18 years after one of the worst chemical leaks in history, the people of
Bhopal are still waiting for justice in the wake of the Union Carbide
disaster. Proving how little the powers that be actually care about
people's suffering, Dow Chemicals (who now own Union Carbide) have told the
people of Bhopal that there'll be no compensation or clean-up because it
would piss off shareholders and fellow Multinationals. On the 25th of
November, a group of survivors of Union Carbide and supporters of the
Campaign for Justice in Bhopal tried to clean up some of the toxic waste
that's still poisoning their land and water supplies. Police waded in and
100 were arrested. Neither the government nor Dow have done anything to
protect the health of the people living round the factory site. More than
20,000 have now died as a direct result of the disastrous pesticide leak at
the Union Carbide factory on December 3rd 1984. And a further 150 000 have
been left chronically ill. Unsurprisingly, Dow hasn't paid a cent towards
the victims' often massive medical bills. Though every single legal
investigation has found Union Carbide guilty of criminal negligence, both
Union Carbide and Dow have consistently denied these findings. "We
understand the anger and hurt," said Dow Spokesperson Bob Questra. "But Dow
does not and cannot acknowledge responsibility. Our responsibility is to
our shareholders. If we accepted responsibility we would be required to
expend many billions of dollars on cleanup and compensation - much worse,
the public could then point to Dow as a precedent in other big cases. We
are unable to set this precedent for ourselves and the industry, much as we
would like to see the issue resolved in a humane and satisfying way."
Shareholders are delighted. One said, "Bhopal is a recurrent problem that's
clogging our value chain and ultimately keeping the share price from
expressing its full potential. This has cleared the way." www.bhopal.net
Fresh evidence on Bhopal disaster
Article about a recently uncovered memo indicating that, contrary to the
position maintained by its corporate successor Dow Chemical, Union
Carbide's US headquarters may have approved the design of the production
system that failed at the company's pesticide plant in Bhopal, India in
1984, leading to the world's worst industrial accident ( New Scientist )
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See also this blog entry from September.LINKS?
http://www.hullocentral.demon.co.uk/site/anfin.htm
