Republic
20.04.2006
The Chernobyl program does deserve the attention of international organizations and foreign countries not only on the jubilee days. At various international summits Belarus has repeatedly stressed the need of holding unbiased assessment and rendering real help rather than giving promises, said chairman of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich characterizing the involvement of international scientific community in the efforts to elaborate a concept to minimize the Chernobyl consequences at the international conference “20 years after Chernobyl. A strategy of rehabilitation and sustainable development of the affected regions”.
Mikhail Myasnikovich noted that right after the accident at the Chernobyl plant representatives of some international organization actively cooperated with Belarusian scientists carrying out joint projects, issuing grants, making humanitarian deliveries of scientific equipment to Belarus. Nothing of the kind is happening now. The exception here is the Union State joint programs. However, as the head of the National Academy of Sciences believes, these programs failed to become determinative in mitigation of the consequences of the catastrophe. Moreover, the Union State Chernobyl program was completed last year. Therefore, there is an urgent need to draft a new one. The matter was discussed during the sitting of the Union State government in March.
Mikhail Myasnikovich noted with regret that the main load on treatment, resettlement, recuperation and rehabilitation of the affected people and territories fell on Belarus. The Chernobyl issue remains the problem of the national economy.