Chernobyl: Henadz Hrushavy's Opinion about CORE Program

24.02.2004.

Helmut Frick initiated the discussion on Chernobyl issues in cooperation with “Children of Chernobyl” charitable found in Minsk.

One of the topics was the CORE (“Co-operation for Rehabilitation”) program that will be implemented with the participation of the UNO, European Union and Belarusian authorities. The first stage of the program will start in Brahin, Chachersk, Stolin and Slawharad districts of Belarus.

During the discussion representatives of the UN and the EU spoke for engagement of a large number of NGOs in the project. However, head of the charitable fund “Children of Chernobyl” Henadz Hrushavy said in his interview to Deutsche Welle: “Our state is constructed so that public can’t take part in dialogue, interaction or taking of decisions. That’s why the CORE program can be completely suppressed by the administration standards and this good idea will bring no results. The state bodies are not ready for real partnership with civil society, whereas in the case of Chernobyl such partnership is the main condition for implementation of such outstanding programs as CORE.”

According to H. Hrushavy, the program declares participation of the population and public organizations more than it can really guarantee. Not a sing Belarusian public organization is even nominally present in the structures, established within its frameworks, which means that the local and the republican authorities will solely decide on its direction.

The authorities don’t strive for cooperation with the civil society and, moreover, hurry to establish pseudo-public organizations and hide information. For instance, physician-in-chief of one of Minsk policlinics prohibited his subordinates to participate in the Chernobyl discussion, initiated by the German Ambassador, threatening to fire them otherwise.