Bhopal demands justice after 30 years
Indians call for punishments for those responsible for worst disaster
Indians marked the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas leak tragedy on Wednesday with protests demanding harsher punishments for those responsible and more compensation for the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster.
On the morning of Dec 3, 1984, a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide leaked 40 metric tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the air at Bhopal in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, quickly killing 4,000 people. Lingering effects of the poison raised the death toll to 15,000 over the next few years, according to government estimates.
In all, at least 500,000 people were affected, the Indian government says. Thirty years later, activists say thousands of children are born with brain damage, missing palates and twisted limbs because of their parents' exposure to the gas or water contaminated by it.
The disaster remains an open wound in India, where many consider Union Carbide's $470 million settlement with the Indian government an insult.
Congenital deformities
"We are here to demand our rights from both the Indian government and Union Carbide," said Kamla Bhai, 70, as she walked alongside other survivors, activists and supporters through Bhopal's bustling streets to the abandoned factory site.
"We lost our children, we lost our husbands, we lost our mothers, we lost our fathers, yet we have been ignored by the government and cheated by the corporation for the last 30 years. Their treatment has been shameful."
Bhai, whose husband died from cancer five years after the disaster, said survivors need healthcare and financial compensation, while a second and third generation of children with congenital deformities need special medical treatment.
Ram Pyari, a Bhopal victim, said the tragedy haunts his life.
"Everything was destroyed," he said on Tuesday during an evening vigil. "My sons and my daughter-in-law died, my leg was amputated. I have to drag myself. These killers did not heed anything. Why are they not brought to court? Why are they not hanged?"
Union Carbide is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical. Dow says it has no liability because it bought the company responsible for the plant more than a decade after the cases had been settled.
The government of Madhya Pradesh said the Supreme Court decides who is eligible for compensation and free healthcare.
Official Pravir Krishn said: "Every affected person has been listed and this has been put before the Supreme Court. The court has decided, after extensive examination of their cases, what is to be paid and to whom."
AP - Reuters
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Bhopal gas disaster survivor Vishnu Bai listens to her taped audio testament at the Remember Bhopal Museum in Bhopal, India, on Tuesday. The oral history museum houses personal belongings of the victims and the deceased, and includes audio clips of family membeShowCode: 新版英文2013.10.17 / 英文内容页通发17.3.24 / C3 End -->
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