Authorities banned children to go to Germany and Netherlands
- 2.09.2008, 14:56
Belarusian children can’t go on holiday not only to the United States but also to Germany and the Netherlands.
An action of Belarusian schoolgirl Tanya Kazyra has influenced the organising of abroad travelling of other Belarusian children. Organisers of Chernobyl programs in the Netherlands and Germany have recently said Belarusian groups won’t go on holiday scheduled for the nearest weeks, Radio Svaboda reports.
As Dutch information agencies report, Maxime Verhagen, Foreign Affairs Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, summoned the Belarusian ambassador to The Hague Alena Hrytsenka to talk on that issue.
In view of a refusal of the Belarusian authorities to give a group of children from the Chernobyl area permission to travel, Verhagen said interests of children shouldn’t be ignored. The minister said the organisers of the trip wait for Belarusian children and had made much for this trip to be a real holiday for Belarusian boys and girls.
“I believe that the children's interests should come first,' Mr Verhagen said. `They are looking forward to this holiday. It would be a tremendous disappointment for them and the organisations involved if the trip was cancelled.”
At the meeting, Mr Verhagen told that initiatives like this have the wholehearted support of both the Dutch government and the Dutch public.
Gisbert Giering, one of the managers of the Chernobyl program in Jena, said about problems with further rehabilitation of Belarusian children in Germany. He told that Saxon initiatives were to accept children from the Krasnapolle district on September 14. But German organisers have recently learnt about certain difficulties in a telephone conversation with the Belarusian officials.
According to Giering, they managed to learn the grounds of these difficulties only with the help of English Internet. One of the Belarusian girls – Tanya Kazyra, refused to come home and decided to stay in the United States. After this event, the Belarusian authorities decided to suspend the Belarusian programs abroad.
“We haven’t received any concrete explanation from the Belarusian side. This situation made us refuse from accepting the Belarusian children,” Giering said. “We understand their disappointment and teh disappointment of the Germans who are waiting for them. We have advertised this program and taken contributions during some months. But we can’t do anything now.”
In the meantime, an action of 16-year old Tanya Kazyra, who stayed at Manuel and Debra Zapata of Petaluma, is disputed in the US city.
“She should go home,” Kerry Borba, whose family hosted another Belarusian girl for some years, says. “The action of Tanya and the Zapatas is absolutely egoistic as it discredits the whole program – our only chance to host the children we love under the conditions of the current relations with undemocratic Belarus.”
However, opinions of Petulame dwellers divided. A letter “Let’s Support Tanya” has recently been spread in the city, saying the details of the girl’s hard life in Barysau. The letter concluded that problem with Chernobyl trips are connected not with Tanya or the Zapatas but with the policy of the Belarusian authorities. They want that thousands of Belarusian children and the western families who treat them as they were their own children and replace them mum and dad, lose joy due to a single event, the letter in support of Tanya Kazyra says.