Depressing sights

 

If you squint you can see the reactor. 
View from a fire tower.

A couple weekends ago, I went with a small group to the Belarus Exclusion Zone, a 30-kilometer area that was devastated by the Chernobyl disaster 35 years ago. Belarus suffered far more than Ukraine did; it dealt with 75 percent of the damage and is a much smaller geographical area than Ukraine. Belarus is only 5k from the reactor that caused the damage. I run further than that every morning. (Though not very quickly.)

A Minsk travel company, Walk to Folk, organizes tours and one of my colleagues contacted them about taking just a group from work on a tour. This was in part because we needed an English translator and in part because our boss would only agree to allow a group of us to go if it was only us in a van. (Not many people in Belarus have had the COVID vaccine, so it was a health precaution more than anything.)The company met us at the office at a horrific 5 a.m. and then drove us the four and a half hours down. Since this was a one-day trip, it was a very, very long time in a car – in the end, we got home around 11 p.m.

Once there, we suddenly became a “delegation” when someone from the Ministry of Emergency Services joined us, having come down from Minsk to accompany us on the trip. It was quite a surprise, and very “Big Brother”-ish, although it wasn’t anything nefarious. Just the same as in the Exclusion Zone on the Ukrainian side, the tour company has to apply for permits and needed copies of our passports to get them. The permits come from the ministry, so they saw a bunch of diplomats – and only diplomats – coming, so they decided to give us the quarter tour for the price of a nickel. It was quite nice of them, actually. (The chocolate factory did the same thing.)

At one point, I was talking to the representative and he asked if our trip was a team-building thing of some sort and assured him it was just that we had wanted to come and explained the parameters of our boss allowing us to come and he understood. He was quite nice and he was taking advantage of the opportunity to visit the park (it’s a nature preserve now) without having to be “on” – he took more selfies than the rest of the group combined.

Of the group, I was the only one who had previously been to the other side and the damage entirely paralleled it. One difference, though, was that we were giving much more rein to wander through the decrepit buildings, some of which had rotted and sagging floors. I mean, it’s been 35 years.

As on the Ukrainian side, the visuals are astoundingly depressing, especially considering the Belarusians didn’t know about the disaster immediately and continued to do things like go to school. There are discarded and abandoned items everywhere, and, although I don’t doubt that they’re authentic, it does make you wonder how they’ve survived exactly in the same place for so long. At the very first viewing, the guide pointed to a rusted toy truck lying in the grass -- a very sobering sight – and, after taking several photos at different angles, you realize that wow, how odd that the side of the road has been mowed but some truck (or shoe) isn’t completely overgrown. So there’s got to be a little bit of staging involved, but that doesn’t take away the authentic feel to it.

As a wildlife area, they monitor for forest fires and have about 25 towers around the area. At the one closest to the border – 18 kilometers – the reactor is visible, but only if you climb three of the five flights of stairs up the fire tower. It terrified me, but I did it. No way was I missing that.

Following the visit, because we were a “delegation,” we were shown the monitoring room, where a guy watches video feeds from the towers to monitor from fires. It was quite cool and a bit creepy – their cameras were WAY better than mine; the operator called up a picture of the reactor that looked like the ones I’d taken from the Ukrainian side. And he also called up, while we were watching,  video of us in the tour van!

There’s a river – the Pripyet, same name as one of the larger communities that was devastated (the one that has the Ferris wheel) – and there were several aged boats, which, me being me, loved. I hate to think of how many photos I took. I can’t imagine doing having done that at camp in 1982 with only 24 shots for a whole week! But the river was gorgeous; the tour company also offers a kayaking tour there.

Now that I realize that the tour company is operating again, I will have to look at other weekend trips. I’d been monitoring the site but not seeing any updates. Turns out, they’ve been operating through COVID but just hadn’t gotten a chance to update the English version of the website.

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and three of us are headed to another city in the direction of Lithuania. Because I’ll be out of commission until Monday, I am having to put together four papers for the two classes I am taking. Needless to say, I had a crappy weekend. ALL I did was coursework.

But that’s better than being on a diverted/hijacked plane and being yanked off. The world is again appalled at what “Europe’s last dictator” has pulled. I cannot imagine what he thought the reaction would be, but it’s not looking good. I will refrain from commentary. 

Here's the State Department statement:

The United States strongly condemns the forced diversion of a flight between two EU member states and the subsequent removal and arrest of journalist Raman Pratasevich in Minsk. We demand his immediate release. This shocking act perpetrated by the Lukashenka regime endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including U.S. citizens. Initial reports suggesting the involvement of the Belarusian security services and the use of Belarusian military aircraft to escort the plane are deeply concerning and require full investigation.

We are closely coordinating our response with our partners, including the EU and Lithuanian and Greek officials. Given indications the forced landing was based on false pretenses, we support the earliest possible meeting of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization to review these events.

Independent media are an essential pillar supporting the rule of law and a vital component of a democratic society. The United States once again condemns the Lukashenka regime’s ongoing harassment and arbitrary detention of journalists. We stand with the Belarusian people in their aspirations for a free, democratic, and prosperous future and support their call for the regime to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.