NEW DELHI, 10 JULY, 2002 - More than 250 people joined in a march from Mandi House to Parliament Street to support the indefinite protest staged by the survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster and their supporters in New Delhi since 26 June. The march was led by eminent people from New Delhi including veteran Janata Dal leader Shri Surendramohan and Dr.Vandana Shiva.

Three activists, including two women survivors - Rasheeda Bee (45) and Tara Bai (35) - and Satinath Sarangi (48) are on their 12th day of hunger strike to protest recent government decisions that will effectively bury the Bhopal disaster despite numerous outstanding issues. The protesters demanded that the Government withdraw its move to dilute criminal charges against Prime Accused Warren Anderson, Chairman of Union Carbide at the time of disaster, and cancel its decision to misappropriate the balance of compensation funds set aside for survivors for distribution among 20 non-gas-affected wards in Bhopal.
Pointing to evidence that the directions to the CBI (the prosecuting agency for the Government) recommending leniency in dealing with Warren Anderson came from the Ministry of External Affairs, survivors have denounced the Government for succumbing to US pressure on the matter. Various political parties, including the Congress, CPI, CPI (M) and CPI (ML) have stated that they will raise the issue in the parliament. Trade unions and various people's organisations have also expressed their active support to the campaign for justice by the Bhopal survivors. A delegation of Bhopal survivors and supporters that visited the National Human Rights Commission on 8 July, said "the Chairperson Justice (retd) J. S. Verma was fully abreast of all legal developments on the Bhopal issue. He gave us a very sympathetic and reassuring hearing".

"With the Government's new decisions, it feels like another gas disaster has just happened. We will not allow the Government to betray us to multinational interests and begin a new cycle of victimisation," said Tara Bai, member of the Gas Peedit Nirashrit Morcha. Tara Bai, who was three months pregnant at the time of the disaster, miscarried as she fled the poison gas flume. Since then she has been unable to conceive, and suffers from breathlessness, diminished vision and panic attacks. On the 11th day of her hunger strike, Tara Bai is quietly resolved in her fight for justice.

"Warren Anderson will have to face trial in India on the original charges of culpable homicide. Dow Chemicals will have to own up to the liabilities of its new acquisition. Only then will justice be done and seen to be done," said Rasheeda Bee of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh. In February 2001, Midland, Michigan-based chemical giant Dow Chemicals acquired Union Carbide. Dow Chemicals, whose products include dangerous and infamous chemicals such as Agent Orange and Dursban, has refused to accept Union Carbide's liabilities in Bhopal. This, despite the fact that the company has owned up to Carbide's asbestos-related liabilities in the United States.

In solidarity with the ongoing dharna in New Delhi, supporters of the Bhopal survivors' cause have initiated simultaneous actions in Washington D.C., London, Geneva, Mumbai and Bangalore. Supporters from other cities, including Chennai, Trivandrum and several European and Asian countries are planning activities in the coming days. In London, activists from the Bhopal Justice Campaign have organised a day-long hunger strike in front of the Indian embassy in London.

"Our actions are more than in solidarity. Companies like Union Carbide and Dow are threatening the lives and health of people everywhere, and the very survival of the planet. The crimes of Bhopal are crimes against humanity. If these go unpunished because of the Indian Government's complicity, it will be a black day for all of us," said Tim Edwards of the London-based Bhopal Justice Campaign.

India Together
July 2002

By Rama Lakshmi
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, July 8, 2002; Page A12


NEW DELHI -- For almost 18 years, Warren Anderson was the most wanted man in the Indian city of Bhopal.

His face has adorned hundreds of placards, protesters have shouted "Hang Anderson" and "Extradite Anderson," and his effigies have been set aflame since December 1984, when lethal gas spewed out of a Union Carbide pesticide plant and at least 3,000 people died within hours.

Anderson, Union Carbide's chairman at the time, was charged with culpable homicide, and though a warrant for his arrest was issued in 1992, he never appeared in court to face the charges. He was proclaimed an "absconder" from Indian justice.

Nearly two decades after what has been called the world's deadliest industrial accident, survivors and relatives of victims still say they want Anderson brought to justice. The Indian government, however, no longer feels that way.

The government has asked the Bhopal District Court to reduce the charges against Anderson from culpable homicide to negligence. If the court admits the lesser charge, which carries a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment, Anderson would not have to appear in India and could be sentenced to little more than paying a small fine if convicted.

"This is shocking. I wanted to drag Anderson to court and see him hanged in India. He has murdered thousands of innocent people," said Sunil Kumar, who was 12 years old at the time of the accident, and was orphaned. "Why reduce the charges? He is not a petty criminal."

Kumar and about 100 others, who are among the thousands still battling health problems caused by the accident, sat in the streets of New Delhi last week asking the government to reverse the action taken in May by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Three of them say they are on an "indefinite hunger strike."

But the bureau, India's equivalent to the FBI, contends that Anderson should not be held to a higher standard than the officials of Union Carbide India Ltd. who were charged with him.

"This year, Anderson's old arrest warrant expired and we applied for a fresh one. Since the nature of the case had changed after the reduction of charges for the Indian officials last year, we felt we should apply under a lesser charge for Anderson also," said S.M. Khan, a bureau spokesman.

Advocates for the victims, however, maintain that Anderson bears more responsibility than the others.

"The charges against the Indian officials were lowered because they argued that all the factory decisions about design, operation and safety were taken in the U.S. headquarters of Union Carbide. They argued they were merely following directions from the U.S. office," said Satinath Sarangi, a longtime activist on the Bhopal case and one of the hunger strikers. "That shows Warren Anderson's criminal liabilities are of a higher order than that of the Indian officials."

Attempts to contact Anderson, who retired in 1989, were unsuccessful. According to published reports, he dropped out of sight in 2000 to avoid a summons arising from a civil suit filed in the United States over the accident.

The death toll has risen to 14,000, according to government statistics. Sarangi said the gas leak left about 150,000 people with such health problems as tuberculosis, impaired eyesight, fatigue, depression and stomach and gynecological ailments.

The government's move to reduce the charge against Anderson is not the first controversial development in what has been a long, complex legal case.

Soon after the disaster, the Indian government filed suit for $3 billion in damages, but the case was settled out of court in 1989, with Union Carbide agreeing to pay $470 million toward compensation. Survivors claimed they were not consulted and accused the Indian government of selling out.

In 1991, India's Supreme Court responded to their petitions and charged Anderson and eight Indian Union Carbide officials with culpable homicide. India sent the United States an arrest warrant for Anderson, but he was never taken into custody.

In the meantime, the Indian officials challenged the charges, and a few years ago the court reduced the accusation to a "rash and negligent act."

About 225,000 people now live within two miles of the abandoned pesticide plant, where Anderson's name has been etched in black on the walls. In 1999, the environmental watchdog group Greenpeace conducted soil and groundwater tests around the site and declared it a "toxic hot spot" after finding high levels of contamination.

Of the $470 million paid by Union Carbide to the Indian government in 1989, about $272 million remains unspent.

Survivors groups say that after an elaborate claim assessment and disbursement process that took more than a decade, 95 percent of the people who have been compensated received only $500 each.

"Now the government has this large pile of cash, and petty politicians keep dreaming up fancy new ideas on how to utilize it," Sarangi said.

One member of Parliament wants to distribute it in her district, even though it is outside the affected zone; another wants to spend the money on the construction of a grand memorial for the victims; one other proposes to use it to decontaminate the water in the neighborhoods around the plant site.

"That money belongs to our families; it should not be wasted away," said Tarabai Yadav, 35, another hunger striker, who was pregnant in 1984 and had a miscarriage after exposure to the gas. Yadav, who received $500 in compensation, has not been able to conceive again.