From the Chernobyl-revisionism to the project of the NPP in Belarus

About 70% of the radioactive substances released to the atmosphere in result of the accident at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl NPP on April 26 in 1986 contaminated 23% of the territory of Belarus. At present about 1.4 million residents including 260 thousand children live in the radiation pollution zone. The radiation situation in several affected regions is still difficult (National report “20 years after the Chernobyl accident”). But the government and the president are absolutely not concerned about that, they are actually creating a delayed-action bomb in the country, where one third of the territory is unfit for living as well as farming and most other production activities.

The wastelands, contaminated by radiation are at stake in the interactions between the current political regime in Belarus and such institutions, as the World Bank and the IMF, the IAEA and international nuclear corporations. For instance, the World Bank supported cancellation of the benefits to the population of Belarus and revision of these wastelands’ status as suitable for settlement and agriculture, and provided loans for their exploitation under the shield of the “Post Chernobyl Recovery Project”[i]. This revision of the status of the contaminated territories and the population who suffered from the radiation was, as it turned out, a bridge towards the introduction of the NPP construction project. As a result of this politics of loyalty to the authoritarian regime in Belarus, in our country which greatly suffered from radioactive contamination, the potential risks of a project of building a nuclear power plant are not being discussed anymore. It's a question of the nearest future, while Lukashenka took a final decision about the construction of the Belarusian NPP, regardless of the public opinion and common sense[ii]. This decision was made with the active support of the international nuclear lobby. The construction is to be undertaken by a Russian corporation “Rosatom”. It is to be held in a seismically active zone, several dozens kilometers away from Lake Naroch – the largest lake in Belarus, which is ecologically unique for our country and presents a tourist attraction. On the construction $4 billion will be spent, which otherwise could be outlaid for development of the alternative energetic[iii].  

Russian NPPs have bad reputation in terms of safety. For instance, 47 operating irregularities took place in 2007, connected with load pulldowns, mistakes in the security systems and faults of the stuff. Among the main reasons of these irregularities are mentioned drawbacks in the administration, weakness of the organization of the NPPs’ exploitation and defects in their construction. These facts refute the widespread attempts of the Belarusian authorities to manipulate public opinion and present only one-sided information about the potential risks of the NPP. Absolutely save reactors don’t exist. And there is always a probability of the accidents.

Present-day Belarus is a post-soviet police state with neoliberal regime holding strong position. For already 14 years the country is run by the same person – Alexander Lukashenka, who used to be a populist, but now is openly pursuing antisocial neoliberal reforms. Fundamental political freedoms - of speech, of press, of assembly - are not recognized in the country. Political opposition, independent trade unions and non-governmental organizations are suppressed. Political trials, preventive detentions, dispersions of peaceful gatherings became a norm of political practice in Belarus. The struggle against the venturous project of the construction of the NPP goes in the conditions of the difficult political situation in the country. Local activists, anarchists, environmentalists and scientists who try to fight for the right to know truth about Chernobyl and for the prohibition of the construction of the NPP are persecuted and silenced.

Only with broad international support it is possible to rise this issue to the highest scale, which presents a question of health security and well-being for the population of Belarus. The politicians should be stopped from manipulating public opinion and jeopardizing human lives and health for getting profits and realizing their nuclear ambitions[iv].

Current Political Situation in Belarus

The NPP construction project/The Post-Chernobyl-issues in Belarus are interconnected with the current political situation in the country. Only under the conditions of authoritarianism, absence of public discussion and loyalty of the IMF and the World Bank to the ruling political regime such dreadful and thoughtless decision to build the NPP in the country which suffered most of all from the Chernobyl catastrophe could be taken. The Antinuclear Resistance, constituted by the groups of anarchists, environmentalists and local activists, presents a part of the greater Anti-Nuclear movement in the country, which, besides antinuclear agenda also has political dimension and demands. It is not only struggling with nuclear industry, it challenges the powerful network of international nuclear lobby, neoliberal institutions and authoritarian regime of Lukashenka. One of the basic goals of the Anti-Nuclear movement in Belarus is to fight for the rights of the people, exposed to radiation.

The official politics of the Belarusian government is to hide the consequences of the tragedy. It launched the “campaign” for revision of the harm from the Chernobyl catastrophe. For instance, the benefits to the victims and liquidators of the catastrophe were completely cancelled by law in September 2007, the status of the territories and the consequences of the tragedy were revisited. This cancellation was the most shocking political step by Lukashenka’s regime, which crowns a long chain of anti-social measures. The government was interested in receiving loans from the IMF and the WB on the creation of the “free economic zone” at the contaminated territory and for the construction of the NPP. This anti-social legislation shows that the liquidators of the catastrophe and persons who were exposed to radiation are treated rather as burden to the government, which leads to their discrimination and marginalization.  

A part of political forces in Belarus, including some “opposition” parties, supported the NPP construction. Unlike them the participants of the anarchist group Antinuclear Resistance do not believe in the NPP safety irrespective of the political regime. The activities of the movement is based upon non-authoritarian principles, it doesn’t cooperate with any political parties, but works hand in hand with ecological organizations and grassroots initiatives.

The Post-Chernobyl Oblivion/ The NPP Project

Taking into consideration the scale and the consequences the Chernobyl accident is considered to be the largest human-caused catastrophe in history. But the calculation of the number of its victims is complicated by the fact that the illnesses such as cancer can occur decennia after exposure to radiation and can have multiple causes. Besides, in this case the interests of the international nuclear lobby go together with the interests of the Belarusian government – they do all their best in order to hide the real scale of the disaster. In line with its politics of oblivion of the victims of the nuclear energy, in 2007 the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN agency for the promotion of nuclear energy) has published a notorious report that played the number of victims down to 400. In spite of the fact that this report was corrected afterwards by co-publisher WHO (World Health Organization of the UN) that found another 5.000 victims “overlooked” in the original report, the Belarusian authorities used it as a justification for their policy of cutting social benefits and guarantees. There are still also recent reports, one of Greenpeace counting 93.000 victims and one of European Greens (TORCH: The Other Report on Chernobyl) counting from 30.000 to 60.000 cancer victims. There is also much suffering and health damage caused by the economic disruption of the accident and then there are those who are surviving after surgery and with heavy medication, but are not counted in these reports. The Belarusian government conceals the real number of the victims of the catastrophe and proclaims the territories which are still contaminated with 137 Cs and 90 Sr as “clean” and “appropriate” for living, production and agriculture[v]. This policy was supported by the Chernobyl programme of the World Bank in 2005 – 2006.

The contact with radiation agents has led to doubling of the death-rate of the population in Belarus in the last 23 years. The quantity of people dying at the territories with high level of radiation contamination is shocking. Among the causes of death the cardiovascular and the oncologic diseases take dominant place. A great concern is caused also by the significant increase of the primary incidence rates of blood circulation system diseases among the affected population, especially among the participants of elimination of consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl NPP[vi].

It should be mentioned, that the assistance from the EU to the Belarusian government for the management of the post-Chernobyl consequences is not sufficient, as any charity.  

23 years of struggling for life and painful recovering after the Chernobyl catastrophe was more than enough to convince the authorities and the population that our country doesn’t have the right to exploit the technology of such high risk. The decision to build the NPP is a despicable mistake of the government, which didn’t manage to overcome the consequences of the nuclear catastrophe.

Nevertheless, the movement towards the Belarusian NPP project started in 2005 with the official politics of the Chernobyl revisionism leading to the dismissal of the Chernobyl issue. In order to construct the NPP in the country which suffered most of all the other countries from the catastrophe at the Chernobyl NPP, the population was stripped of their rights to compensation and benefits, their memory of the disaster was cleaned and awareness of the radiation risk was dulled. This politics was backed by the international institutions, such as the WB and the IMF. With their support the government started “The Post Chernobyl Recovery Project”.  

In 2005 the World Bank approved the neoliberal direction of Lukashenka’s reforms in the sphere of health, education and social welfare. All these destructive and intrinsically anti-social “reforms” were implemented in accordance with the WB recommendations for “better effectiveness” of social policies. This cooperation between the World Bank and the Belarusian government became an important argument and an alibi for Lukashenka’s regime striving to dismantle few social rights that still existed in the country. The politics of revision of the Chernobyl catastrophe presents the best example of this kind of “cooperation”.

While economic liberalization presents the indispensable condition of all the WB assistance, still exciting social rights of the Belarusian citizens (compensations and benefits, free health care), considered by the WB as “stigma”, constituted a real “problem” for the Belarusian government. And the abolishment of the Chernobyl benefits with aim allegedly to correspond to the WB cutthroat politics were only the first step towards final dismantling of the social sphere in the country. 

“The Post Chernobyl Recovery Project” was really “revolutionary”. First of all, the WB in collaboration with the Belarusian government proposed to revise all existing Chernobyl social legislation. According to the new concept, the status of “Chernobyl victims” will not be given to everybody who lives at the contaminated territories, but only to those who can “prove” the connection between their health problems and Chernobyl disaster (“real impact”). It was almost impossible however to prove this “real impact”, while scientific consensus on the issue didn’t exist. The only officially recognized illness caused by the Chernobyl catastrophe in Belarus is thyroid carcinoma. This situation automatically leaded to the exclusion of the major part of the population from any compensation[vii]. 

The second step of the reform consisted in revision of the most of the contaminated territories as “safe” or “clean”. The Belarusian government planned to exclude such terms as “disaster”, “catastrophe”, “victims”, “contaminated zone” from the official Chernobyl vocabulary, that presents an example of the newspeak described by D.Orwell in “1984”. No disaster, no zone, - it means no compensations, no rights. Instead, it was planned to create a kind of “free economic zone” at the contaminated territory, where it would be “experimented” mostly in such sectors as forestry and agriculture.

The WB stated more clearly its demands in the Chernobyl programme in 2006: to minimize and cancel when possible social programmes, compensations and benefits from the state. The consequences of the catastrophe should be revised in order to dismiss the Chernobyl subject and abolish still existing social protection in the country.

After the appropriate changes on the status of the victim of the Chernobyl and the territory of the Chernobyl zone to the Belarusian legislature were made, in April 2006 the WB gave $ 50 mln. loan to the government on the “rehabilitation” of the territories contaminated in the result of the catastrophe. The money were mostly borrowed for “economic recovery” of the region. 

The intensification of the “international cooperation” was linked to the project of construction of the NPP. The WB project actually became a bridge between Belarusian regime and big nuclear corporations. Only after revision of the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe and implementation of the policy of oblivion of its victims it became possible to introduce the NPP project.

An interesting question is why the great political forces supported dictator Lukashenka in his strive to posses nuclear energy. It all reminds us of the situation with nuclear programme in Iran described by the A.Malm, Sh.Esmailian in their book “Iran on the Brink. Rising Workers and Threats of War” (London, Pluto Press, 2007).

As it is well-known, the waste from the “peaceful” nuclear energy is used in the production of the nuclear warfare. A.Malm and Sh.Esmailian described the way in which the USA proposed the creation of the nuclear energy production and infrastructure to Iran and accused its government of possession of the nuclear warfare afterwards.

The USA supported the creation of the nuclear infrastructure by the shah of Iran in 1975 in their agreement, and provided the Iranian government with all the necessary equipment, technologies and uranium. In spite of the leak of information about the plans of the shah to produce nuclear warfare, the American nuclear corporations continued to cooperate with the regime, blinded with the expectations of huge profits. So, three decades ago the USA were willing to provide Iran with all the nuclear technologies, and now they accuse Iran in exploiting these technologies for the production of the nuclear warfare, that presents still rather a logical consequence of this loyalty, which could be foreseen[viii].

The case of Iran should be a warning for Belarus, a country, which has an authoritarian regime and the image of the last dictatorship in Europe on the international arena. This image, nevertheless, doesn’t stop neoliberal institutions, the IAEA and the nuclear corporations and governments backed by their nuclear lobbies from the cooperation with the Belarusian regime in order to provide Lukashenka with the NPP. 

Now, among three potential contractors of the eventual NPP – American-Japanese “Westinghouse-Toshiba”, French-German group “AREVA” and Russian company “Atomstroyexport” the latter was chosen under the pressure of the Russian nuclear lobby. In January 2009 the negotiations with the Russian State Corporation on the nuclear energy “Rosatom” took place. Russia also agreed to give the loan on the construction of the NPP. The building of the NPP should be started by the Russian company “Atomstroyexport” in 2010 while the first unit is to be set into power by the 2016. The project of the construction will cost from 4 to 10 billion euro, which includes both the founding from the state and from the private companies.

The nuclear energy is the privilege of the very rich countries, and Belarus could not afford such a vast project. It is obvious that it is impossible to build the plant without the loans from the Russian government and the IMF and the WB. They of course are willing to help Lukasheka to realize his dreamboat of nuclear energy. For instance, on December 31, 2009 the IMF gave Belarus $ 2,5 billion loan on the condition that the Belarusian government will satisfy its demands. The result was not slow to arrive - the salaries were reduced, and the national currency was devaluated by 20 %. The construction of the NPP takes place at the costs of the population of Belarus: in order to find extra money for the construction of the NPP the social payments and benefits are reduced, the taxes and the housing tariffs are raised. The project of the construction of the NPP presents a reckless scheme of the Lukashenka’s regime nowadays, when most of the factories and plants work in Belarus three or four days a week, and the workers are deprived of all the bonuses and allowances. Disappointment with this politics grows in spite of the state repressions and intimidation. 

          Campaign against the NPP in Belarus: 11 years of Resistance

During these 23 years after the Chernobyl catastrophe there were several attempts from the Belarusian government to hide and revise its consequences. To begin with, in the first days after April 26, 1986, when the radioactive cloud from Chernobyl was already above the territory of Belarus, the authorities were preparing for the May-Day demonstration and reported to Moscow that the situation in the country is under control. This criminal imprudence lead to the explosion to the radioactivity of the greater part of population of the Republic.

The Belarusian government started the official campaign for the revision of the status of the contaminated territories and reduction of the benefits and compensations to the Chernobyl victims and liquidators shortly after the catastrophe. In the 80-s, nevertheless, at least 22% of the annual budget of Belarus was spent on Chernobyl-related programmes; now, this figure is down to 6% or less.

The significant cutting of the social, medical and educational programmes designed at overcoming of the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe began in 1995. In result of the two presidential decrees in September 1995 the majority of those suffering from the effects of the catastrophe were deprived of any compensation. The Law on Regulating Certain Benefits passed in 2007 cancelled the remaining compensations almost completely. A huge number of people were left without any financial support, free medical care, benefits for housing and communal services. The official medicine does not recognize radiation as the cause of mass morbidity of the people[ix].

The liquidators and victims of the Chernobyl catastrophe from Belarus are out-raged by the fact that they have been deprived of the basic social guarantees (such as free treatment at sanatoriums and resorts, the right for early retirement, additional paid vacation, and free provision with vital medication). The refusal to admit the connection between their diseases and their stay in the radioactive pollution zone has become a common practice in Belarus. Today, only thyroid carcinoma is considered to be related to the accident at the Chernobyl NPP.

300 from the 370 local centers of the radiation control, which supplied the dwellers with information concerning radiation pollution in the regions, were closed by 1997. The results of the radiation measurement strikingly contradicted with the officially proclaimed politics of the “recovery period”. The vacations abroad for the children from the contaminated regions were also set under the control of the government, as well as foreign financial aid to the charitable organizations and foundations.

Researches on the connection between the nuclear energy and health of the people always endanger the successful academic career. Only unique individuals, as, for instance, Belarusian scientists I.Smoliar and U. Ermashkevich and the ex-political prisoner Y.Bandazhevski or Russian professor A.Jablokov were ready to proclaim the scientific truth and to fight with the fear.

Even when there are no accidents at the NPP the radioactive substances are being released to the environment anyway. The recent research by American scientists Joseph Mangano (Radiation and Public Health Project, New York, USA) and Janette D. Sherman (Environmental Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA) “Childhood Leukaemia Near Nuclear Installations (Letter to the Editor)” published in «European Journal of Cancer Care» #17, 2008  reveals the irrefutable facts concerning the rise of the children death rates in the USA near nuclear reactors. The shocking situation with the children mortality could not be veiled with any unemotional statistics: the childhood leukaemia mortality in the USA had increased from 1975 to 2004 by 28.7%. In this richest country in the world, “there are about seven newly diagnosed cases of childhood leukaemia each year for each death”. The carcinogenic effects of radiation exposure are most severe among infants and children. Leukemia is the type of childhood cancer most closely associated with exposures to toxic agents such as radiation[x].

We can only guess about the numbers of the imminent children deaths in the nearest future in the Astravec region in Belarus where it is planned to build the NPP. Lukashenka made an authoritarian decision to construct the NPP and walked over the public opinion and common sense. This decision apparently was made under the pressure of the international nuclear lobby, for instance, the IAEA and “Rosatom”. It threatens the health and well-being of the population of the country, who suffered a lot in the result of the Chernobyl catastrophe, and the children first of all. To stop the construction of the NPP in Belarus means to prevent deaths of our children from leukaemia.

Already in the 90s there were numerous attempts to start the discussion about the prospect of construction of the NPP in Belarus. In 1998 these voices became loud in the project to build the NPP in the Mahiliov region, close to the territory of the Chernobyl NPP. The protest was not long in coming - the first antinuclear campaign “Viasiolka” (“The Rainbow”) organized by the radical environmentalists and anarchists took place in Belarus. Among the participants there were activists from Germany, Poland, Belarus and Russia. They organized antinuclear rally in the course of which radical environmentalists stopped in the small towns and villages of the Mahiliov region and conducted meetings with the citizens, distributed leaflets and brochures, hold on dramatized pickets and organized rock-concert in Minsk. After the campaign part of the activists participated in the publishing of the radical ecology newspaper “Viasiolka”.    

Also in 1998 the Governmental Commission on the issue of the construction of the NPP was created. Among the members of the commission there were Ivan Smoliar and Vasily Ermashkevitch, the authors of the book “Nuclear Energy: Arguments pro and contra” (Minsk, 2000), which is dedicated to the discussion of the threats of the nuclear energy, the prospects of the energy saving and renewable energy sources. In 1999 the Commission came to the decision of the 10 years of moratorium on the construction of the NPP.

But the Belarusian authorities didn’t comply with the proclaimed moratorium, as in 2006 Lukashenka started to speak about the NPP as the only alternative for energy independence of Belarus. This statement also was a great nuisance, since according to the article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus “the objective is to make the territory of Belarus a nuclear-free zone”. In February 2007 in contradiction with the Aarhus Convention which grants the public rights regarding access to information and public participation in governmental decision-making processes on matters concerning the local, national and transboundary environment, Belarusian president took the decision about the NPP. In June 2007 the Directive of the President appeared which stated the necessity to start works on the construction of the NPP. This steps display the authoritarian approach toward the construction of the NPP. In January 2008 according to the Resolution of the Security Council “On the Development of the Nuclear Energy in Belarus”, signed by the president, the NPP is to be build with the total capacity 2000 MWt. The first power-generating unit should be set in operation in 2016, and the second one in 2018. The creation of the infrastructure for the building of the power plant was planned to start in 2009.

In June 2008 the law “On the Exploitation of the Nuclear Energy” was passed. It settled all the questions connected with the project, construction of the NPP, its administration and exploitation. This law passed the expertise of the IAEA and the European Commission as well. The United Nations also approved the project of construction of the NPP in Belarus which contradicts the constitution of the country. Thus, the population of Belarusian appeared without any support from the major political forces, which support the authoritarian regime on the issue of the nuclear energy.

Their answer were political campaigning, local activism and ecologist radicalism. For instance, in the town of Horki (Mahiliou region) the local public campaign against the construction of the NPP was launched. The actions started in 2007 when it leaked out about the explorations at the Kushkinova building site in 14 km from the town. The activists of the campaign collected over 1.300 signatures against the construction. According to the activists of the campaign, the decision to build the NPP was taken by the one person only. Belarus rather needs a scientific approach to the development of the alternative sources of energy. The authorities had to consider the vast social disagreement in the region. In result of the campaigning they moved the construction of the NPP about to the Astravec region.

On 26 April, the day of memory of the Chernobyl catastrophe, an annual demonstration “Charnobylski Shliah” (“The Chernobyl Path”) takes place in Minsk in commemoration of the accident and the people who became the immediate and lingering victims of it. The first demonstration was organized in 1989 by the Belarusian opposition parties. In 1996 the first demonstration under the rule of Lukashenka took place. The leaders of the opposition directed the demonstrators to the unapproved itinerary, and the column of the demonstrators was broken up by the special forces, in result dozens of participants were arrested.  

Starting with the year of 1996 anarchists and antinuclear activists take part in this demonstration with ecological and antinuclear slogans. But nowadays the demonstration, instead of just mourning and commemorative event, is gaining a protest mood against the authoritarian decision to built the NPP in the country, where dozens of thousands people have died in result of the nuclear accident aftermaths and hundreds of thousands have acquired accident-caused illnesses or become handicapped. Besides the demands to return social guarantees and benefits from the state and the protest against the NPP construction project the slogans against the WB and the IMF are raised at the Chernobyl demonstration.

On August 9, 2008 a group of anarchists from Minsk, the movement “Scientists for the non-nuclear Belarus”, and the Antinuclear movement organized a silence minute in memory of the victims of the nuclear bombings. Their action in Minsk raised the concern of the people about the connection between nuclear energy and nuclear warfare. Plutonium, which was used in the nuclear bomb in Nagasaki, presents a by-product of the spent fuel from the NPP. Military nuclear programmes in many countries – from the USA to Iran were the background for the “peaceful nuclear energy”. The action was a reproach to the authorities in Belarus which don’t take the whole responsibility for the risks of construction of the NPP in Belarus.

Afterwards the action the radical antinuclear anarchist group Antinuclear Resistance emerged. From the outset it received international support, for instance, from the Moscow-based antinuclear group “Ecodefence!” In November 2008 the activists went to the small town Astravec near which the NPP is planned to be built in accordance with the final decision of the government. They distributed leaflets among the population. The citizens of the Astravec district are intimidated by the authorities and don’t resist to the plans to built the NPP. There is still a local group of antinuclear activists against which the persecutions are being used by the authorities. The anarchists tried to get in touch with these local activists, who are subjected to the oppositional movement “For Freedom” and are not willing to cooperate.

  In Minsk there was created the Centre for Support of the Chernobyl Initiatives, headed by professor I. Nikitchanka. The centre became an umbrella for such organizations as “Dzeci Charnobylia” (“Children of Chernobyl”), the organization of the liquidators “The Assembly Chernobyl – Belarus”, the group of activist from Horki and the institute of radiation safety Belrad. In March 2009 the centre launched “Regions against the NPP” campaign. It continues to collect signatures against the construction of the NPP. The local group in the Horki region is the most active one.

On March 12 in 2009 the group of anarchists from the Antinuclear Resistance handled out the direct action on the walls of the exhibition centre “BelExpo” in Minsk, where the Atomexpo exhibition dedicated to the nuclear energy was organized. The slogans “No to NPP!” and “NPP? No, Thank You!” were written there. The message of the activists to the organizers and participants of the exhibition was: the country, which suffered from nuclear energy most of all the other countries, doesn’t need such dubious projects. The activists put the authorities to shame, while they in the course of the economic crisis in the country are going to build the NPP at the expenses of the people. The loan from the Russian Nuclear corporation “Rosatom” for the construction of the NPP will be a new financial burden for the people imposed by the government.  

           Prospects of Networking and International Solidarity:

The struggle of the Belarusian activists against the authoritarian decision to build the NPP is a part of the global anti-nuclear movement and could become successful only with international support and solidarity.

On 26 April the Antinuclear Resistance took a most active part in the “Charnobylski Shliah”, trying to pass along to everyone their clear antinuclear position. They informed as many people as possible of the approaching danger. Their struggle against the irresponsibility of the Belarusian state relies on the international support. Decentralized actions and international campaigns of any form could help people learn information about the problem and stop the impudent authority and their sponsors from the IAEA. For instance, on April 25-26 demonstrations in memory of the Chernobyl catastrophe and solidarity with the struggle against the projects of construction of the new NPPs took place in Munster, and at the NPPs at Krummel (near Hamburg) and Neckarwestheim (near Stuttgart) in Germany and on April 26 in Warsaw, Poland. During the rally at Krummel a telephone call was organized, and Belarusian activists told to German comrades about their struggle and about the outcomes of antinuclear march in Minsk. 

The prohibition of the construction of the NPP in Belarus is an international issue, as it will not only prevent the hazard of the another one possible accident, but also give the nuclear lobby, authoritarian regime in Belarus and the WB and the IMF the business about these abuse of power and shameless machination. 

            References:

Materials of the Conference “Scientific and Humanitarian Initiatives for Support of Liquidators and Victims of Catastrophe in Chernobyl”, Vilnus 2008. The Institute of Democratic Politics (Lithuania) In cooperation with National Endowment for Democracy (USA), Editor Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky (http://www.dpi.lt/get.php?f.264)

Chernobyl:  20 Years On. Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident. European Committee on Radiation Risk. Documents of the ECRR 2006 No1. Edited by C.C.Busby and A.V.Yablokov, Published on behalf of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, Green Audit 2006

Childhood Leukaemia Near Nuclear Installations (Letter to the Editor) by J. Mangano (Radiation and Public Health Project, New York, USA) and J. D. Sherman (Environmental Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA) in «European Journal of Cancer Care» #17, 2008

Malm A., Esmailian Sh. Iran on the Brink. Rising Workers and Threats of War, - London, Pluto Press, 2007.

Web-sites:

http://anr.noblogs.org/

http://www.physiciansofchernobyl.org.ua/  

http://belradinstitute.boom.ru/frameeng.htm

https://belarus.indymedia.org/14897

http://attacminsk.narod.ru/chernobyl2.htm

http://greenbelarus.info/content/section/12/92

http://horki.info/aes.html

Activist Videos:

http://belarus.indymedia.org/content/globus/13295.flv

http://belarus.indymedia.org/content/a/13080.flv

http://belarus.indymedia.org/content/guest/13851.wmv

[i] http://attacminsk.narod.ru/chernobyl2.htm

[ii] http://greenbelarus.info/content/section/12/92

[iii] http://anr.noblogs.org/

[iv] http://anr.noblogs.org/post/2009/01/12/callout2009

[v] Materials of the Conference “Scientific and Humanitarian Initiatives for Support of Liquidators and Victims of Catastrophe in Chernobyl”, Vilnus 2008. The Institute of Democratic Politics (Lithuania) In cooperation with National Endowment for Democracy (USA), Editor Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky (http://www.dpi.lt/get.php?f.264)

[vi] http://belradinstitute.boom.ru/frameeng.htm

[vii] http://belarus.indymedia.org/1563

[viii] Malm A., Esmailian Sh. Iran on the Brink. Rising Workers and Threats of War, - London, Pluto Press, 2007.

[ix] Fedyushin Y. On Prospects of Building a NPP in the Republic of Belarus in Materials of the Conference “Scientific and Humanitarian Initiatives for Support of Liquidators and Victims of Catastrophe in Chernobyl”, Vilnus 2008. The Institute of Democratic Politics (Lithuania) In cooperation with National Endowment for Democracy (USA), Editor Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky (http://www.dpi.lt/get.php?f.264)

 [x] Childhood Leukaemia Near Nuclear Installations (Letter to the Editor) by J. Mangano (Radiation and Public Health Project, New York, USA) and J. D. Sherman (Environmental Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA) in «European Journal of Cancer Care» #17, 2008