13/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Upon the initiative of French Green member Marie Anne Isler Béguin, the Greens/EFA Group at the European Parliament received in Strasbourg last week Galina Bandazhevskaya, the wife of the Belarusian professor, Yuri Bandazhevsky, who has been released under surveillance since 5 August after been sentenced to eight years imprisonment in 2001 for having criticised the way the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster had been managed by President Lushchenko. According to the Greens, Galina Bandazhevskaya has stressed the urgent need to resume scientific work on the impact that the incident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has on health. Ms Isler Béguin is highly critical of the publication, on 6 September, of the report by the Chernobyl Forum (composed of eight UN agencies, including the IAEA), which minimises the number of Chernobyl victims (reportedly 4,000). “It is unacceptable to give a final number of victims due to this disaster when we are only just beginning to realise the magnitude of the long-term consequences”, the MEP exclaimed.