2005 programs and events

U.S. Embassy Minsk Supports Chernobyl Photo Project

U.S. Ambassador George Krol addressed the opening of the photo exhibit, "In Search of Chernobyl," at the Pushkin Library in Minsk on April 18. The exhibit features photographs taken by Belarusian photographer Yuri Pliushchev as part of a project undertaken with the support of a U.S. Embassy grant.

"Americans and the rest of the international community still remember the date of the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986," Ambassador Krol said. "It had a devastating impact on regions of Belarus, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation. It is an event that is impossible to erase from our memories." The nations of the world "must never forget the victims of Chernobyl," he said. "They must work together to ensure that we will never again be forced to face a nuclear accident."

Phiushchev photographed regions in Belarus' Gomel Region, an area heavily impacted by the radioactive pollution of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Pliushchev said that through the photo project, he was "trying to find and show how Chernobyl has left its mark on our land" and "trying to remind the world of how much we have lost and how it has turned out for thousands and thousands of people -- now and for generations to come."