Is the current legislative base sufficient to overcome the aspects of the 1986 Chornobyl disaster?

A meeting of the Committee ex-chairmen (those who has been in charge of the Committee since its establishment) - Mr. Yavorivsky and Mr. V. Yatsenko - has been initiated. The existing legislative base was analyzed. That's true, at the legislature level virtually all issues are resolved. Misunderstandings arise when the laws are not observed, when the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, because of the economic situation, suspends certain articles of the laws. Unfortunately, our financial situation does not make it possible to implement the provisions of the laws. What is the way out, then? First and foremost - guarantee the finance is allocated as envisaged, preclude reductions of the amount of financial support to children and disabled persons, carefully observe the way it is used. During 1995 - 1998 there were gross financial violations in the area of Chornobyl Fund management. Preventive measures and control have been cardinally improved after Mr. Durdynets was appointed to the position of the head of the Ministry for Emergency Situations (hereinafter - the MES). As the result, currently such violations are non-existent, though some drawbacks do remain. Take, for instance, the issue of recuperation of the Chornobyl victims: the funds "disappear" somewhere en route between the receipt of the all-expenses-paid trip and the arrival to the place of the treatment (sanatorium). The Committee reported such cases to the General Prosecutor's Office, to the Audit Committee of the Ministry of Finance, to the Ministry for Emergency Situations, but the audits of the above bodies revealed no violations or misappropriations. As it was found out, the funds are spent, for instance for advertising of a sanatorium, which in turn reduces the catering expenses - obviously, public servants are eager to get a share of the state money in return, but that, without affected persons' active assistance, is unprovable. Still there are cases when the Chornobyl victims, after having been re-settled from the zone, obtain new lodging, upon which sell it and return to the zone claiming a new apartment. I would not like to go into details of such above cases, though I have to admit they do occur. The management of the MES Chornobyl Fund, according to the reports of financial and controlling bodies, is exercised with the least number of violations of laws, if compare with other Ministries, bodies or organizations.

Chornobyl funds of various kinds are innumerable today. Does their activity bring any noteworthy positive effect? How one could evaluate the activity of numerous humane organizations, whose goal is to overcome the Chornobyl disaster consequences?

I oppose the approach of judging all men by the same standard, putting everybody "into the same stable". For instance there are "Soyuz Chornobyl" union, the fund for support of the children of Chornobyl etc… all the activity is concentrated in these organizations. Under no circumstances one should restrict citizens' initiative to establish such [new humane] organizations. The state should help them evolve, as the centralization does not make it possible to address each particular person, his/her problems, attract all the funds potentially available to resolve such person's problems. For example, any foreign organization would rather support a small humane organization providing medical care to the children, than a powerful bureaucratic institution that, in their opinion, would fail to spend the funds properly. The above is confirmed by practice. Therefore, I am fully supporting the diversification of organizations and funds. Another question is their efficiency. For example, the state budget has allocated UAH 1 million to provide support to "Soyuz Chornobyl Ukrainy" and other organizations. "Soyuz Chornobyl" was authorized to manage the funds. Recently, an MES clerk has submitted an application requesting to entitle the same organization to manage another UAH 1 million. But what about other entities that are entitled to get funds from the budget too? In my opinion, all organizations with fixed membership that can account for their financial activity etc. should be supported. In other words, any organization contributing to the mitigation and elimination of the Chornobyl disaster consequences, should be entitled to the access to the budget funds. The state is not able to cover all the expenses envisaged by the laws, therefore, of extreme importance is the cause of attraction of humane societies sponsored by national and foreign entities. The international community understands our problems: they help treat our kids, provide drugs, humanitarian aid; that is why this is the widest variety of the humane societies and funds that facilitates and boosts such a cooperation. Even more important is to learn and avoid repeated mistakes in the area of preferences granting: we are well aware that there are persons who had never seen Chornobyl, never stepped on the contaminated soil, but who managed to obtain even the status and preferences granted exclusively to the invalids of Chornobyl.

What is the share (greater or smaller versus the amounts donated by foreign states) of the budget in the total amounts of support provided to the NGUs,?

Unequivocally, the foreign organizations' aid is greater. In the current year the state has allocated another UAH 1 million subject to distribution among the organizations that actively attract foreign aid, provide medical treatment to our children, help disabled people. A humane organization, if it has financial resources or a relevant fund, can rapidly (and, in case of necessity - instantly) respond in a situation, when, say, a person needs urgent surgery requiring financing without delay. We should keep in mind that the state bureaucratic machinery is so complex that someone may receive assistance too late… Collective decision making is another positive thing in the humane societies.

What are the national priorities in the area of elimination of the Chornobyl catastrophe consequences?

The most painful and critical is the social protection area. Being resettled from their hearths, people are under stress (that specifically concerns the older ones, as the youth adapts to such changes easier and faster). The affected persons should permanently sense the support of the state: their children should have the right to enter higher educational establishments without entrance examinations, they should be entitled to preferences when paying communal payments, to larger preferences when undergoing medical treatment etc. And when the Government makes decision the benefits will not be payable or will be cancelled at all in one or two years, a person feels defenseless, deserted. Such decisions should be approached with utmost discretion - first of all, the government should put in place adequate social conditions to enable an affected person to make proper living, and, given such conditions are guaranteed, the Chornobyl victims will not be so greatly (even absolutely) dependant on the preferences and budget payments. Only then, the Committee members gather, the legislature can commence considering cuts in social protection area.

Another area is represented by the issues of the exclusion zone. A great number of persons is working in the zone; as the result, the number of the disabled persons is growing. One may not, however, leave the zone to its fate, as it contains some eight hundred burial grounds that should be taken care of; additionally, there is the forest that needs care. Moreover, the zone is a unique scientific test ground where scientists can study the impact of radiation upon the environment and biological resources. The exclusion zone carries the "Shelter" that is integrally connected with the plant proper. There's a unit in charge of the zone security - nothing can be carried out from the zone without its personnel permission and knowledge - this order has been provided by the law to guarantee the radioactive security.

The 3.5 million people, including over 1.2 million children, residing in the contaminated areas of Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Rivne oblasts, represent a considerable issue too.

An interesting fact has been observed - morbidity level of Chornobyl victims is higher than that of other Ukraine's inhabitants, despite all the social protection measures taken by the state. Simultaneously, growing is the number of Chornobyl disabled persons, which, logically, should be decreasing. The above is explained by the existence of the people residing in the contaminated areas. The processes of growing of the number of persons entitled to the preferences have not been carefully analyzed by the executive power. It could be that the desire to be secured by the Chornobyl laws and get relevant preferences prompts some people to wrong-doing. For example, a pregnant women, previously evicted from the zone, returns there and delivers a baby secured by all the preferences declared by the state… such things represent the on-going concern of the bodies of executive power. The Committee members, including Mr. V. Yatsenko who pays special attention to the protection of Chornobyl affected persons, are of the following opinion: the artificial increase of the number of the affected should be precluded by all means. Personally, from the very beginning, I have stood on the following grounds - we must protect only the affected persons, otherwise the state will not be able to guarantee adequate protection to the true victims, children. Take the status of "the participant of combat operations" - presently these persons can be counted on the fingers of one hand; however, in practice their universe is constantly growing, as the notion, that covers that category of people, has been significantly broadened - and there seems to be no end to further growth of such people number. The very sense of the social protection is lost…

To conclude, the residence in the radioactively contaminated territories facilitates this increase in the number of the affected. As the result, the financial opportunities for those, who really suffered and need help, are continuously shrinking… That is the problem to resolve for both executive power and the legislature.

International assistance. Your evaluation.

As far as the international assistance is concerned, I would like to thank to the people, organizations and states that compassionate us. Such humanitarian aid has been and is provided under Resolution of the UN General Assembly. Only after the UN General Assembly adopted the Resolution inviting states, businesses and corporations to help Ukraine in liquidation of the Chornobyl consequences, to assist her in the area of social protection, the countries, institutions and organizations started allocating required funds from their budgets; while if such an appeal had not been adopted - the sponsors would not consider it necessary to do that. As there are many states considering themselves poor and claiming the international aid, we should take even more weighted approach when explaining why we need such an assistance. Otherwise the UN General Assembly would not adopt a Resolution inviting to help Ukraine.

That very reason prompted to organize and hold the international conference "15 years after Chornobyl disaster. An experience of recovery". The conference is to open on Wednesday, April 18. Among those invited are the G-7 representatives, the Deputy of the UNO General Secretary, IAEA Deputy Head. Other participants will be represented by the men of science. The conference is to analyze statistics, scientific researches, medical consequences. A special analysis will be performed to identify whether Ukraine's population decease are caused by the Chornobyl, or there are other reasons. The above analysis is absolutely necessary, as the EU members and other states are claiming the diseases in Ukraine are not related to the disaster consequences but to other reasons, trying thus to prove that Ukraine's requests for assistance are nothing but an attempt to shirk off our economic problems on to the shoulders of the international community.

That is why we are inviting leading foreign scientists to take a look the exclusion zone, the hospitals where Chornobyl patients are treated, to visit the places densely populated by the Chornobyl victims and to verify whether the diseases are caused by the Chornobyl factor or there are other reasons. After that they will be able to conclude whether we should invest in resolution of these problems, or follow the advice: forget it and the nature will resolve the issue. In passing, Russia has practically followed that advice.

We have dwelt upon the issue of the social protection, but one should not ignore the technical issues, including: Chornobyl Plant closure, transformation of the Shelter into an ecologically safe system, erection of Vector object (where the radioactive wastes should be re-buried), construction of the back-end storage facility, construction of the plant for reprocessing the liquid A-waste. Under the Memorandum on the ChNPP closure and decommissioning, certain commitments were assumed, on the one hand, by the G-7 states (who requested to close the plant), and, on the other hand, by Ukraine. In my opinion, Ukraine's representatives have not been professional when negotiating the relevant issues and signing the Memo. Particularly, Ukrainian side has failed to realize the idea of erection of steam-to-gas power plant on the ChNPP industrial platform (instead of the decommissioned units). The funds declared by the Memo have not been allocated in full to date. We could shift the blame on specific countries, for example Germany, France or the USA, but that would not be fair. It would be fair to recognize that Ukraine has been and is working with the international organizations without due coordination. The Ministry for Fuel and Energy, the MES, the Ministry of Ecological Resources, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Health Care were pursuing their activities individually, without any coordination. And our accomplishments achieved to date are the merit of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our diplomats, who, given all the internal misunderstandings, manage to represent Ukraine with due honor and dignity, to prepare the documents required for the progress. But how we can reconcile with the following fact: Ukraine performs over 80% of the works using its own potential; its people, who are working in the zone and exposed to all the dozes, are paid a mere 20% of the funds collected by the international community, while the Western firms' consultants receive, as wages, 80% of the funds and return them back to the West? I sent the memos on the issue in the name of the President and Prime Minister of Ukraine, stressing the urgent necessity to establish a position of a vice-prime-minister who would be empowered to coordinate the activity on elimination of the Chornobyl consequences, to supervise the process of use of the funds as well as activities of the organizations attracted to the Program realization. I got no response so far. Meanwhile the funds are being "bargained away", and approaching is the deadline after which the foreign investors will request us to report on the results, and Ukraine will, finally, be left alone with her problems.

In this respect I have to mention and commend the UN Chornobyl Program, a component of which is social and psychological rehabilitation of the population. This is the area where the tiny funds allocated are really working, where people get required moral, material and medical support. I wish that program were developing both in volumes and in time.

How the humane organizations are preparing to mark the 15-th year after the Chornobyl disaster?

Since the disaster, when those in power kept silence, the humane organizations, and first of all - "Zeleny Svit" Ukrainian ecological association, were raising the alarm and requesting the authorities to provide true information both on the catastrophe and the potential impact.

Currently such warnings are non-existent. Everybody has heard the dreadful truth. The funds, required to improve the situation, are scarce.

Our actions are aimed at attraction of additional funds. The Parliament has held hearings on both ecological and Chornobyl issues. The less efforts we will apply to remind the world of that date, the faster it will pass into oblivion in America and Europe. They ceased to be influenced by the Chornobyl, as they were in the first months after the accident; and Europe is more preoccupied with the foot and mouth disease issue. Therefore, the Parliament will go on and on with the Chornobyl hearings, we will have to keep memories awake, prevent people from forgetting those tragical days. A number of books on Chornobyl should be published.

Underway is the process of drafting the conclusions of the commission established on the initiative of the Committee on Ecologic Policy to reveal the true reasons of the disaster. Having worked for over 2 years, the commission has analyzed virtually all expert conclusions issued by Ukrainian, Russian and western experts, other organizations. The commissioners have analyzed the data on the catastrophe, including even the records of conversations on the phone, testimonies, parameters of the plant control and measuring equipment registered during the shift that became the last. Based on thousands of such indicators, a logical model of the Chornobyl accident has been developed. We have significant obstacles preventing us from restoring the data on the last 15 minutes of the plant operation, as the record was destroyed. But, to ensure the authentic picture of the accident, that must be done. The following important factor has retrograded the commission's progress: immediately upon the accident established were several commissions that "ransacked" the documents. This is why it is difficult to collect all the materials; in addition, some of them are already lost.

While developing the logical model of the accident at the plant, we arrived at the conclusion that Mr. Akimov, the manager of the last shift, told the truth when, shortly before dying, he said he had done everything properly. Per the results of the commission activity, it is obvious that the shift was innocent and that the accident was prepared "artificially", because there could not be so many coincidences… Even to rehabilitate the personnel and to pay the last tribute to those dead, we must find out the true reason of the accident, and the mentioned commission will soon make public the deliverables of its careful studies.

Only today we can constate the volumes of the lies about Chornobyl were tremendous. Lies were published on the real reasons of the disaster, and the author of the lies was the former Soviet Union, but IAEA, knowing it had been lies, had accepted the report. Nowadays, closing the ChNPP, we must say the truth.

Both the IAEA (that, despite accepting the inveracious report, was sincerely preoccupied with elimination of the consequences) and Russian and Ukrainian scientists, who, ignoring all admonitions, are facilitating the investigation of the commission providing the information and materials required to complete the job and develop the disaster model (subsequently - a computer model) to tell the world the whole truth about Chornobyl.