April 26, to observe the 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has endorsed a joint Russian-Ukrainian-Belarusian initiative to hold in 2011 an international conference to evaluate the work of returning the regions affected by Chernobyl to normal life.
Ukraine, Russia and Belarus offered to host such international forum in 2011, marking the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, AFN informs. As a result of the accident on April 26, 1986, there was a destruction of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located on the Ukraine’s territory. The destruction was of explosive nature, the reactor was completely destroyed, and a large quantity of radioactive substances was emitted into the environment.
The accident is regarded as the largest of its kind in the history of nuclear energy, considering both the estimated number of the dead and victims of its consequences and economic damage.
«We mark the 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and honor the memory of the victims and pay tribute to the courage of the survivors. We will not forget that, hundreds of liquidators were sent to the area of the accident, that over 330 thousand people were forced to permanently leave their homes and that, subsequently, thousands of children became ill with thyroid cancer. We pay tribute to the heroic efforts of people involved in cleaning the emergency facility, and the courage of millions of people in surrounding areas, living more than two decades under the yoke of fear for their own health and lack of confidence in the future», reads the traditional annual address of the UN Secretary General, released on the eve of the 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
Requiem mass for the victims of the tragedy on April 26 will be held in all churches of Belarus. Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Filaret will pray with the parishioners in the Orthodox Church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God «Seeking the Lost». In Minsk park of Friendship of Peoples there will be solemn flower-laying ceremony to the Stone in the memory of the victims and heroes of the Chernobyl disaster. The opposition will hold a traditional Chernobyl Path action.
