Speech to conference marking 10th. anniversary of ending of Soviet nuclear testing in Sempalatinsk.

August 29, 2001 - Alamaty, Kazakhstan

Mr President, Ministers, Honourable Parliamentarians, Ladies & Gentlemen,

It is a great privilege for me to be here in Almaty, participating in this momentous conference and it is my honour to present to you a report on the European perspective, in respect of Semipalatinsk and the Soviet nuclear testing legacy.

I visited Semipalatinsk last August and it was an experience that profoundly affected me. The memories I have of children in the orphanages, of patients in the cancer wards, and of the impoverishment of the villages in the Polygon, will remain with me forever.

I vividly remember the eerie desolation of Ground Zero. Driving out of Kurchatov, past the last former Soviet army checkpoint, where the tarmac suddenly ends and the journey to Ground Zero continues off-road, across the parched and endless steppe. Despite the searing heat, we had to keep the windows of our minibus tightly shut to avoid inhaling plutonium particles in the swirling clouds of dust. After some hours driving, we saw a spiral of dust approaching us fast across the steppe. It was a local villager riding an old motorcycle, hurrying to escape arrest for pilfering copper wire and metal from Ground Zero.

Of course the are no resources available to police the test site and despite the fact that spending more than ten minutes at the epicentre is lethally dangerous, many villagers camp on the site for days, digging up the hundreds of kilometres of copper wire used to detonate the bombs. They know they will die in a few years from radiation poisoning. But they say they will die anyway from starvation. At least, they argue, this way they will earn enough to feed their families, by selling the copper.

At 5 kilometres from Ground Zero we came across the first series of reinforced concrete towers, still bearing the remains of nuclear blast monitoring equipment. Nearer Ground Zero, the towers are little more than mangled heaps of steel and concrete. Rocks and stones have been turned to glass. The eerie stillness of the place belies its former hideous purpose. Here sheep, pigs, cattle and dogs were tethered to stakes to await the scorching nuclear blasts. A whole small uninhabited town was erected nearby with two shops, a metro station a factory and road and railway bridges. Scarecrows dressed as soldiers were dotted around. Military machinery, artillery pieces, tanks, aeroplanes, transport vehicles and armoured cars were placed at different distances around the epicentre to study the impact of the bombs. Now the tangled detritus is all that remains. Only the shrill bleeping of our Geiger Counter broke the silence. It was a vision of hell.

One of my most intense memories is of my visit to the village of Znamenka. As you know, Znamenka lies in the heart of the Polygon. It was one of the worst affected villages. It is a typical ramshackle, Kazakh village, with mud-bricked and grass-roofed huts, baking in +40 degrees centigrade in summer and shivering in -40 degrees in the snowbound winter of the steppes. This would be a harsh place to live at any time. But the legacy of nuclear testing has brought its own special cruelty to the people of this area. The departure of the Soviets in 1992 led to economic collapse. An attempt to privatise the old system of collective farming failed. There is high unemployment and no job opportunities.

I met the village elders. Many remember the ground shaking beneath their feet and the mushroom clouds rising in the distance as the nuclear bombs were detonated at Ground Zero. They were encouraged to come out of their homes to watch. The authorities told them they were privileged to witness the might of the Soviet military machine. They were not told that many bombs were detonated only when strong winds could ensure a thick cloud of radioactive dust would blow in their direction.

Now cancers run at five times the national average. Cancers of the throat, lungs and breasts are particularly common. Twelve-year-old girls have developed mammary cancer. Birth defects are three times the national average. Babies and farm animals are born with terrible deformities. Many of the young men are impotent. Many of the young women are afraid to become pregnant in case they give birth to defective babies. Psychological disorders are rife. Suicides are widespread, especially amongst young men. Average life expectancy is 52, compared to 59 outside the Polygon.

I met some of the women of Znamenka. Around 60 or 70 gathered in the village school to speak to me. It is the only three-storey building in the village. Built in Soviet times it caters for more than 500 children. The Head Teacher told me that his entire budget for the whole of last year amounted to $16. The women explained that everything is contaminated in Znamenka - plants, animals, insects and humans. Radiation and salt have polluted their only source of water. They are forced to eat the few sickly cows and sheep that remain. Nearly every woman that I met in the schoolroom was ill.

A 38 year-old woman told me that her breast was removed last year due to cancer, but she said she was lucky to have found a job only a few weeks after the operation and had to return to work in order to survive. She looked pale and sick. An old lady told me that her joints were stiff and crippled - a common ailment in the Polygon. She was certain her illness was due to radiation. She said her husband died of cancer two years ago. She couldn't walk and couldn't work and said she had no one to turn to for help. Despite her appearance she was only 48 years old. Premature ageing is another common feature. I remember the tears rolling down her cheeks as her friends helped her back to her seat. A big lady in a tattered dress summed up the mood of the meeting. She said "All we need is clothes to wear and decent food to eat to be like anyone in the world."

Across the street in the village medical centre in Znamenka, I met the local doctor and nurses. They too were struggling to cope. Often they go without pay for weeks. There is little money for basic medicines and no money for equipment. They have to deal with all the usual medical problems of a remote rural community numbering 4000 people, but in addition they have the cancers, birth defects and illnesses caused by the nuclear tests. The doctor told me that she has 70 patients whose medical conditions are directly attributable to the nuclear legacy.

The village elders said to me that they get frequent visitors from the West. Politicians who come to gape and stare and promise to help, but are never heard from again. They said they hoped I was not one of these 'Tourists.' This encounter caused me to lie awake for many nights. Finally, I made a pact with my own conscience. I decided that I would devote some of my time each week of my parliamentary career to Semipalatinsk, until such time as I can provide some tangible help to these beleaguered people.

It seems to me wrong for the West to sit back and ignore the plight of the people of Semipalatinsk. These are the real victims of the Cold War and the Cold War involved the West. The Soviet Union waged nuclear war on its own people and now they need our help. The EU has given unstinting financial aid to the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Although it was an appalling tragedy, it nevertheless represented a single nuclear explosion. The people of Semipalatinsk have to live with the horrific legacy of 607 nuclear explosions.

Kazakhstan is set to be a major oil exporter in the future and will therefore be an invaluable strategic partner for the EU in Central Asia. It is, nevertheless, struggling to rebuild the shattered post-Soviet economy, utilising the inward investment that is already attracted to the country by the oil industry. Although Kazakhstan is one of the strongest economic performers in the region, it will be at least a decade before there are sufficient financial resources to enable tangible assistance to be given to the victims of radiation in Semipalatinsk. I believe that there is therefore an urgent need for interim EU aid.

It is my belief that such aid should be directed towards three main areas:

• Purchase of medical equipment for oncology units in regional hospitals in Semipalatinsk and the surrounding territory.
• Medical programmes to assist cancer sufferers in the Polygon.
• Emergency aid for villages and rural dwellers affected by radiation in the Polygon.

In order to kick-start the process of securing EU aid for Semipalatinsk, it has been necessary to try to raise the profile of the Soviet nuclear testing legacy. Everyone in the West has heard of Chernobyl, but few have heard of Semipalatinsk. I have therefore set about arranging a series of events aimed at addressing this information deficit.

Shortly after my return from Kazakhstan last year I organised a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg of a high-level delegation from Kazakhstan, led by the Deputy Foreign Minister Mr Kairat Abousseitov. This was followed in late February this year by a highly successful seminar and photo exhibition on Semipalatinsk, held in the European Parliament in Brussels. Around 50 MEPs and parliamentary staff attended the seminar to hear the Foreign Minister - Mr Erlan Idrissov - and a number of eminent politicians and clinicians from Semipalatinsk, give graphic accounts of the post-Soviet nuclear legacy. In addition, over 100 people, including many MEPs attended a reception in the Parliament to open the exhibition of photographs of the victims of the Soviet nuclear testing programme.

I want to give particular thanks at this point to my colleague Bart Staes MEP, Chairman of the Central Asia Delegation, and to the leading German NGO - Internationaler Hilfsfonds - who helped me in hosting the seminar and exhibition and in arranging a series of high-level meetings for the visitors from Kazakhstan, including with President Nicole Fontaine, EPP/ED President Hans-Gert Poeterring, Lord Bethell, and Baroness Nicholson MEP. Mr Idrissov and his team also met with Vice Presidents James Provan and David Martin and with Lord Stockton MEP and Albert-Jan Maat MEP.

Based on the success of this venture in Brussels, I then arranged for the exhibition and seminar to travel to Scotland, where we again staged a reception and discussion on Semipalatinsk in the new Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. The Kazakh Ambassador to the UK, Ambassador Akhmetov, was able to meet with the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament - Sir David Steele and many other prominent Members of the Scottish Parliament. The subsequent seminar, attended by a number of parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, leading charity workers and journalists, was chaired by the Deputy Presiding Officer George Reid. One of the highlights of this event was the signing of a formal research co-operation agreement between the University of Dundee and the State Medical Academy of Semipalatinsk, represented on this occasion by the venerable Professor Balmukhanov.

The exhibition of photographs then travelled to Dublin and in November, I will open it in Cork, in Ireland. In addition, we've been invited to take the exhibition back to another venue in Brussels and then on to Luxembourg. I am also hopeful that I may be able to persuade some colleagues in the House of Commons in London to allow me to arrange an exhibition and seminar there.

All of this activity has created interest in the media. We have had some good coverage in the European press and the next issue of the international 'Parliamentarian' magazine will carry a full-length feature on Semipalatinsk, including interviews with myself and Mr Idrissov. I have also been co-operating enthusiastically with a team of young Scottish film-makers who are hoping to make a documentary on Semipalatinsk for networking around the EU and US.

Of course, raising the profile of the Soviet nuclear testing legacy is only half the battle. The key objective is to secure aid. To that end I have already submitted amendments to this year's EU Budget in a bid to secure several $ million worth of aid. The debate on my amendments will commence in Strasbourg next week and I can only hope that the graphic photos of Semipalatinsk, together with the many meetings and seminars held in the European Parliament over the past year, will have won sufficient support for me to gain a majority for my proposals.

Your great national poet Abai described winter in Kazakhstan in the following beautiful words:

Broad-shouldered, grey haired, in a white fur coat
He comes, blind and dumb, with a great silvery beard.

In reality, winter in Znamenka and the many other villages of the Polygon is neither a pleasant nor a romantic experience. I hope and pray that I may be able to deliver some tangible help to the people of Semipalatinsk before winter sets in once more.

For too long the nuclear testing programme in Semipalatinsk was a closely guarded secret. For more than 40 years the Soviet military authorities and the KGB kept their nuclear testing programme hidden from the world. As my own ancestor - Robert Louis Stevenson - once wrote, "The cruellest lies are often told in silence." But the people of Semipalatinsk refused to suffer in silence any longer. The ordinary citizens of Kazakhstan rose up and marched in defiance of the Soviet Empire to expose the nuclear tests and to demand that they be halted. It was their bravery and the bravery of President Nazarbaev ten years ago that brought this sickening episode to an end. Now it is our task to help rebuild this shattered landscape. I intend to ensure that Europe plays its part.

Struan Stevenson is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament for Scotland. He is Front-Bench Spokesman in the European Parliament on Scottish Rural Affairs and Deputy Front Bench Spokesman on UK Agriculture. He is also Front Bench Spokesman on UK Fisheries and is a Member of the EU Delegation for Relations with the People's Republic of China.