Balazs Pataki - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Southern Comfort

The Independent , 3 March 2001:Taliban destroy ancient Buddhist relics in Bamyan, Afghanistan. International pleas ignored by fundamentalist leaders.

Kiev Post , Top Stories, 17 August 2001:Ukrainian authorities seal off the Exclusion Zone around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after a bus carrying foreign tourists disappears close to Pripyat.

CNN Breaking News, 4 March 2006: Blinding light illuminates the sky above the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, according to witnesses.

BBC Top News Story, 10 June 2006:The skies above Ukraine’s ill-fated nuclear power plant are once again lit by bright light. Aided by the military, local law enforcement desperately tries evacuating the few villagers who remained in the Exclusion Zone after the deadly and still unexplained emission a month ago.

Fox News, 25 September 2006:In a press conference, General Dan K. McNeill, the newly appointed ISAF commander refuses to comment on questions about the Taliban’s alleged efforts to obtain nuclear warheads from Pakistan.

Kiev Post , Top Stories, 28 December 2009: A group of Ukrainian scientists led by Professor Sakharov have succeeded in penetrating into the Zone to a depth of one kilometer and returning without incident or injury. Professor Sakharov would not comment on questions regarding the special equipment that had made this possible, but did say that “this major breakthrough would not have been possible without the continuous research in Ukraine to design devices and protective gear suitable for exploring the Zone.” However, he confirmed “the existence of scientifically unexplained, anomalous activities in the physics of the Zone, as well as mutations in its flora and fauna”.

The Guardian , May 5, 2011:A leader of al Qaeda’s branch in southern Yemen on Wednesday vowed revenge for the US killing of the worldwide network’s founder Osama bin Laden. “We will take revenge for the death of our Sheikh Osama bin Laden and we will prove this to the enemies of God,” he told AFP, contacted by telephone from Yemen’s southern province of Abyan, an al Qaeda stronghold. “They will see what they haven’t expected… We are preparing a plan to continue jihad in the coming period,” said the al Qaeda leader, requesting anonymity for “security reasons.”

Fox News ticker, 6 June 2011, 03:42:58 PM ET:President to address nation following nuclear detonation in Kabul.

MSNBC.com, 7 June 2011, 01.35:46 PM ET:The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has described the nuclear attack in Afghanistan as “the last resort of an inhuman and despicable enemy to martyr themselves en masse and deny us the claim of victory”. The ACLU has strongly condemned his choice of words, describing them as “culturally insensitive”, while in Germany, France and the UK thousands have protested, blaming the United States and Israel for the atrocity.

The Guardian , 20 August 2011:It has now been verified by several independent sources that the nuclear explosions that devastated the capital and a vast surrounding area in Central Afghanistan were caused by three low-yield warheads of approximately 20 kilotons each, and were the work of insurgents or Al-Qaida extremists. The detonation was six times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and three times more powerful than the explosion at Reactor Four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986. A US Army spokesman has denied comments regarding the origin of the warheads after reports claimed that they were acquired from Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

Pravda.ru Latest News, 25 October 2011:Federal government warns Russians citizens against travelling to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone following a skirmish between the Ukrainian military and a group of paramilitary individuals calling themselves “Stalkers” — an acronym for “Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber”. Despite protests by human right watchdogs and the European Union, the Ukrainian forces guarding the area have been authorized to shoot such trespassers on sight.

During Operation Fairway, aimed at re-establishing control over the center of the Exclusion Zone (including Pripyat and the Chernobyl NPP), our forces sustained heavy losses. The mission has been labeled a failure by general staff. For extraordinary bravery in face of the enemy, strike force commander Cpt. Tarasov is hereby recommended for receiving the Order of Courage and promotion to major.

Remark: SBU supports recommendation. Pending promotion, it is further suggested that Cpt. Tarasov be designated as command element of our forces in the Exclusion Zone.

Kiev Post , Top Stories, 8 June 2014:The Ukrainian Ministry of Education is to send a scientific team into the nuclear wasteland that was once Central Afghanistan, now also referred to as “the New Zone”, under the oversight of Professor Sakharov, the veteran ecologist who led some of the first expeditions into the Chernobyl Zone between 2007 and 2009. The goal of the expedition is to end the speculation and internet rumors regarding environmental developments in the area that are allegedly similar to those in the Exclusion Zone, despite the evidence that shows that the mutations and other phenomena observed in the Chernobyl area were not caused by radioactivity alone.

“I love being in the army, komandir . Where else could I get a chopper flight over the Zone?”

Major Mikhailo Tarasov doesn’t return the young lieutenant’s cheery grin, instead choosing to spend the last minutes looking out over the Swamp, lost in his thoughts. Seen from above, through the tiny windows of the Mi-24 gunship flying them to their mission, the Swamp looks peaceful like a national park: golden brown fields of reed bowing in the wind, the low September sun reflected in the waterways, the wooden dome of an abandoned church peering out of a shred of mist, anomaly fields on the Zone’s edge glowing with eerie green and blue. Tarasov is glad that the distance spares him the details: the Geiger counter’s constant clicking, the rotten stench, the sight of decomposing corpses fallen to mutants, radioactivity and anomalies.

“Save your high spirits for the underground, Ivanchuk,” he glumly replies. But his second in command seems to be in a talkative mood.

“How come it’s in this mess today? That hellhole under Agroprom was supposed to be sealed off ages ago.”