Don`t forget us, say Chernobyl victims :: Charter'97 :: News

Hundreds of survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster marched in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, at the weekend demanding greater compensation from the government. Nineteen years ago tomorrow, reactor No 4 at the power station exploded sending radioactive fallout across Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and northern Europe. At least 3.3 million Ukrainians were affected by the blast, 60 miles north of Kiev, and are entitled to subsidised medical treatment or holidays.

The average monthly compensation for those directly affected by the accident depends on individual cases, but it rarely exceeds the equivalent of ?26. About 700 people joined Saturday`s march, organised by the Ukrainian Chernobyl Union, a pressure group for survivors. Some bore placards with the slogan "Chernobyl is closed, are the problems of Chernobyl forgotten?", while others carried pictures of the victims of the world`s worst nuclear disaster.

The group is to ask parliament for a tenfold increase in payments, yet doubts that its request will be heeded. "We are already tired of hoping for better. The draft envisions a big increase, but it seems the government does not have such money," one victim, Tamara Tikhonova, 68, told Associated Press.

The move is the first serious effort to force Ukraine`s recently elected president, Viktor Yushchenko, to tackle the disaster`s legacy. It comes amid growing financial problems at the plant, which owes ?3m in unpaid wage and electricity bills.

Semyon Shtein, a spokesman for the state-run operator, said last week that the plant might face being cut off, which could be "rather dangerous and it can result in breaches of nuclear safety".

He said he had told the Yushchenko administration of the problems.

Seven million people are thought to have suffered from the effects of radiation after the 1986 disaster, while 4,400 deaths are attributed to it.

The plant`s last reactor was shut down in 2000, yet the decommissioning process continues.