THOUSANDS of mourners in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia yesterday marked the mass desolation and cost in human lives of the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster 10 years ago.
The patriarch of Ukraine's Orthodox Church led a service in Kiev's ornate St Volodymyr cathedral, while bells pealed at churches throughout the former Soviet republic and black ribbons were pinned to national blue and yellow flags on public buildings.
Ukrainian television raised money in a telethon, hosted by celebrities, interspersed with barrowing footage of the blazing reactor and mass evacuation.
At Slavutych, the new town built after the 1986 disaster to rehouse station staff, thousands held candles and stood for a minute's silence at 1.24 a.m., the time on April 26th, 1986 when staff lost control of Chernobyl's Reactor Number Four.
Solemn music was replaced by the ticking of a clock as children, then servicemen in uniform, filed past the portraits of "liquidators" who died after the explosion blew the roof off the reactor and sent a cloud of radiation over Europe.
President Clinton sent a letter of support to the Ukrainian President, Mr Leonid Kuchma, saying his pledge to shut the station's two working reactors by 2000 was "a goal of the highest order".
"You and your fellow Ukrainians who are working to prevent a recurrence of such a disaster have my deep respect, admiration and support, Mr Clinton said.
In a broadcast on the eve of the anniversary, President Kuchma said the disaster ushered in an era of alarm, pain and vast expense.
"Ukraine was turned into an ecological disaster zone. After the Soviet Union fell apart, we were left facing this disaster alone," he said. "This is beyond Ukraine's strength. And we do not know how long our people will have to bear this cross."
At Chernobyl itself, 140 km (90 miles) north of Kiev, hundreds of staff facing closure of the plant by the end of the century stood in silence to honour the dead.
A top nuclear scientist told them they could win over public opinion only by ensuring proper safety standards. The anniversary was marred by a minor radiation incident on Thursday, which officials blamed on lax working practices.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, in a speech broadcast one Radio Russia, had words of praise for the hundreds of thousands of liquidators who conducted clean up operations at Chernobyl.
"Today is a sad date not only in the history of Russia, but in the history of all mankind", he said.
Ukrainian officials say there is a direct link between the Chernobyl disaster and about 4,300 deaths. It also affected the lives and health of a further 3.5 million people, they say. A long list of problems is headed by thyroid cancer in children and treatment for the 350,000 liquidators.
In Belarus, downwind from the blast and worst affected, parliament debated how to cope with the upheavals which still soak up a quarter of the budget.
Ukrainian nationalists opposed to calls for a union of some sort with neighbouring Russia planned a rally of their own. A handful of anti nuclear activists demanding Chernobyl's immediate closure chained themselves to a railway line and blocked a main road near the plant. Ukrainian police arrested 11 people at the railway line, but later released them.
AFP reports from Moscow: The former Soviet president, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, accused former nuclear officials of covering up the truth about the accident.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Gorbachev said Mr Anatoly Alexandrov, director of the Kurchatov nuclear research institute and Mr Efim Slavski, nuclear industry minister, deliberately played down the possible consequences during Politburo meetings.
"I was aware that they were trying to hide the truth from me because behind this truth lay the guilty parties," Mr Gorbachev said, ad ding that he immediately asked the KGB to bug the scientific officials implicated.
