Bhopal gas tragedy: Verdict day today

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Bhopal gas tragedy: Verdict day today

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Jun 07, 2010 12:17 am

The Long Shadow of Bhopal

By Tripti Lahiri

More than 25 years after a deadly cloud of gas escaped from a Union Carbide India Ltd. pesticide factory in Bhopal on a December night in 1984, a district court in that city is expected to decide on Monday whether Indian officials of the company, majority-owned at the time by the U.S.-based Union Carbide Corp., were negligent.

It’s been a hard task for the court with most facts in dispute by either side, down to the toll. A Union Carbide statement puts the deaths at 3,800, citing the Madhya Pradesh state government. Bhopal activists put deaths in the immediate aftermath of the leak at 8,000 to 10,000 and say they total 25,000 now. They also say 100,000 people continue to suffer from chronic illnesses.

Five years after the incident, India and Union Carbide agreed to a $470 million settlement and, as a result, the litigation was stalled. After petitions from victims, legal proceedings started up again. In 2001, meanwhile, Dow Chemical acquired Union Carbide, which had divested itself of its share in UCIL seven years earlier.

In Bhopal, the site and its groundwater remain contaminated. Families there report high rates of birth defects, representatives of the victims say. They also say the compensation agreement underestimated the numbers of the dead and sick and, as a result, the money eventually distributed to families was completely inadequate.

Union Carbide says it behaved responsibly.

“In the wake of the gas release, Union Carbide Corporation, and then chairman Warren Anderson, worked diligently to provide aid to the victims and set up a process to resolve their claims,” says Union Carbide on its Bhopal page, adding that it had concluded that the gas leak was the result of sabotage. “All claims arising out of the release were settled 18 years ago at the explicit direction of and with the approval of the Supreme Court of India.”

The company also said that the court had ordered the government of India “to purchase, out of the settlement fund, a group medical insurance policy to cover 100,000 persons who may later develop symptoms.”

Whatever the Bhopal District Court’s verdict on the conduct of the Indian officials in the criminal case, many Indians will continue to see the Union Carbide case as an object lesson in how powerful American companies have the upper hand in their dealings in developing countries. And now a few American firms are facing the fallout of what happened in Bhopal that day.

Like other industrial disasters, Union Carbide left its scars even on those who were nowhere near Bhopal. What it left many Indians with was a stark sense of how vulnerable they might be if something similar were to happen at a plant near them, in a town where they lived. When the next big industrial disaster takes place, many Indians fear they won’t be able to count on the companies or government involved to quickly step up and say, “We’re so sorry. This should never have happened. We’ll do everything we can to help you.”

So when they hear the government has introduced a piece of legislation in Parliament that is meant to limit the financial liability of nuclear plant operators as well as provide legal immunity from third-party lawsuits to foreign vendors in the case of an accident, those fears deepen.

Karuna Nundy, a lawyer who is representing the Bhopal victims in a separate matter in the Supreme Court, says the government’s sending the wrong message to companies deciding whether or not to set up nuclear reactors in India by telling them, “We’ll set a cap for you and we’ll have the taxpayer pay for it.”

“The government is entering into and skewing the costs-and-benefits towards more dangerous outcomes,” said Ms. Nundy.

In early May, Bhopal survivors filed a right-to-information request to ask the government how it’s deciding on its proposed cap for a nuclear accident, which in the draft caps liability at $100 million for plant operators with the next $400 million to be paid by taxpayers, according to a WSJ op-ed in April.

“It is the polluter who should pay,” said Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. “There should be no bills coming in this country where polluters can go without any kind of liability.”



Bhopal gas tragedy victims want accused hanged


Over 25 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy when the verdict in the case is to be pronounced on Monday, the victims want capital punishment for the accused but are not too hopeful of getting full justice.
They feel the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already "weakened" the case.
The accused in the case include senior Indian executives of Union Carbide India Limited and Warren Anderson, former chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, US, which owned the Bhopal plant - who is absconding.
Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group of Information and Action told IANS: "The folly committed by the accused should fetch no less than capital punishment for all of them. They should be hanged in public."
"We are being deceived since the beginning. The case, based on a charge sheet filed by the CBI Dec 1, 1987, against 12 parties, was originally to be tried under Section 304 Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder leading up to 10 years imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code," Sadhna Karnik of Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sehayog Samiti, who is also a victim, said Sunday.
"This, however, was challenged by the accused in the Supreme Court which, in a September 1996 order, diluted the charges against the Indian accused to Section 304 A - causing death by negligence with maximum imprisonment up to two years," she added.
"Now, even if the judgment pronounces them guilty, what does two years' punishment mean and that too with the liberty to appeal in higher courts?" Karnik asked.
Another activist, Abdul Jabbar of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS), accused the CBI of preparing and presenting a "weak" charge sheet in the case.
"More than 178 witnesses, belonging to weaker sections of society, were registered but several important witnesses were left out," he said.
"A judgment such as this one, with a high-profile accused, has the potential to shape the future of how big business operates in the country," Jabbar said.
Activists also question the CBI's role as it has not been able to produce Andersen, the prime accused in the case, even after two arrest warrants were issued against him, the last one in July 2009.
Dow Chemical Company, which took over the US-based Union Carbide Corporation in 1999, says all the liabilities were settled when the company paid $470 million compensation in a settlement brokered by the Indian Supreme Court.
The verdict will be pronounced Monday by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Mohan P. Tiwari in the case, arguments for which closed May 13.
Four of the organisations representing victims Saturday accused the Indian government of criminal negligence in the prosecution of the accused in the case.


Image
GETTY IMAGES 1 MONTH AGO
Survivors of 1984's Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal hold placards as they gather outside the Indian Prime Minister's office to file a Right To Information (RTI) petition in New Delhi on May 4, 2010. The filed the RTI) to get access to all documents concerning the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill that mention, discuss, concern or otherwise referenced the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in the central Indian town. Government figures put the death toll at 3,500 within the first three days but independent data by the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) puts the figure at between 8,000 and 10,000 for the same period.


Image
REUTERS PICTURES 6 MONTHS AGO
A local activist attends a demonstration to mark the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster in Bhopal December 3, 2009. The Union Carbide plant in the central city of Bhopal, now owned by Dow Chemical, left a potent legacy when it accidentally released toxic gases into the air, killing thousands of people and causing many more to suffer in the world's most deadly industrial disaster. In the early hours of December 3, 1984, around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere and was carried by the wind to the surrounding slums. The government says around 3,500 died as a result of the disaster. Activists however calculate that 25,000 people died in the immediate aftermath and the years that followed.


Image
REUTERS PICTURES 6 MONTHS AGO
Local activists shout slogans during a torch rally to mark the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster in Bhopal December 2, 2009. In December 1984, the Union Carbide Corp pesticide plant developed a toxic gas leak resulting in thousands of people dying in the aftermath, in what is called one of the world's worst industrial disasters. Bhopalis and environmental groups say many more people have been harmed since then by pollutants seeping out of the plant site into ground water, which they contend have caused health problems for nearby residents including cancer, growth retardation and dizziness.



Image
REUTERS PICTURES 6 MONTHS AGO
Mothers wait with their children for treatment in a rehabilitation centre for children who were born with mental and physical disabilities in Bhopal December 2, 2009. Bhopalis and environmental groups say many more people have been harmed since Union Carbide Corp, now part of Dow Chemical Co. , developed a toxic gas leak in 1984 resulting in thousands of people dying in the aftermath, in what is called one of the world's worst industrial disaster.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Bhopal gas tragedy: Verdict day today

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:07 am

Eight Found Guilty in Bhopal Case
By TRIPTI LAHIRI

NEW DELHI—All eight of the Indian officials charged in connection with the Bhopal gas leak more than 25 years ago have been found guilty by a district court in Bhopal, Indian news channels reported Monday.

Survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy shout slogans against Warren Anderson, the head of Union Carbide Corp. at the time of the gas leak, near Bhopal court in Bhopal, India, Monday, June 7, 2010.

The officials were charged with "causing death by negligence," a charge that carries a maximum prison term of two years and is most often used in connection with hit-and-run traffic accidents, according to representatives of the victims. This is the first legal verdict in the long-standing case and will likely be appealed to a higher state court and eventually to the Supreme Court.

The defendants were officials affiliated with Union Carbide India Ltd. in December 1984, when a deadly plume of gas escaped the factory in the middle of the night, killing thousands and leaving many more with lifelong medical problems. The firm, majority owned by the Union Carbide Corp. at the time, reached a $470 million settlement with India in 1989. Union Carbide Corp., which was acquired by The Dow Chemical Co. in 2001, divested its stake in the Indian company in 1994.

At least one of those convicted is a key member of the business world today. Keshub Mahindra, now chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., was among those found guilty. A Mahindra spokeswoman for the company said the firm would be issuing a comment later Monday.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Bhopal gas tragedy: Verdict day today

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Jun 09, 2010 10:36 am

Questions over Warren Anderson's getaway
NDTV Correspondent, Updated: June 9, 2010 18:33 IST, New Delhi

Perhaps the biggest fallout of this week's verdict in the Bhopal gas tragedy has been the refocusing of attention on Warren Anderson, and the fact that he has not been tried for his role as the senior-most executive of the company that caused the world's biggest industrial disaster. (Read: Who is Warren Anderson?)

Anderson, who was Chief Executive Officer of Union Carbide Corp in 1984, flew into India after the gas leak from a Carbide plant choked Bhopal on the 2-3 of December. He was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Yet, just four days after the tragedy, Anderson flew out of Bhopal on the official plane of Arjun Singh, who was at the time the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

The Chief Secretary at that time called me to the room and told me to arrange for the departure of Warren Anderson," said the then collector of Bhopal, Moti Singh.

"Mr Anderson, Keshav Mahindra and BR Gokhle came by service flight from Mumbai to Bhopal and they were taken into our custody at the airport. We put them inside Union Carbide guest house, Shamara Hills, after arrest and at around 2 pm, the Chief Secretary called police chief and me and told us to release Anderson and send him to Delhi by plane. Accordingly we went to that place, did the formalities, and he was released on bail and sent to Delhi by plane, Moti Singh added. (Watch: Bhopal then collector Moti Singh on Anderson)

From Bhopal, Anderson flew to Delhi where he met with President Giani Zail Singh for a cup of tea.

In the years since then, the government now offers, it has tried to get America to extradite Anderson, who lives in New York state.

On Tuesday, BR Lall, who headed the CBI's investigation into the Bhopal tragedy April 1994 to July 1995, told NDTV that he had received a letter from the Ministry of External Affairs, asking him to drop proceedings connected to the extradition request for Anderson. (Read: Was told to go soft on Warren Anderson: Former CBI official)

Not true, says K Vijaya Rama Rao, who was the Director of the CBI at that time. "At no stage... neither the MEA nor the CBI... gave up efforts to extradite Anderson. MEA is sharing with us their difficulties which are very simple that is the unwillingness of US to extradite him to India."

Reacting to the issue, the External Affairs Ministry today said that it has time and again requested for Anderson extradition, which has been turned down by the US for want of more "evidential links". (Read: US had rejected Anderson extradition plea, says ministry)

Sources in the government say a US court flatly rejected the extradition of Anderson in 2003.

Commenting on the issue of Anderson's extradition, Congress party today said that Warren Anderson should be extradited. "Anderson's extradition process should be completed," said Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan. (Read: Anderson's extradition process should be completed, says Congress)
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)


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