RIGHTS-INDIA: Bhopal Activists Vow to Nail Union Carbide

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

New Delhi, Sep 8 2000 (IPS) - The dismissal by a U.S. court of their complaint against Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) for causing the world’s worst industrial disaster in the central Indian city of Bhopal, has dismayed rights activists here who vow not to give up.

The Aug. 28 order of U.S Federal Judge John F. Keenan proves that the December 1984 toxic gas leak, which killed some 6,000 people and maimed another 100,000, is also turning into the world’s biggest miscarriage of justice, they say.

According to Indra Sinha, member of the International Coalition for Justice in Bhopal, the ruling has highlighted the need for a legal system to hold transnational corporations (TNCs) accountable for their actions in developing countries.

“In 1986 Keenan insisted Union Carbide submit to the authority of the Indian courts. Now he says the same courts have no jurisdiction over it,” Sinha said, commenting on the summary disposal of the case filed by survivors and activists who sued UCC for “depraved indifference to human life.”

The class action suit seeking redressal for “crimes against humanity” by UCC, was filed in November last year by seven victims and activist groups under the Alien Torts Act, which allows foreigners to sue U.S.-based TNCs.

A key issue in the petition was to get defendant and former UCC chief, Warren Anderson, declared a fugitive from the law. Anderson has so far refused to answer the summons of a district court in Bhopal to stand trial in India for criminal liability.

According to well-known Bhopal gas disaster activist, Satinath Sarangi, Keenan overlooked the continuing contamination of drinking water sources around the UCC factory site.

Late last year, the international environmental group Greenpeace declared the Bhopal gas leak site a “global toxic hotspot.” Greenpeace found some areas close to the leak site, having mercury levels up to six million times in excess of acceptable limits.

But activists are even more worried that UCC has been allowed to get away with “a massacre of unprecedented proportions” because of the lack of an international legal system to hold TNCs accountable.

Sarangi and other leading Bhopal disaster activists, like Abdul Jabbar and Rasheeda Bi, are now pinning their hopes on a class action suit filed in May by shareholders of the Michigan-based Dow Chemicals for planning to merge with UCC without informing them of continuing criminal liability.

“If Union Carbide gives us the slip we will turn to Dow,” said Rasheeda Bi, chief of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karamchari Sangh, which was formed to rehabilitate women affected by the disaster.

Said Jabbar, who heads a similar group: “Union Carbide may have sold off its shares in India but Dow has four subsidiaries in this country and we will soon take legal and extra-legal action against them.”

According to Indian lawyer Sandeep Sharma, under Indian law, a corporation merging with another, inherits both assets and liabilities.

Soon after the gas leak from the UCC pesticide plant in Bhopal, the Indian government had sued UCC in a New York court on behalf of the victims, seeking 3.3 billion U.S. dollars in damages.

However, UCC and the Indian government subsequently settled the matter in a much-criticised deal 11 years ago, under which UCC paid 470 million dollars as damages in return for exemption from all criminal liability.

Activists accused the Indian government of a “massive sell- out” of the interests of the victims without consulting them.

However, a ruling by India’s Supreme Court in the year 1989, while upholding the deal, declared that UCC could not escape criminal liability. This made it possible to begin criminal proceedings against UCC in a Bhopal court.

The suit, dismissed by U.S. Federal court judge Keenan, sought to hold former UCC chief Anderson liable for civil contempt and fraud by failing to comply with orders by courts both in India and the United States.

The UCC chief and others have also not responded to the summons served through the U.S. Justice Department and notifications published in ‘The Washington Post’ newspaper.

The trial of Indian employees of UCC is, meanwhile, continuing in the Bhopal court. So far 50 of the more than 200 witnesses for the prosecution have testified.

Keenan saw merit in UCC’s plea that “all personal injury and related claims were settled in 1989 when Union Carbide and Union Carbide India Limited agreed to and paid 470 million dollars to the government of India on behalf of all the victims.”

Bhopal gas disaster activist Sarangi says UCC has responded to the legal action by resorting to “delay, deny and disregard”.

“In the civil case, UCC resorted to delay of relief, in the criminal case it denied a prime role in causing the disaster and finally it disregarded repeated summons from a court,” Sarangi said.

“In the absence of effective structures, TNCs will continue to get away with genocide, governments will betray the interests of the common people and the judiciary cannot be depended on for protection against industrial hazards,” he added.