PRESS-RELEASE MOSCOW April 23, 1999
NUCLEAR THREAT AROUND YUGOSLAVIA GROW UP Russia must take an active part in peacekeeping around coflict zone
Involvement of the country, where the most unsafe nuclear plany of Europe located, into the war stimulate nuclear threat to Europe, said Anti-war committee in Moscow on Friday. On April 20, Bulgaria offered to NATO unlimited access to its airspace, earlier this country offered NATO unlimited access to own airfields. One of Bulgarian airfields, Gabrovnice, located in just 50 km from Kozloduy nuclear plant which according to Bulgarian nuclear safety officials present a danger for the plant. <Involvement of more european countries into the war in Balkans will only make a conflict bigger and a threat from unsafe Eastern European nuclear plants will seriously increase, says Vladimir Slivyak, coordinator for Anti-war committee in Moscow.
In Sofia on April 21 environmental groups demanded from Bulgarian government to shut Kozloduy nuclear plant down. If Bulgaria participate in Balkan war it means that nuclear plant will be in the zone of conflict, in order to prevent possible catastrophe involving nuclear materials such as nuclear fuel and waste. Presently, 3th reactor of Kozloduy under repair and is not protected against any military threat, 5th reactor will be under repair too. Explosion near any of reactors will likely cause a danger of nuclear disaster: every reactor must be controlled by personal which could be killed as a result of any explosion, every reactor needs electricity to be controlled and it's not too hard to destroy power lines by one bomb or rocket, every reactor has storages for nuclear waste near which will relatively easy be destroyed by even small explosion. According to the information of Anti-war committee, all parties presented in Bulgarian parliament, except for ruling one, are opposed to Bulgarian involvement to war, According to Bulgarian media, the absolutely most of Bulgarians would not like to be involved to the Balkan conflict.
Politicians of every country must finally understand that war around nuclear reactors is madness that can not be justified, says Vladimir Slivyak of Anti-wat committee. <Environmental groups of Russia demand that both Russian Foreign minister Ivanov and representative of president Chernomyrdin are going to Sofia immediately in order to solve <nuclear mistake and so make sure that role of Russia is work for peace in Balkans.
Additional information: Anti-war Committee of the Socio-Ecological Union - 2784642, 7766546 (Vladimir Slivyak or Alisa Nikoulina), e-mail: <mailto:aw at ecoline.ru>, <http://www.goldfish.ru/antiatom/index.htm>
WHAT IS ANTI-WAR COMMITTEE... Anti-war comittee is a tactical NGO aimed to prevent Russia's possible involvement into the war in Balkans. The main directions of its activitiy are actions and information campaign. The regular analitical press-releases which sheds light on economical/ecological/political consequences of such involvement are part of the committee's work.