Ukraine Chernobyl Survivors
                           Mark 14th Anniversary

                             By Christina Ling
                               23 April 2000


     KIEV (Reuters) -- About 1,500 Ukrainian survivors of the 1986
     Chernobyl disaster and their families marched through Kiev on
     Sunday to mark the 14th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear
     accident.

     Umbrellas bobbed in drizzling rain among the orange and blue flags
     of activist groups, as marchers protesting against diminishing
     government compensation payments waved black banners, one of which
     read "Revising Chernobyl laws is genocide of the people."

     "This year's budget is offensive to the invalids, widows and
     orphans of Chernobyl," the head of the Chernobyl Union Yuri
     Andreyev told Reuters, referring to the cash-strapped government's
     tight fiscal plan for 2000.

     "We all know it will finish with a complete end to the Chernobyl
     program of social security."

     Health officials said this week the April 26, 1986 fire and
     explosion at the plant's fourth reactor was still blighting the
     lives and health of Ukrainians, with some 3.5 million people
     sickened by radioactive contamination.

     Over a third of that number were children. United Nations data
     show millions of people still live on contaminated land in
     Belarus, which bore the brunt of the disaster, and in Russia. Some
     parts of Western Europe were also polluted.

     The U.N. has called for the international community, whose efforts
     so far have concentrated on trying to close the last remaining
     reactor at Chernobyl, to raise $9.5 million for health and
     ecological projects in the impoverished region.

     "The health of people affected by the Chernobyl accident is
     getting worse and worse every year," Deputy Ukrainian Health
     Minister Olha Bobyleva told a news conference this week.


     UKRAINE PROMISES CHERNOBYL CLOSURE THIS YEAR

     Ukraine has promised the international community, fearing a repeat
     disaster if the Soviet-era station keeps working, to close
     Chernobyl by the end of this year but has set no date.

     It says foreign partners have not stumped up promised funds to
     help close the station -- a complex and lengthy process -- and
     complete new reactors at other atomic stations to replace capacity
     lost at Chernobyl.

     Ukraine's five nuclear power plants produce about half the
     nation's supply of electricity, which is in any case erratic
     across most of the country due to payment arrears and aging
     infrastructure.

     The Group of Seven leading industrial nations says Ukraine must
     make good on its closure promises first.

     Closure also puts a large question mark over the fate of roughly
     6,000 workers who keep the station running.

     "Of course I am for closing Chernobyl but it should have been done
     long ago. It's not so simple, and God forbid there should be any
     accident when they shut it down," said Nadezhda Matyash, head of a
     group of mothers of children with cancer.

     "Closing it takes a lot of money which we don't have, and our
     foreign partners promise and promise but don't give funds."