On 16th anniversary of Chernobyl, Annan urges support for disaster’s victims

Exactly 16 years after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged assistance for the countries and people affected by the disaster.

“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the plight of some hundreds of thousands of people who continue to be directly affected by the consequences of this disaster,” a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement.

Aiming to revitalize international efforts to assist these people, the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the authorities of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, has initiated a shift in emphasis of the UN’s approach away from the emergency-type assistance provided in past years towards a long-term developmental approach, according to the statement.

The new approach “would include the empowering of people and their communities, targeted assistance to the most affected people and communities, and an overall policy of promoting a return to normalcy.”

At the same time, the statement cautioned that this new approach required renewed donor participation in UN efforts to assist those affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

“The Secretary-General hopes that donors, who have been very effective in dealing with the technical response to the accident, will not forget the human dimension of Chernobyl,” his spokesman said.