Friday, 9th December 2011
Campaigning Scots MEP receives Jubilee Medal from Kazakhstan government
A Scottish MEP has been officially honoured by the government of Kazakhstan for his work over the past decade helping the innocent victims of Soviet nuclear tests.
In recognition of his campaigning, Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson was awarded the Kazakhstan Jubilee Medal which has been issued to selected eminent people throughout the world who have helped Kazakh society since the country became independent from the Soviet Union 20 years ago. The country celebrates its 20th anniversary on 16 December.
In a ceremony hosted in Brussels by Yerik Utembayev, the Kazakh Ambassador to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg, Struan was presented with the medal in recognition of his extensive work helping the people of the Semipalatinsk ‘Polygon’ region of East Kazakhstan, where the Soviet regime tested more than 600 nuclear bombs, often using local people as test subjects.
Since 1999, Struan has campaigned widely to attract aid for the victims. The one and a half million people of The Polygon suffer from a ‘genetic multiplier effect’, caused by radiation, which leads to genetic malformations for successive generations. Estimates suggest that it may take at least until 2080 before the genetic impact begins to wear out.
Accepting the award in Brussels, Struan Stevenson said:
“This is another huge honour from the people of Kazakhstan and a welcome sign that they are as committed as ever to highlighting and combatting the hugely damaging effects of nuclear weapons proliferation on ordinary innocent lives.
“The country has come on leaps and bounds in the twenty years since it broke free from the shackles of the Soviet Union. Since then it has become one of Central Asia's most vibrant and prosperous states.
“In the intervening years, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has repeatedly affirmed Kazakhstan’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation. He maintains that a world free of nuclear weapons is ‘a grandiose goal which cannot be reached in short historical terms’ but can only become a reality ‘through joint efforts of all countries and nations’.
“I hope that those sincere efforts come to fruition before Kazakhstan passes another jubilee landmark.”
Struan’s work in Kazakhstan has been officially recognised before. Besides being given an honorary doctorate and an honorary professorship in Kazakhstan, together with the Freedom of the City of Semipalatinsk for his work, Struan has been invested into the Order of ‘Shapagat’ (charity) by the President of Kazakhstan and even had a street named 'Struan Stevenson Street' in his honour. It was formerly called Lenin Street.
In 2004 he won a $50,000 prize for his entry in an International Essay Competition (sponsored by the US-based John Templeton Foundation) for a feature about the suffering of the people of Semipalatinsk. He donated the entire $50,000 prize to Mercy Corps Scotland to assist with their work in Semipalatinsk. In 2006 he published a book on the Soviet nuclear tests entitled "Crying Forever", raising over $40,000 which he presented to the oncology and children's hospitals in Semipalatinsk. In 2009, Struan presented a further $5,000 to support social projects in Kazakhstan. This donation took the total that Struan has raised to $115,000.
In January 2010, Struan was appointed the Personal Representative on Ecology & the Environment to the Chairman in office of the OSCE during the Kazakh Presidency. During his tenth visit to Kazakhstan, in April 2010, Struan visited ‘Ground Zero’ in East Kazakhstan, where the Soviets tested their nuclear weapons. On this occasion, he was accompanied by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon who reaffirmed his own commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons and praised Kazakhstan and President Nazarbayev for their leadership role on nuclear non-proliferation.
The OSCE posting culminated with the publication of a large report detailing how Soviet policies devastated the environment in Central Asia and the effects that such devastation is currently having on regional stability on the region. The report has formed the basis of Struan’s next book, ‘Stalin's Legacy: How the Soviet Union Waged War on Nature’ which will be published in 2012.
ENDS
Notes to the editor
1. Struan Stevenson is a Conservative MEP for Scotland. In 2010 he was appointed by the Kazakh Presidency of the OSCE as the Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office with responsibility for the Ecology and Environment of Central Asia.
2. For further information, please contact
Peter Smyth
Indigo
peter@indigopr.com
Tel: 0131 554 1146
Mob: 07766 166 637
Friday 9 December 2011
