30 April 1986 Secret Reference About the situation among international students studying in Kiev Upon the arrival of operational and official data about the developments at Chernobyl NPS a lively discussion occurred with the international students and graduate students studying in Kiev who are from capitalist developing and socialist countries The vast majority of internationals correctly interpreted the Soviet government's official message heard on the radio and television about the accident at the Nuclear Power Plant and they express condolences for victims and their families The situation among the specific category of people from data of agents - diplomats Sergey Oleg open contacts Akhmada and Drakaras - as a whole is normal Classes are being held according to schedule However on the part of individual foreigners there is a proliferation of panicked words and tendentious interpretations towards the reason for the accident at the NPS A range of foreigners are expressing wild guesses such as that the reason for the accident was not a technological malfunction but sabotage A student in his third year at Kiev Medical Institute said in a conversation with compatriots In modern nuclear power plants there are around 30 systems for protection from destruction In this case none of them worked This means it was sabotage Of a similar point of view is El Amin Abdala a fifth year student at Kiev Medical Institute KMI from Lebanon and a first year student from Syria A student in the second year at KMI from Syria Sultan Aiman stated as follows In any country there are people who are unhappy with their government In my opinion this happened at their hands Separate reactionary-minded foreigners mainly from among those who profess the Muslim religion consider that the accident was God's punishment The following are characteristic of the opinions expressed by foreigners - They were punished by God because they had planned to kill others Siblani Mohammed 5th year Lebanon Student at KMI This was done by God to punish the Communists Hoder Djaber Lebanon Student at Kiev Engineering-Construction Institute KECI God does not have stones to throw at the infidels but he does have people who are ready to do his will Issa Belal Lebanon KECI The more that God punishes communists the more they die the better Malongo Gabon first year student at KMI If this was done by man then he will have a place in paradise Hassan Mubarek first year student at Kiev Aviation Academy This man is a hero Abdel Larvish third year student at KMI Syria Certainly some of the foreigners expressed assumptions that in the case of the Chernobyl NPS it was a response by the Americans as revenge for the crash of the first reusable American space shuttle Challenger By developing ideas the students at KECI Fakih Jihad Lebanon object DOR Mufti and Nabil Hamzeh Syria spread among compatriots provocative words about the possibility of U S vengeful actions against the USSR Most of the information about the actual extent of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl NPS interest foreign students and residential physicians at the medical educational institutions in Kiev KMI KMU-1 and NII who pass on practice at medical departments to leading city and oblast hospitals Regarding examinations at Hospital No 14 of the October Revolution where more than 300 foreigners work and train we are focused on Pechersky RO KGB on April 29th of the same year Agents and trusted confidants were previously instructed about the plan to identify the individuals distributing these provocative and panicked words as well as on the adoption of measures to localize possibly negative manifestations during the celebration between the 1st and 9th of May Head of Division 3 Division 5 Ukrainian KGB Major Komarevich Source Bashan Oleg Burchak Vladimir and Gennady Boryak Chernobilsky Dossier KGB Academic Council Institute of History of Ukraine 2019 Translated by Brooke Lennox for the National Security Archive This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu