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| Media Headlines 18/04/2011 |
| (2011-04-18) |
| Last updated: 2011-04-19 14:35 EET |
In April 1986, mankind was faced with one of the biggest nuclear disasters of the 20th century. 25 years later, the accident in the former Soviet Union town of Chernobyl, today in Ukraine, is still a tragic landmark in history. The way in which the Soviet Union and Romania, which were at the time united by ideology and geographical neighborhood, handled the tragedy has been given a lot of coverage in the Bucharest press lately.
The daily Adevarul recalls: “soon after the accident, the Soviets went silent. They didn’t even inform the population living in the proximity of the disaster area. Despite the loudly advertised Glasnost reform, the event was followed by dead silence and later by a calculated silence.” The first to discover that a radioactive cloud was hovering across Europe were the Swedish. Victims to the lack of information were not only the countries in the western part of the continent, but also the Soviet Union’s satellites in Eastern Europe.
Adevarul reads, quote, “ the accident in Chernobyl became an issue for the communist leadership in Bucharest only five days after it occurred”. Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu was not sure about what was happening. He demanded information and explanations, but specialists had no answers from the Soviets. Eventually, the daily also reads, Ceausescu understood that the situation had got out of the control of the Moscow authorities and decided that the population should be informed, but “cautiously”.
His instructions translated into a flat statement meant to cause no strong reaction: “given the situation created by the accident, the level of radioactivity grew in some areas of our country, especially in the north-east, because of the wind. The necessary measures have been taken.” The daily Jurnalul National writes that the tragedy in Chernobyl will be commemorated in Kiev on Tuesday through a meeting attended by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and officials from 50 countries, among whom French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
A donors’ conference will also be held, aimed at strengthening security at the Chernobyl reactor. There is no official record of the number of victims claimed by the 1986 accident. According to a report drawn up by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organisation, it appears thousands have died, including as a result of the effects of radiation over time.
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