Chernobyl: ten years after.... : International Commemoration Day declared for 26 April.

The General Assembly on 20 December, in declaring 26 April 1996 the International Day Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident, invited Member States to conduct activities to observe that tragic event and "enhance public awareness of the consequences of such disasters for human health and the environment throughout the world".

By adopting resolution 50/134 without a vote, the Assembly also invited Member States, especially the donors, the relevant multilateral financial institutions and other concerned parties of the international community, including non-governmental organizations, to "provide support to the ongoing efforts" of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine to cope with the consequences of the disaster.

The Secretary-General was asked to continue to maintain close cooperation, particularly through the UN Coordinator for International Cooperation on Chernobyl, with UN agencies and other relevant organizations, "with a view to encouraging the regular exchange of information, cooperation and coordination of multilateral and bilateral efforts in those areas", while implementing programmes and specific projects.

The establishment in Ukraine of an International Scientific and Technological Centre for Nuclear and Radiological Accidents was noted as an "important step towards enhancing the capabilities of the international community to study, mitigate and minimize the consequences of such accidents".

Anniversary activities

A number of planned activities and projects--special events, press conferences, photo and art exhibits, radio and television programmes, and publications--were to be carried out by the UN Department of Public Information and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs in commemoration of the Chernobyl disaster.

Those included a concert by the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra at the General Assembly Hall on 26 April, demonstration of documentary films provided by the countries concerned, and production of various special information products.

`Worst catastrophe'

The accident that had occurred on the night of 25 and 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine remained the "worst technological environmental catastrophe", Peter Hansen, the then UN Coordinator for Chernobyl and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told the press on 28 November at Headquarters.

"It was a humanitarian catastrophe far different from others", he stated in announcing a 29 November annual ministerial-level meeting of the Quadripartite Committee for Coordination on Chernobyl, comprised of representatives of the three most affected countries--Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine--as well as UN agencies and the donor community.

At least 9 million people had been directly or indirectly affected, with some 375,000 displaced and 800,000 "liquidators"--individuals who had dealt with the disaster's immediate aftermath--"very severely affected", Mr. Hansen said.

Morbidity rates were 30 per cent higher in Ukraine for those who lived in the contaminated region, and more than 50 per cent for those in the immediate area of the reactor, he went on. In Belarus, thyroid cancer had increased some 285-fold, affecting mostly children.

The "worst part of the problem was that not enough was known", and the full effect of the consequences would "likely be known 20 years from now", Mr. Hansen noted. There was a "gradual deterioration in the health conditions of the people": in Belarus, for example, some 62 per cent were suffering from anxiety syndrome and 75 per cent from depression.

A number of UN agencies were carrying out various projects to address the needs of the people, but many of them were "being discontinued for lack of funds", Mr. Hansen stated.

Since only two or three per cent of the nuclear material had escaped during the explosion, the "major problem is how to prevent the rest from seeping through the cracked concrete walls", he stressed, adding that none of the affected countries had the financial capacity to do that.

Assistance urged

Further international assistance to mitigate the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster was urged by officials from Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine on 30 November, as they held a press conference on the results of the Quadripartite Committee meeting at Headquarters.

Ivan Kenik, Minister for Emergencies and Population Protection from the Chernobyl catastrophe consequences of Belarus, hoped that 1996 would become, "with the help of the media", a year of international solidarity with the victims of Chernobyl. His country, with a population of 10 million, allocated "nearly a quarter of its national income to resolve post-Chernobyl problems". According to international assessments, 70 per cent of the Chernobyl fall-out had occurred in Belarus.

Ukraine was spending about one tenth of its budget on clean-up and recovery work, as well as other related projects, said Borys Hudyma, that country's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN. About 8 per cent of that came from international assistance.

Victor Vladimirov, Deputy Minister for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Calamities of the Russian Federation, stressed that the whole international community had a "stake in seeing positive results" from the work going on in the three countries.

`Still a major humanitarian tragedy'

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on 8 September stated that the name "Chernobyl" had become "synonymous throughout the world with our fear of technological catastrophe: it symbolizes a penance for our unchecked desire for progress".

Although an area the size of England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined--over 160,000 square kilometres--had been estimated to be contaminated by the disaster, and the "humanitarian trauma itself ... is as frighteningly unnatural as it is difficult to quantify", the international community's response had been "inconsistent throughout", he reported (A/50/418).

A concerted effort was therefore needed to alert, particularly the donors, to the fact that Chernobyl was "still a major humanitarian tragedy", and the magnitude of its effects would "continue to grow over the next 10 years", the Secretary-General stressed. The 26 April tenth anniversary of the disaster offered an "excellent opportunity to galvanize widespread media interest in the problem", he said.