nuclear site.

    Nuclear experts say the entire zone should remain uninhabited for the next three centuries.


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