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Forwarded with Compliments of Free Voice of America (FVOA): Accurate News and Interesting Commentary for Amerika's Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free. NOTE: Thanks to Bill Smirnow for this. -- kl, pp
From: "Bill Smirnow" Thanks to all those who have already signed on but I need many more Sign-Ons if we're going to pressure the Belarus government to free Dr. Bandazhevsky. Please take a few seconds of your valuable time to sign on now to smirnowb@ix.netcom.com . Thanks. Dear All, Your signatures, be they of an organization or of single individuals, are needed now to pressure the Belarus government to release Professor Bandazhevsky from near-Gulag conditions. Please add your name, name of your organization [if any] and address from wherever in the world you are. Please send all sign-ons to me, Bill Smirnow, at: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com Thanks greatly for your help. Please pass this along to other lists, individuals, NGOs and other potentially interested parties. The few seconds it takes you to sign this--- including your address and organization [if any]--- and then pass it along will go a long way in helping to free Professor Bandazhesky. Amnesty International has taken a strong interest in the Professor's case. -Bill Smirnow [New York, USA] May 14, 2003 MANIFESTO FOR PR. BANDAZHEVSKY'S RELEASE AND FREEDOM OF RESEARCH Pr. Yury Bandazhevsky is currently imprisoned in Minsk, Belarus since June 2001. As a Doctor and an Expert on radiation exposure caused by the Chernobyl accident he was appointed in 1990 as Rector of the Gomel Medical institute. Gomel has been the hardest-hit area by nuclear releases. From 1990 to 1999, along with his wife Galina, also a Doctor, Pr. Bandazhevsky studied damages caused by Caesium 137: heart diseases, cataracts, early aging, etc.. He has discovered a measurable relationship between nuclear doses and various symptoms. In 1999, he published his results at a time when many people wanted to turn a blind eye to the problems and wished to send Belarus inhabitants back to the lands that are still contaminated. Before his arrest in July 1999 he had written a report critical of the Belarus Government's official research conducted with international funds regarding Chernobyl after-effects. Pr. Bandazhevsky was arrested shortly after the issuance of this report on the basis of a Presidential Decree " for the Combat of terrorism." In 2001, he stood accused of having received money from students seeking admission to Gomel Medical Institute. After a trial held before a Military Tribunal he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. Expert witnesses who attended the trial have noted at least 8 infringements of the Belarussian Criminal Code and the main prosecution witness had retracted his statement against Pr. Bandazhevsky. Pr. Bandazhevsky is currently jailed in a penal colony with harsh conditions tantamount to a Gulag. But we think that the right to a fair trial is not the only one to have been thwarted. Besides people's opinions about things nuclear, what is at stake is the RIGHT TO KNOW THE TRUTH, the right to conduct research and the scientist's right to communicate data. Also the right for people to know it without interference that is politically or economically motivated. THE INDEPENDENCE OF ALL RESEARCH in the services of Humanity is as important a principle as the independence of Justice. Pr. Bandazhevsky's imprisonment flouts both these principles. Therefore, we, the undersigned, ask for the immediate and unconditional release of Pr. Bandazhevsky in order that he can carry on his research without interference at his Institute. We suggest that all scientists, researchers, scholars and citizens stand for these principles: - Sign this manifesto for freedom of research and Pr. Bandazhevsky's unconditional and immediate release. - But also to have Pr. Bandazhevsky appointed as a Best Man (or Honourable Citizen) of their cities, such as Paris and Clermont-Ferrand (France). - Or have him appointed as Doctor Honoris Causa in their universities. We wish to publish this Manifesto in a large newspaper and send it to the Belarus Government. Please sign it and pass it to all parties interested in justice, freedom of speech, freedom to conduct objective research and human rights asking them to sign it, too. Your help is greatly appreciated and will go a long way in helping to free Dr. Bandazhevsky and promote accurate research and publication of the radiation- induced effects of Chernobyl on humanity. _________________________________________________________________
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