Conservative Christian Party to hold Chernobyl commemorative ceremony at Kurapaty on April 26 :: Charter'97 :: News

The nationalist Conservative Christian Party (CCP) plans to hold a commemorative ceremony at the Kurapaty memorial on April 26 on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The ceremony will start at 6 p.m, Valery Buivol, spokesman for the party, told BelaPAN.

According to him, the decision to hold the ceremony at Kurapaty, the woody place just outside Minsk where thousands were executed and buried by the NKVD (Stalin`s secret police) in the late 1930s, was made after the Minsk city government denied the CPP permission to stage a Chernobyl commemorative rally in Yanka Kupala Park in downtown Minsk.

Other opposition parties and groups are also going to observe the Chernobyl anniversary.

In particular, the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) plans to deliver a petition to Aleksandr Lukashenko to urge him, according to the BPF press office, to "tell the truth about the aftermath of the accident, evacuate people from heavily contaminated areas, provide Chernobyl victims with medicines and cures, stop growing food in contaminated areas, lift restrictions on foreign humanitarian aid for Chernobyl-affected people and on children`s recuperative trips abroad, and stop assigning newly graduated students to work in Chernobyl areas."

After the petition is delivered, a commemorative rally is to be held in front of the Chernobyl chapel on Karastoyanovoi Street near Bangalore Square, the BPF press office said.