April 26, Pozirk. About 100 Belarusian activists staged a rally in downtown Warsaw on April 26 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Opposition politician Franak Viačorka, in his comments to Pozirk, noted that Chernobyl demonstrations have always been a display of resistance to the regime in Belarus, which continues the Soviet policy of disrespect for the people, non-transparency and lack of accountability.
He criticized the government for allowing Moscow to deploy nuclear weapons in his country and questioned Minsk’s ability to ensure the safety of the country’s new nuclear power plant built in Astraviec a few years ago.
Politician Pavieł Łatuška, who also took part in the rally, told Pozirk that his uncle had died of leukemia aged 36 four years after taking part in the immediate response to disaster.
The Path of Chernobyl rally took part in front of the Nicolaus Copernicus monument in Warsaw.
No memorial events were held in Belarus. To mark the anniversary, the country’s energy ministry released a statement on the amount of electricity generated by the Astraviec nuclear power plant.
Although the plant is located in Ukraine, about 70 percent of the radioactive fallout from the explosion landed in Belarus, heavily contaminating one-fourth of the country, one-fifth of its agricultural land and affecting at least seven million people.
Radioactive contamination completely emptied 479 settlements and affected 56 districts, 3,600 settlements with a population of about 2.5 million, including 1.5 million children.
