ARMENIAN CHERNOBYL VICTIMS STILL SUFFERING
By Marianna Grigorian and Gayane Mkrtchian in Yerevan
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
April 27 2006
Twenty years on, a new generation of children is not getting the
treatment it needs for Chernobyl-related sickness.
The skin of Sennik Alexanian has a strange yellow hue to it, his
bones stick out and his eyes bulge. Alexanian is only 49 but his
immune system has collapsed. Like thousands of his compatriots he
divides his life into two periods – before and after Chernobyl.
Along with 3,000 Armenians – and tens of thousands of people from
across the Soviet Union – Alexanian was sent to help clear up the
aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine twenty years
ago. Half of the Armenians sent there have severe health problems
caused by the radiation they suffered and 350 of them have died.
On April 25, a group of Armenian rescuers were presented with awards
by the prime minister Andranik Margarian. He promised them greater
support, but many say the government of independent Armenia has let
them down.
“I went to work and they did not let me in,” recalled Alexanian, who
worked as a driver in 1986. “They put us in a train and didn’t tell
me or my family where they were sending me. If I hadn’t gone and I’d
run away, they’d have put me on trial as an enemy of the people.”
The rescuers were not told about the invisible dangers of the zone
they were entering.
“Radiation does not have a smell or a colour, you can’t define it,”
said Alexanian. “We just started feeling unwell and had constant
headaches and dizziness and everyone had constant nose bleeds.”
Gevorg Vardanian, now chairman of the Armenian Chernobyl Association,
spent eleven months in Chernobyl in total and suffers from serious
radiation sickness.
“In Ukraine, the public didn’t know what had happened and during the
May Day parade radioactive rain fell on people,” he recalled. “The
most terrible thing was that there were students amongst those who
brought people out of Chernobyl. They had no idea they had been
brought into a disaster zone.”
Six years after the Chernobyl accident, the Soviet Union broke up and
the rescuers became the responsibility of the new independent states
such as Armenia. But unlike many other countries, Armenia has not
allocated substantial funds for the medical treatment of Chernobyl
survivors. Although entitled to free medical check-ups twice a year,
the sufferers say they generally do not get even these.
Alexanian says his health is deteriorating every day but he has
not been given the money to treat his illnesses. His family has sold
everything they could, including their apartment. He receives a pension
of 21,000 drams, equivalent to 46 US dollars, every month, but says he
needs far more than that to pay for even one of the medicines he needs.
“When we apply to the appropriate offices hoping for help, they tell
us sarcastically ‘You shouldn’t have gone’, but it wasn’t up to us,”
said Alexanian. “No one went knowingly to a slow death.”
Six years ago he and his wife had a son, but the effects of Chernobyl
left their mark on the baby too. Little Vachagan was born with chronic
health problems and suffers from epilepsy and nervous fits.
Gevorg Vardanian says that most of the Armenian rescuers are no longer
fit for work. They live in poor conditions and lack the money for
their basic needs.
“We thought the troubles that began for us in Chernobyl would end in
Armenia, but it seems there is no end to them,” said Vardanian.
“Not just the rescuers, but more than thirty per cent of their
children suffer from a whole host of defects and have serious health
problems. Many don’t even have the chance to take their children to
the doctor.”
Vardanian says that the Armenian government has been particularly lax
in its responsibilities, “We have no special law which defends the
rights of those who took part in the Chernobyl emergency and gives
them the benefits that others from all over the former Soviet Union
are receiving.”
According to Vardanian, the Armenian government ratified a treaty
undertaking to pass a special law to protect Chernobyl survivors,
but since then no such law has been adopted.
Only at the beginning of this year did the parliamentary commission
on social issues, health and the environment draw up a draft law
that would guarantee the welfare of the Chernobyl victims and their
children.
“The draft law is being discussed,” said Gagik Mkheyan, head of
the commission.
However, the bill is already being criticised by government ministries.
“In our opinion, Armenia does not need a law like this,” Jemma
Baghdasarian, head of the department for the problems of invalids
and the elderly at the labour ministry, told IWPR, arguing that the
Chernobyl survivors are sufficiently well looked after by current
welfare legislation.
Nikolai Hovhannissian, head of Armenia’s Centre for Radioactive
Medicine and Burns, says he understands the concerns of the Chernobyl
rescuers, but that Armenia simply cannot afford to look after them.
“The state envisages spending 100,000 drams (222 dollars) on each
sick person, which includes the cost of the electricity used by the
hospital, the salaries of the medical staff, medicine, food,” said
Hovhannissian. “What can you say? This amount is not enough to solve
even a part of the problems of the sufferers.”
The survivors themselves say they have pinned hopes on the new law
and that existing social provision is woefully inadequate.
“We have the impression that everyone is against us, we are like
walking corpses, whom no one needs,” said Vazgen Gyurjinian, a
Chernobyl survivor.
Gyurjinian, an electrician, was 28 when he was sent to the Chernobyl
disaster zone. Now 46, he talks in a hoarse voice and is short of
breath. He has had three heart attacks. His third daughter Lusine,
born on his return, was an invalid at birth and gets just 3,600 drams
(around eight dollars) a month in state benefit.
“It’s not just us, who are unsuited for life by now, who need this
law, but our children and grandchildren,” said Gyurjinian. “Maybe
some of us have healthy children but that does not guarantee us from
sick grandchildren. Our genes have been damaged.”
Marianna Grigorian and Gayane Mkrtchian are reporters fro
Armenianow.com in Yerevan.