OREANDA-NEWS. January 14, 2009. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has signed the law “Social protection of citizens affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe, other radiation emergencies”, the press service said.

The new law is meant to ensure the proper level of social security for citizens affected by the Chernobyl disaster, to systematically and comprehensively define the list and volume of social privileges, rights and guarantees they are entitled to (medication support, sanatorium treatment, coverage of travel expenses, housing and utilities services, vacation duration, pension support and so on). The document has preserved the social privileges that such citizens are entitled to in line with the law “State social privileges, rights, and guarantees for certain population categories”.

For the first time the legislation has defined what people are treated as participants of the liquidation of radiation emergencies and civilians, who have been affected by such emergencies and are supposed to come under effect of certain articles of the law. For instance, those people include specialists of the teams, which assembled (dissembled) nuclear explosives before December 31, 1961, citizens who were immediately involved in nuclear weapon tests in air and under water and army exercises, which used such weaponry.