Freedom of Travel for Chernobyl Children

Letter patent

Dear Mr. Ambassodor Skvorzov,

The issue of the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 20 November 2004 contained the following article with the headline: Children are not allowed abroad any more. This article said that President Lukashenko wants to abolish the freedom of travel for minors. In the future, exemptions will be possible only with a personal permission of the Secretary of Education. As the reason for this step your Presidents explains: "When staying in the West, Belarussian children are confronted with the damaging values of western mass consumption society." We hope that all this is not true. We hope that your President was misquoted!

However, if he is serious, not only children's recovery, but all of the support provided by Germans, particularly humanitarian help and our solidarity with the Belarussian people is at risk.

If he, as an orthodox Christian, seriously believes that our values are damaging to children in need of recovery, he attacks the values of the "Christian Occident" and Christianity. He can't be serious. I suspect that he considers it damaging for his politics to confront children with the values of freedom and democracy of the western world.

Dear Mr. Skvorzov, you know our Chernobyl Initiative and many other people, groups and associations in Germany who are committed to the children damaged by radiation and also to the whole of the Belarussian people. When visiting us, you were always given an opportunity to speak at church services, anniversaries and other events. You have been able to gain an impression of our values. If our commitment is truly damaging to Belarus, we will stop it immediately - with all consequences. This is the opinion of all board members of our society. Please communicate this to your President. However, we still hope that all this will turn out to have been just a big misunderstanding.

Sincerely,

Paul Koch
Chairman
of the Tschernobyl-Initiative in der Propstei Schöppenstedt e.V. (Chernobyl Initiative in the Provost's Parish of Schöppenstedt)
tschernobyl-initiative.schoepp@onlinehome.de