The 213° week of the vigil
in front of WHO
in Geneva, from 25th to 26th April 2009
As in the previous year, the commemoration of the disaster at Chernobyl took place in Geneva, in the form of the Grand Hippocratic Vigil.
Professor Youri Bandajevski, who has demonstrated the devastating effects of low-dose radiation on the human body, led a conference, together with Monsieur Rémy Pagani, member of the Executive Council of Geneva and Mayor of Geneva from 01/06/2009 to 01/06/2010.
On the streets of Geneva members of the vigil paid homage to the Liquidators who put out the fire at the nuclear power station and built the sarcophagus.
This commemoration linked the past to the future and provided a departure point for the “Geneva-Brussels” march, a march for a “non-nuclear world“”.
The theatre group ‘les Thebains’ also paid homage to the Liquidators in their interpretation of Svetlana Alexievitch’s book “Voices from Chernobyl”.
THE GRAND HIPPOCRATIC VIGIL
On Friday 24th April, late afternoon, in the same spirit as the vigil that has been maintained for two years outside WHO, more than 50 people made their way towards the Place des Nations, where 300 portraits of liquidators had been placed on the pavement. As WHO employees left work, they found themselves facing this display. At 5.30 a delegation from IndependentWHO presented an open letter to Madame Chan, the Director General of WHO.
The march “GENEVA – BRUSSELS”
In 2008, the marchers made the journey from London to Geneva which then became the departure point in 2009. Along their journey, they were joined for short periods by people who shared their hopes for a non-nuclear world.
If you would like to join them this year, see the details of their journey on Access to the site “Footprints for Peace”, “Marchers for Peace”.
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| via, among other places, Mühleberg (Swiss nuclear power station), Berne, Freiberg, Fessenheim (French nuclear power station), Strasbourg, Philipsburg (nuclear power station) .... |
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... Biblis (nuclear power station), Ramstein (military base), Büchel (nuclear arms base) and finally Brussels (headquarters of NATO and European Commission) |
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Yuri Bandajevsky’s conference
 Professor Yuri Bandajevsky |
 Download Professor Yuri Bandajevsky’s conference speech -in French- |
 Rémy Pagani Mayor of Geneva from 01/06/2009 to 01/06/2010 |
On Saturday 25th April, the exhibition of portraits of the Liquidators was inaugurated by Rémy Pagani, as representative of the city of Geneva and by Professor Yuri Bandajevsky. Professor Yuri Bandajevsky gave a talk entitled “Chernobyl and its consequences 23 years after”. He presented his research findings and in particular the disastrous consequences caused by the ingestion of Caesium 137 in contaminated food.
A performance of “VOICES FROM CHERNOBYL“ by the theatre group “les Thebains“
On Saturday, the 25th, the theatrical company “Les Thebains”, presented the theatrical version of “Voices of Chernobyl” at the “Espace Fusterie”. It was a very emotional show, as are all the productions that are based on the moving texts of Svetlana Alexievitch, which was followed by an exchange with the producer.
Svetlana Alexievitch’s book “Voices from Chernobyl”
Exhibition of photographs of “Liquidators”
More than 300 portraits of liquidators who have already died were displayed on Saturday 25th April at the Place du Rhone and on Sunday 26th April at the Quai du Mont Blanc in Geneva. This exhibition provided a moving and challenging spectacle for the many passers-by in these two locations and provoked a number of questions including : Why does WHO continue to claim that only about fifty people have died as a result of the disaster at Chernobyl?.
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