International Atom Energy Authority to investigate contamination

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) called urgently on Thursday on the International Atom Energy Authority in Vienna to investigate the radioactive contamination in the vicinity of the Chechnyan capital of Grosny. The human rights organisation, which in the past always warned about the uncontrolled radioactivity in Chechnya is alarmed about shocking news of renowned human rights workers on the health situation of the civilian population in Grosny. According to them 10 of every 100 cancer patients in Russia are Chechnyan children. Every second newborn child – 1,104 of2,173 children – in the Chechnyan capital are ill. According to information received from the Russian deputy head of the Ministry of health of the pro-Russian administation of Chechnya, Sultan Alichadschew, every fifth child on average is born with severe health disturbances.

The Russian public prosecutor reported last week that the level of radioactivity measured in the chemical factory in Grosny is 58,000 times that permitted. The GfbV has information on an open refuse heap, which is radioactive, five km outside the city at the side of the road to Argun. The human rights organisation named a third source of danger in the ultimate disposal place "Rodon” near the village of Goryatshevodsk about 15 km from Grosny, in which atomic waste from the North Caucasus and Russia has been stored for years without any security.