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Bhopal victims score a
victory
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW
DELHI - A court in Bhopal city, site of the world's
worst industrial disaster in 1984, dismissed Wednesday a
plea by India's central government to dilute to
negligence the culpable homicide charges against the
chairman of the company whose plant spewed deadly gases
18 years ago.
The pesticide factory was owned by
the then Union Carbide company, whose chairman at the
time, Warren Anderson, is facing charges for culpable
homicide in connection with the tragedy, which instantly
killed 3,000 people as a poisonous cloud of gas laced
with cyanide leaked out of Union Carbide's factory in
the wee hours of December 3, 1984.
Andersen was
briefly arrested in Bhopal on charges of culpable
homicide, criminal conspiracy and other serious offences
along with several other Indian executives of the
company soon after the disaster. They were granted bail
on the same day. Andersen then quietly flew back to the
United States, ignoring summons to face trial. He left
behind a scene in which doctors had little clue as to
what they were supposed to treat, having little
knowledge or experience of the poisoning by methyl
isocyanate, except what was available in history books
on World War I.
Many victims died the same
horrible deaths of soldiers in that war, while the
survivors continue to suffer from a host maladies
including lung fibrosis, impaired vision, asthma and
neurological disorders.
What went against
Andersen in the court's ruling was the fact he has never
stood trial and he has been declared an "absconder",
with his whereabouts unknown (although he owns a beach
house in Florida).
The judge at Bhopal observed
that Andersen never applied in court for reduced
charges. Conviction on homicide charges could get
Andersen 20 years in jail while negligence attracts a
maximum of two years under Indian law. Scientists have
established that had refrigeration units at the Union
Carbide's plant not been shut off as an economy measure
to save about US$50 per day, the runaway reaction in its
storage tanks full of deadly methyl-isocyanate may never
have occurred or would have been retarded.
Critics say various Indian governments appear to
have colluded with Union Carbide in watering down the
original $15 billion lawsuit, which the company had
publicly committed to pay right after the tragedy. After
arrogating to itself the right to represent the victims,
the central Indian government filed a weak claim for $3
billion and then settled for $470 million out of court.
Of that total, the company, which had an annual revenue
of $8 billion, was forced to cough up just $270 million
for the final settlement; the remaining $200 million
came from insurance.
However, some researchers
believe evidence is accumulating of chromosomal
aberrations among exposed people, posing the strong
likelihood of increasing congenital malformations in
future generations.
Activist Satinath Sarangi of
the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) said
some 25 research projects commissioned by the government
were inexplicably wound up in 1994 because of a policy
of hushing up the findings. "But you just have to see
babies that are born in Bhopal these days - they have
terrible deformations or marks all over their bodies."
R Srinivasamurthy of the National Institute of
Mental Health and Neuroscience here says there has been
growing incidence of psychological problems among
survivors, most of whom have no access to psychiatric
treatment. "Entire families live in isolation and it is
difficult to get the younger women married off because
of the widespread fear that the children they have would
be deformed," Srinivasamurthy said.
(Inter Press
Service)
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