Justice demanded for victims of Bhopal leak

CIVIL rights activists, survivors and other protesters converged on Bhopal this week to mark the 20th anniversary of the world’s worst industrial accident and demand justice for hundreds of thousands of people still suffering.

A leak of 40 tonnes of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas from a Union Carbide pesticide plant on December 3, 1984, killed at least 10,000 people in this central Indian city and affected more than 555,000 others, although the exact number of victims has never been clear. Many died over the years due to gas-related illnesses, like lung cancer, kidney failure and liver disease.

Thousands of demonstrators planned to march through the main streets of Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, today, before holding a public meeting at the abandoned Union Carbide plant.

US chemical company Union Carbide Corp, which was bought by Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co in 2001, paid $470 million in compensation under a settlement with India’s government in 1989. Only part of that amount has reached the victims.

“We will burn effigies of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical to voice our protest. These two companies have betrayed the victims of Bhopal,” said Rashida Bee, a disaster survivor who heads a women victims’ group.

Ms Bee said the protesters would conclude today’s rally with a mass pledge to keep up the fight until victims’ demands for compensation, medical care and rehabilitation are met.

The protesters also called on Dow Chemical to clean up the plant site, where rusted pipes and pesticide storage tanks have collapsed or ruptured in the years since the plant was abandoned after the disaster.

“Lethal chemicals are still lying around at the plant, some in the open. Every time it rains these poisonous chemicals are leaked into the soil, affecting groundwater resources,” Ms Bee said.