Kasja Markouskaja, 23, is one of thousands of students in Russia who have been told that once they finish university they will move to the Chernobyl area. Not, “would you consider moving to Chernobyl” or “we’d like you to move to Chernobyl” but “you WILL move to Chernobyl”.
The reason the Russian government is doing this is because they want the area repopulated, they want industry back in the area and they want farming to start back up again. Despite the fact that a recent German study, spearheaded by German Alfred Körblein, has shown that the infant mortality rate has increased in both Finland and Sweden, two of the many countries that were downwind of the poisonous emissions from Chernobyl, since the incident.
“I feel like a slave” Kasja says, tears running down her cheeks. To complicate matters, Kasja has an enlarged thyroid gland, something that has been linked to the Chernobyl incident, and which won’t improve being exposed to whatever radiation lingers at the site.
Kasja and her fellow students have been told that if they refuse to move to the Chernobyl area, their University diplomas will be revoked. Or they’ll have to pay for the entire cost of their education. Forced removal of students is something that was introduced during the time that Kasjas has been at University.
Kasja is a journalism student, and after graduation she will be removed to work at the state owned newspaper Avangard in the town of Buda-Koshelevo, about 16 miles north of Chernobyl. Alexander Yadrentsev, editor of the newspaper, said Kasja will be replacing a journalist who was also forced to move to the area, who has now decided to return to Minsk.
Around 800 students have refused the forced move so far and 99 of them have been taken to court.
It’s like something out of the dark ages, isn’t it? Who’d have thought something like this could would still be allowed in this day and age, in a supposedly industrialized country, let alone the fact that it’s actually happening.
Kasja, the world is listening and we’re as disgusted as you are. Perhaps the embarassment your government must surely be suffering now that the world knows what they’re doing will finally be enough to force them to stop this atrocity.
