Chernobyl was truy a terrible disaster of our time. So, for my generation, who is too young to remember it, please educate yourself.
Mourners Mark Chernobyl's 18th Anniversary
By ANNA MELNICHUK, Associated Press Writer
KIEV, Ukraine - Mourners laid flowers and lit candles in gatherings across the former Soviet Union Monday to mark the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which spread radiation over much of northern Europe.
In all, 7 million people in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are believed to have suffered physical or psychological injuries from the April 26, 1986, catastrophe, when reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded and caught fire.
An area roughly half the size of Colorado was contaminated by the accident, forcing the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people and ruining some of Europe's most fertile farmland.
In the capital Kiev, some 80 miles south of the Chernobyl plant, hundreds of Ukrainians on Monday filled the small chapel dedicated to the disaster's victims at 1:23 a.m. local time, the exact time of the explosion.
Later, they laid flowers and lit candles at a small hill where marble plaques inscribed with the names of hundreds of victims are laid.
And nearly 1,000 mourners gathered in the afternoon at Kiev's Chernobyl memorial, a soaring statue of five falling metallic swans. Some placed flowers and photos of deceased relatives at its base.
"Nothing can be compared with a mother's sorrow," said Praskoviya Nezhyvova, an elderly retiree clutching a black-framed photograph of her son, Viktor. She said he died of Chernobyl-related stomach cancer in 1990 at age 44.
Volodymyr Diunych, a driver who took members of the hastily recruited and inadequately equipped cleanup crews to the site, recalled watching as residents were evacuated "in an awful rush" days after the disaster.
Ukraine shuttered Chernobyl's last working reactor in December 2000.
But Ukrainian experts say that the concrete-and-steel shelter hastily constructed over the damaged reactor following the accident needs urgent repairs. Authorities say the reactor site is safe.
As of early 2004, more than 2.3 million people, including 452,000 children, had been hospitalized in Ukraine with illnesses blamed on the disaster, according to Ukraine's Health Ministry. Ukraine has registered some 4,400 deaths in connection with the accident.
Many of those injured in the explosion or displaced by its fallout complain the government is doing little to help them.
Sergei Shchvetsov, the head of Russia's Chernobyl Union, was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency that 40,000 people disabled by the clean up operations after the blast live in Russia and the "volume of benefits to which (they) are eligible is narrowing every year."
In Minsk, the capital of Belarus, about 1,000 people held an unauthorized rally to mark the anniversary and protest what they said was the government's weakening of programs to help Chernobyl victims.
"We're beginning to die like flies and the state's not reacting," said Georgy Lepin, who said he was part of the cleanup crew.
The government is allowing vegetables from the most-contaminated region of Belarus to be sold in the less-affected areas, alleged Ivan Nikitchenko, a member of the Belarus Academy of Sciences.
The most frequently noted Chernobyl-related diseases include thyroid and blood cancer and cancerous growths. There have also been numerous reports of mental disorders resulting from the disaster.
The United Nations said in a statement that in some areas of Belarus, thyroid cancer among children has increased more than 100-fold since the accident.