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As I contemplate the mixing of toxins, dioxins, heavy metals etc. into the
industrial ferilizers applied to the drinking watersheds of Vancouver Island
communities...to aid and abett Industrial Plantation Forestry Agendas on
the private Esquimalt & Nanaimo Land grant lands...I think of the below
and how difficult recourse is...and will be, when we try to place responsibility
for safe drinking water on the polluters....anyway, I rant.
and, share the following...Loren Duncan
17th Anniversary of Bhopal Disaster
December 5, 2001
Before dawn on December 3, 1984, a holding tank at the Union Carbide pesticide
factory in Bhopal, India, overheated and burst, releasing methyl isocyanate
(MIC), a highly toxic gas. MIC, hydrogen cyanide and at least 65 other gases
spread across the city in a cloud, killing over 5,000 people within three days.
Some drowned in their own bodily fluids; others were trampled to death trying to
escape. The leaves of Bhopal's trees turned black.
Seventeen years later, survivors suffer from neurological disorders,
breathlessness, menstrual irregularities, early cataracts, persistent coughing,
loss of appetite, recurrent fever, panic attacks, memory loss and depression. At
least 20,000 people have died as a result of exposure to the gases.
Approximately 15-20 more die each month.
Action against Corporate crime and Toxic terror: Bhopal (AaCcTt: Bhopal), a new
coalition of survivors' organizations and international supporters, is demanding
financial compensation for victims, prosecution of those whose negligence and
aggressive cost-cutting (at the expense of safety regulations) led to the
disaster, and a thorough environmental cleanup. The Bhopal survivors'
organizations -- Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, Gas Peedit Nirashrit
Morcha, Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh and Bhopal Group for
Information & Action, all part of the AaCcTt: Bhopal coalition -- have declared
2002 the "Year Against Corporate Crime."
To date, victims have received little or no assistance. In 1989, as part of a
court settlement, Union Carbide paid US$470 million on the condition that it
could not be held liable in any future criminal or civil proceedings. The Indian
government was responsible for dispensing the money. As of June 2001, 90% of
death settlements have been for US$550, the minimum amount allowed by Indian
federal regulations established in 1993. In many cases, this is far from enough
to pay off initial debts for medical treatments and funeral services. An
estimated US$240 million of the Union Carbide settlement remains in the Indian
government's 'stewardship'; accrued interest will not be passed along to
survivors.
Warren Anderson, then-CEO of Union Carbide, has been charged in India with
culpable homicide, punishable by imprisonment for life. Under his direction,
safety standards were undermined in the interests of profit. For example, the
number of operators in the MIC unit at Bhopal was cut in half between 1980 and
1984, and of the three safety systems that should have averted the disaster, one
was switched off, one malfunctioned and one was under repair.
Indian courts issued a warrant for Anderson's arrest almost ten years ago, and
he has received a summons from Interpol. Although the U.S. and India have made
formal legal agreements ensuring the extradition of criminal suspects, neither
government has moved to force Anderson to stand trial. The Indian Attorney
General has recently suggested that the charges against Anderson may be dropped.
Over the years, Union Carbide has refused to supply documents that reveal the
composition of the gases, claiming that the company would be jeopardizing "trade
secrets" by making such documents public. In February 2001, Union Carbide merged
with Dow Chemical, and this policy of secrecy continued.
When asked about Union Carbide's liability for the Bhopal disaster, Chairman
Frank Popoff replied that Dow will not assume any responsibility for the
disaster. As part of the "Year Against Corporate Crime" campaign, the Bhopal
Group for Information & Action will focus its efforts on Dow. The corporation is
well known for being the world's largest producer of dioxin (one of the most
toxic chemicals known to exist, responsible for hundreds of thousands of birth
defects, ailments and deaths in Vietnam).
Currently Dow seeks to expand its Indian sales of Dursban (active ingredient
chlorpyrifos), an organophosphate insecticide -- after having almost all
household uses of Dursban eliminated in the US because of health risks. The
Bhopal Group for Information & Action will campaign to ban Dursban in India.
As Tarun Jain of the Association for India's Development states, "Seventeen
years after the largest industrial disaster the world has ever witnessed, Bhopal
is a continuing reminder of the travesty of putting profits before people."
For more information visit http://www.bhopal.net.
Sources: Los Angeles Times August 30, 2001; 70.67.37.33 of Bhopal press release,
December 3, 2001; Campaign for Justice in Bhopal press release, March 12, 2001;
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangatham et al. press release, November 27,
2001; CorpWatch letter to the Indian Ambassador, December 3, 2001; "16th
Anniversary Fact Sheet,"
http://www.bhopal.net/factsheet.html; "Bhopal: 17 Years of Tragedy and
Injustice,"
http://www.cmaq.net/viewarticle.ch2?articleid=2693&language=english; "The
cost of free trade behind closed doors,"
http://www.indiatogether.org.
Contact: Bhopal Group for Information & Action, B-2/302, Sheetal Nagar, Berasia
Road, Bhopal, India; email sambavna@bom6.vsnl.net.in
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