This article is from page 6 of the 2008-10-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE East Clare Chernobyl Chil- dren’s’ group has moved to ensure that all of the children they invited here for Christmas will be able to come, despite a risk that the Belarus- sian authorities will enforce a ban on visits.
The group have taken the route of inviting children as the private guests of families in Clare and so far, have not met with resistance from the au- thorities in Belarus.
“What we are doing is writing to the families of children, inviting them to come here as guests for Christ- mas and so far we have not come up against obstacles so we would be very optimistic that they are com-
ing,’ said group chairwoman, Geral- dine O’Driscoll.
A Belarussian woman who came her erepeatedly as a child is helping with interpretations and form-filling on the other end. The authorities in Belarus had said they were clamping down on the children being brought to Ireland for recuperation time by voluntary groups here.
Following a harrowing documen- tary several weeks ago, which in- cluded scenes of a small Belarussian boy being tied to a chair and having his tonsils taken out without any an- aesthetic, an online petition to the Minister for Foreign Affairs drew thousands of signatures, asking that he intercede with the Belarussian government to allow the children’s
visits to continue.
Everyone who signed the online pe- tition got a reply recently from Min- ister Michael Martin’s department, outlining what diplomatic efforts are being made to try to secure the Steines ihe
In the email, the ministers’ spokes- man said that a number of represen- tations have led to agreement that formal negotiations are to take place between the Irish and Belarussian Governments with regard to future visits by Belarussian children to Ire- land. The negotiations are expected to begin later this month, the spokes- man said.
“In addition, Ireland’s Ambassador to Belarus, based in Moscow, trav- elled to the Belarus capital of Minsk
on September 9 for meetings with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs in order to underline Ireland’s concern about the issue and our wish that any travel restrictions be lifted.
Since then, two officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs had a meeting with the Ministry for Hu- manitarian Affairs on September 30 to further discuss the issue.
“We hope to find a satisfactory conclusion to this issue in the near future, so that children from Belarus will be able to travel to Ireland in time for Christmas, and I can assure you Minister Martin will continue to ensure that every effort is made to achieve this outcome,’ the spokes- man said.