| home archive search downloads subscription contacts |
 | |||||||||
Bandazheuski Case Highlights Chernobyl ControversiesThe protracted case of detained scientist Yury Bandazheuski continues to solicit international attention and serves as a reminder of how sensitive the Chernobyl issue remains for the Lukashenka regime.Recently the opposition newspaper Narodnaya Volya focused on the life of Bandazheuski, the nuclear scientist and former rector of Homiel Medical Institute who was fired from his position on July 13, 1999, and subsequently received an eight-year prison sentence, allegedly for bribing students who registered at the Homiel Institute. His punishment was later reduced to five years with an expiry date of January 2006. Back in 1999, 18 scientists were put on trial, but Bandazheuski?s case attracted the most attention. Though he was not affiliated with the military, the case was held in a military court, and he was condemned on the basis of two testimonies that, according to his lawyer, were obtained under duress. Last May, Bandazheuski was released from prison and began serving a two-year period of conditional freedom in a corrective labor settlement. His health has deteriorated, and according to the Belarusian Criminal Code, ill prisoners who have served two-thirds of their sentences have the right to be released. However, the Belarusian authorities claim that Bandazheuski is healthy, and, according to his wife, he is being held prisoner at the personal behest of President Alexander Lukashenka (Narodnaya Volya, February 24). In January, the authorities refused to grant Bandazheuski an early release, reputedly because of his refusal to sign a statement acknowledging his guilt and because he still had some outstanding legal fees. Last October, according to this same account, he was admitted to a prison hospital with a stomach illness (described as pre-cancerous) and he suffers from atrophy in his arms and legs (International PEN, February 3). The Lukashenka regime has never been noted for its clemency, but its continued incarceration of this scientist seems particularly harsh. Bandazheuski, together with his wife Halina, had focused on the rate of cardiovascular sickness among children in the Homiel region since the Chernobyl disaster almost two decades ago. In 1999, he published the results of a study of the impact of Cesium-137, arguing that relatively low doses could result in cataracts, heart disease, and other maladies. He pointed out that a level of 50 bequerels per kilogram of a child's weight could cause serious pathologies. Previously, concentrations of Cesium-137 that had risen 10-30 times above normal had not been considered dangerous (bellona.no, May 22, 2003). However, Bandazheuski's studies had a significant impact on the prognostications for the long-term health impact of the Chernobyl disaster: rather than an improving situation, the health picture, in his view, was getting worse. Bandazheuski also had criticized the selling of radioactive vegetables from the contaminated zone and maintained that the affected area -- about 1.2 million hectares of land in Homiel, Brest, and Mahileu oblasts -- was actually spreading as a result of forest fires and dust. The Lukashenka regime has consistently maintained that the area contaminated by Chernobyl is diminishing as a result of the ?natural? breakdown of radio-nuclides, a claim belied by the half-lives of the most prevalent elements, Strontium-90 and Cesium-137, of 29 and 30 years respectively. In May 2003, the government cancelled additional payments to those residing in the contaminated regions (an estimated 1.5 million people) on the grounds that the worst of their suffering was over (Charter 97, May 7, 2003). Bandazhevsky and other scientists (such as Professor Vasil Niesciarenka of the Institute for Radiation Medicine in Minsk) have argued that the measure fails to include children born after Chernobyl who have suffered disproportionately from thyroid gland cancer. Last November, Lukashenka also criticized the travel of children abroad for periods of recuperation, arguing that they return imbued with ideas and sentiments inimical to Belarusian ways: ?We don't need such foreign nurturing.? Instead, the president suggested, if an organization wished to help children in the Chernobyl region, they should send the funds directly to Belarus (svaboda.org, November 17, 2004). But who would administer such monies? For the past decade, the president has continued a campaign of harassment of nongovernmental agencies dealing with Chernobyl, which have been subjected to KGB audits and the need to reregister with the Ministry of Justice. The campaign illustrates that the Chernobyl issue is identified directly with the opposition and considered a potential threat to the current administration. Last April, the president attempted to offset the annual Chernobyl march in Minsk by embarking on a much-publicized visit to the contaminated zone that began five days before the anniversary date, and ensuring the people that if the area were unsafe, the president would not be allowed to visit there (Belapan, April 26, 2004). The publicity stunt fooled very few people, particularly when it coincided with a delay in permission being granted for the annual Chernobyl march in Minsk. The Bandazheuski case is the most notorious of a number of high-level political detentions in Belarus, because the scientist's conclusions run counter to the political interpretation adopted by the government, i.e. that Chernobyl is in the past and that its consequences have been overcome. The reality is that by encouraging communities to reside in highly contaminated regions the regime has exacerbated an already appalling health situation in the republic. Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor, March 7, 2005. This article appeared in Belarusian Review, Vol. 17, No.1 --------------------------------------------- Copyright 2005 Belarusian Review All rights reserved. belarusianreview@hotmail.com Dr..David Marples
|
|||||||||
| Rubriques |
Belarusian Culture
Belarusians Abroad
Contents
Economy
Editorial
Features
Chronicle of Events
Legacy of Chernobyl
Letters
Media Watch
News Briefs
- Culture & Society
- Freedom of Religion
- Independent Media
- Belarus & the World
- Human Rights
- Politics - Opposition
- Politics - Regime
Thoughts and Observations
| New Articles |
| Declaration by the Coordinating Committee of Belarusians of Canada (23.01.2011) |
| Belarus Police Arrest Opposition Leaders (23.01.2011) |
| Blood and Special Operations in Belarus Politics (23.01.2011) |
| A backfire in Belarus (23.01.2011) |
| Wrong Carrot, Wrong Stick (23.01.2011) |
| StatementBy the Office for a Democratic Belarus (Brussels) And the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (23.01.2011) |
| Statement By the Rada of The Belarusian Democratic Republic in Exile 28th December 2010 (23.01.2011) |
| A Nasty Surprise in Belarus (23.01.2011) |
| Demonstration in London (23.01.2011) |
| The Center for Belarusian Studies (23.01.2011) |
| Belarus: That’s enough democracy (23.01.2011) |
| STATEMENT (23.01.2011) |
| In Belarus, a Slide Toward Eastern Aggression (23.01.2011) |
| Opinion - The EU Has no Choice But to Continue Dialogue With Belarus (23.01.2011) |
| No Business as Usual (23.01.2011) |
| Readers' Favorites |
| Belarusian Weapons Exports:A Possible Source of Laundered Funds? (15622) |
| The Exchange Rate Policy for Belarus (15490) |
| Kitabs, the Unique Phenomenon of the Belarusian Language in "Encyclopedia of the Belarusian language" (15468) |
| Belarusica at the AAASS Convention (14472) |
| Vaclav Havel - in Defense of Jakub Kolas Humanities Lyceum (14412) |
| Putin Doctrine: Immediate Threat to Belarus (14015) |
| Belarusian Currency: Problems and Perspectives (13878) |
| Is Lukashenka Winning Back Hearts and Minds? (13533) |
| DZIADY and Kurapaty Unite the Opposition (13181) |
| Belarus Represented in the World Book Fair (13175) |
| Minsk Wants Compensation from Moscow for Abandoning National Currency (13169) |
| Opposition Forms New Pro-European Alliance (13016) |
| The Sad State of Agriculture (12633) |
| EU Aid Misuse Fears (12150) |
| The Third Wave, or the regimes current tactics in dealing with independent NGOs (11740) |