EDITORIAL: Human costs of Chornobyl disaster (05/04/86)

EDITORIAL

Human costs of Chornobyl disaster

The figures are astounding. It is believed that up to 15,000 are dead and buried, that the hospitals in Kiev are filled with thousands of bloodied and bandaged people, and the situation is becoming increasingly volatile.

The nuclear disaster at Chornobyl, a town 60 miles north of Kiev, has set off unprecedented world reaction. It is already labelled the worst nuclear disaster in history, and the Soviets are being accused of obfuscation. The world community, both expectant and fearful, is scrambling for any bit of information that will help shed any ray of light on what exactly happened at Chornobyl.

In the past several days, much has been said in the international media about the implications of the disaster on the world nuclear community, of it's future, sparking debates between proponents and opponents of this form of energy, especially in the U.S. And it has raised questions as to the sincerety and, indeed, the reliability, of the Soviet Union as a potential ally when it comes to the nuclear arms race.

Chornobyl has outraged the world and people everywhere demand that the USSR open its doors and let the world see what has happened.

But lost among all these facts and figures, and constant speculations is the human factor - what long-term effect this accident will have on the people of Ukraine, Poland, the Scandinavian countries, Europe.

In concrete terms, what effect will the nuclear fallout have on these people? Which is the Soviet government more worried about: its citizens or its reputation?

What we have found most reprehensible in the past week are the actions taken (or not taken) by the Soviet leadership. The Soviet Union failed in its international obligation to let its own people know what happened. And, because of this, people will be affected for generations to come.

When the reactor blew at Chornobyl, the Soviets said nothing. Not until the Swedish authorities measured unusually high levels of radiation in their nuclear plant did the USSR come forth with a four-sentence announcement via TASS that there had been an accident. And even then the Soviets said that there is nothing to worry about. Not so, said the Swedes and other radiation experts. One scientist who recently appeared on ABC's "Nightline" said he would not want to be within 10 miles of the accident site if the levels of radiation monitored in Sweden, 1,000 miles away, are actually as high as they appear to be.

As events have begun to unfold in the proceeding days, it has become obvious that the Soviet people, especially those in Ukraine, know little of the accident. Relatives from the United States who have managed to get through to family in Kiev say that they were told there was a minor accident - nothing to worry about. Translation: life in Kiev was normal.

"Don't worry yourselves," they said. "We're preparing to leave for Moscow for a wedding." A major nuclear disaster and the people of Kiev, of Lviv, of Odessa, of Moscow are preparing for a wedding. Nothing happened. It makes one think: Do we, in the West, really know more than the Soviet people? Apparently so. Because there, life goes on. Nothing major happened.

Why, then, when one Long Island man spoke with his wife who was visiting Kiev, was he disconnected every time the topic of the nuclear accident at Chornobyl come up. And why, in this seemingly innocent environment, are there those who have contacts in Kiev's hospitals say they are filled with bleeding and bandaged people. While their neighbors in Poland receive iodine pills to offset the effects of radiation from a cloud going their way, the Ukrainian people walk the streets, as if nothing had happened. Why hasn't the Soviet government warned its citizens: don't drink the milk, don't eat the vegetables?

At the 27th Party Congress in February, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev said he wanted to build a more open society, one where there would be a greater give-and-take between the leadership and the citizenry.

"Extensively, timely and frank information is evidence of trust in the people, respect for their intelligence and feelings of their ability to understand events of one kind or another on their own," he said.

Well, Mr. Gorbachev, you have failed. Your reminders will be those babies in generations to come whose mothers you failed to warn. In March, your colleague, Andrei Gromyko, then foreign minister, said that the West was watching, "just waiting for some sort of crack to appear in the Soviet leadership." The crack has appeared.

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