Turning the pages back... May 12, 1996 (05/07/06)

Turning the pages back...

May 12, 1996

The Ukrainian Weekly's front page from May 12, 1996, carried a news story about the White House commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

"Ten years after the fateful May Day when children in Kyiv marched down the Ukrainian capital's main boulevard, the Khreschatyk, unaware that deadly radioactive fallout was coming down upon them, the first lady of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton, hosted a special commemorative program whose aim was to focus attention on the continuing devastating effects of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster," reported The Weekly.

The White House event was billed as "A Call to Healing and Prevention," and it brought together activists from both the private and government sectors who had worked to help the victims of the Chornobyl disaster, and the ambassadors of the three republics most affected by the accident's fallout, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Included among the nearly 200 guests were many Ukrainian American community members representing charitable, women's, fraternal, religious and other organizations, as well as individual activists.

The 10th anniversary commemoration featured speeches by the first lady and Vice-President Al Gore, as well as Alexander Kuzma of the Chornobyl Challenge '96 coalition and 11-year-old Vova Malofienko, one of the first "children of Chornobyl" brought to this country for medical treatment in the aftermath of the world's worst nuclear accident.

Mrs. Clinton, who served as honorary chair of Chornobyl Challenge '96, said the event "is one both of mourning and also of hope." Mourning because "the people of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia have suffered so much in the 10 years since the explosion and fire at Chornobyl's Unit 4 reactor," and hope because, "as we so often see when tragedies occur, here and around the world, Americans and others respond with concern and compassion."

"The private voluntary organizations, including those represented in this room, have supplied well over 1,000 tons of medicine and medical equipment and supplies to people in affected areas. Those donations alone are worth more than $100 million," the first lady observed. "Today, these efforts convey a message of compassion and healing that tells the victims of Chornobyl that the world will not forget them or the tragedy they have endured."

The first lady turned to Ambassador Yuri Shcherbak of Ukraine and said: "Ambassador Shcherbak, we are particularly indebted to you. You were one of the first medical doctors to respond to the tragedy at Chornobyl. And in the years since, few have done as much as you, Mr. Ambassador, to educate people around the world about the medical and scientific realities of the Chornobyl disaster and what they portend for humanity's future."

Vice-President Gore spoke about the lingering effects of the 1986 accident which, he said, "are measured in the anxiety of young Ukrainian and Belarusian and Russian parents who hope and pray that their newborns will grow healthy and whole. The effects are measured by the degraded natural resources that trace a poisoned arc across Ukraine, through Belarus, into Russia, and reaching as far as Scandinavia. They are measured by the uncertainty that we all share as we wonder whether one day another Chornobyl might once again unleash its fury."

The vice-president went on to speak of President [Bill] Clinton's determination "to do whatever our nation can to overcome this tragedy, and to help ensure that all reactors everywhere are safer, cleaner and forever free from the sort of catastrophe we remember on this important anniversary."

Vice-President Gore also hailed Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's "courageous decision" to close down the Chornobyl plant by the year 2000.

Finally, Mr. Gore reflected on "the most enduring lesson of Chornobyl": "that only in freedom can people claim their rightful destiny to live in safety and security. Only in freedom can people insist on public health systems that work and on natural resources that are safeguarded and clean. Only in freedom can people hold bureaucracies accountable for how they manage potentially dangerous technologies."

Source: "First lady hosts Chornobyl commemoration at White House," by Roma Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 12, 1996, Vol. LXIV, No. 19.

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