Second day of international conference on Chernobyl to be held today in Gomel

Urgent issues on the rehabilitation of people and territories affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe will be high on the agenda of the second day of the international conference “Chernobyl 20 years later. Strategy of restoration and sustainable development of the affected regions”. According to the information given to BelTA in the press service of the Chernobyl committee under the Council of Ministers, the work of the conference will be conducted in five sections “Rehabilitation of contaminated regions” (social and economic issues), “Medial and social-psychological consequences”, “Dosimetery”, “Radio-ecological and radiobiological aftermaths”, “Modern actions of Belarus and Russia to mitigate consequences of the catastrophe within the Union State”. Representatives of Belarusian and foreign NGOs will gather for a round table “Humanitarian cooperation: experience, problems, prospects” in the public-cultural center and will visit an exhibition of projects on mitigating the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster which are implemented in this country. Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Filaret, Patriarch of Exarch of All Belarus will address the participants of the conference. Attending the conference’s “Gomel day” will be about 1,7 thousand from Belarus and 45 countries. The press service of the Chernobyl committee notes, the organizers of the event have drawn up five routes to the Bragin, Vetka, Mozyr, Narovlya, Khoiniki and Cherchersk regions and also to the Polessye radiation-ecology reserve for those who would like to visit the Chernobyl-stricken regions. On April 20 Minsk will host the international festival of ecological films “EKAFILM” and also the republican artistic festival of children from the affected regions “With memory in the heart and hope for the future”. The third day of the forum will be held in Minsk again. The plenary sittings in the Palace of the Republic will sum up the results of the conference and pass final documents. The participants of the conference will also see the film “Chernobyl cross” which was shot especially for the sad anniversary by the national filmstudio Belarusfilm on the order of the Chernobyl committee and the culture ministry of the republic, informs the press services of the Chernobyl committee.