More than 18,000 children, victims of the disaster at Chernobyls nuclear station 20 years ago, have received assistance in Cuba, Cuban Ambassador to the UN Rodrigo Malmierca reported on Friday.

The Cuban permanent representative to the United Nations told a special session on the anniversary of the Tarara Humanitarian Program begun in 1990, that this program was especially designed for patients affected by that accident.

The children arrive in our country with different diseases or health conditions, from post-traumatic stress to cancer. They are diagnosed and receive all kinds of treatments, including bone marrow transplants for those who suffer from leukemia, the diplomat said.

He clarified that neither the Cuban State nor the people have ever asked a single penny for the cost of those treatments, because the right to life of Chernobyl children cannot be bought.

Malmierca explained that the Cuban people have benefited from the generous help of the Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian nations for decades, thus cooperating in the recovery of those children from the accident was simply an automatic humanitarian response.

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