Thousands march to remember Chernobyl nuclear disaster by Anna Melnichuk, Associated Press 11:36am 25th Apr, 2004   Kiev, Ukraine. April 25, 2004    Many of them victims of radiation sicknesses, 5,000 people marched through the Ukrainian capital yesterday in grim commemoration of the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.    Many of the marchers carried portraits of relatives or friends who died from the April 26, 1988, explosion of a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant, either in the accident itself or from illnesses linked to it. The blast and subsequent fire spread heavy radiation over much of northern Europe.    "My husband died in 1992, crying of unbearable pain in his legs," said Hanna Yurkovska, a pensioner, carrying a black-framed portrait of her husband Viktor, who took part in the accident cleanup.    "Doctors said it was Chernobyl that killed him."    In Ukraine alone 4,400 deaths are counted as the result of the accident; among the hardest hit groups were the workers sent to clean up after the blast.    Soviet authorities withheld much information on the accident, both from their own people and from the rest of the world.    "I feel deep compassion for suffering of the Ukrainian people," said Andrea Contini, an Italian tourist watching the march. "The fact that the Soviets kept secret what happened is a shocking crime before their people - in fact, they doomed them to death."    Only last year, Ukraine's security service declassified secret files documenting malfunctions and safety violations at the plant that caused the release of small doses of radiation from time to time long before the explosion.    More than 2.32 million people have been hospitalised in Ukraine as of early 2004 with illnesses sparked by the disaster, including 452,000 children, according to the Health Ministry.    The most frequently noted Chernobyl-related diseases include thyroid and blood cancer, mental disorders and cancerous growths.    In all, seven million people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are estimated to suffer physical or psychological effects of radiation related to the Chernobyl catastrophe.    Ukraine shuttered Chernobyl for good in December 2000, but many problems remain. Ukrainian experts say that the concrete-and-steel shelter that was hastily constructed over the damaged reactor needs urgent repairs, although authorities claim that there are no serious safety threats.    "Chernobyl is our pain," said Valentyna Tsarik, 50, whose entire family left the Chernobyl region after the blast to be resettled in Kiev. "I lost my health," said Tsarik, who said she her pension is to small to allow her to spend the equivalent of $A136 a month necessary to buy medicine to alleviate her radiation illness. "Can I undergo medical treatment? Can I live? I cannot," Tsarik said.    - AP
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