Chernobyl veterans await assistance

Local executive bodies are not enforcing a 1993 presidential decree on assistance to the Chernobyl veterans, chairman of the Chernobyl veterans society Mirhasan Hasanov told a news conference Thursday.

For example, the statutory 50% discount on medicines is not effective. As a result, mortality rate among Chernobyl veterans has risen. Three of the veterans died this week alone. The main cause for the death is paralysis, heart attacks, brain hemorrhage and leukemia. If the government does not aid Chernobyl veterans and their families with necessary medicines, their children may end up becoming beggars.*