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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The slow pursuit of justice

The slow pursuit of justice

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published Published on Jun 30, 2010   modified Modified on Jun 30, 2010

EVEN AS BP battles to check the damage caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, India is showing how far it is from recovering from its own worst industrial accident. A group of government ministers appointed to suggest remedies for the disaster in 1984 at Bhopal, in central India, made its recommendations on June 21st. It urged the government to step up its efforts to extradite Warren Anderson, now a retired 88-year-old living somewhere in America, who was boss of Union Carbide, the American firm that owned the chemical-pesticides factory that caused the disaster. It also called for more compensation to go to the families of those who died.

The plumes of poisonous gas that leaked from the plant killed thousands within minutes. Three years later Union Carbide agreed to pay the Indian government $470m in compensation, far short of an original $3 billion-worth of claims. But it was not until this year, on June 7th, that a court finally ruled on culpability for the accident. A district court in Bhopal convicted seven former Union Carbide executives of causing death by negligence and sentenced them to two years in jail.

The ministerial group was convened in response to popular anger at the perceived leniency of the sentences. Long delayed by India’s snail-like judicial system, the judgment caused an outcry in India. Activists have spent the best part of three decades campaigning for proper compensation for Bhopal’s victims. Officials put the number of deaths caused by the leak at fewer than 4,000, but others estimate that around 25,000 eventually died. Many were killed immediately; countless others died after long and dreadful illnesses.

The ministers’ recommendations are unlikely to do much to soothe Bhopal’s angry people. Today as many as 100,000 are thought to suffer from chronic sicknesses, such as cancer or neurological disorders. And more will probably follow. A study by the Centre for Science and Environment, an Indian NGO, last year found that even 3km (2 miles) from the factory, groundwater contained levels of toxic chemicals 40 times higher than the national limit.

The revival in Bhopal-related anger has come at an unfortunate moment for the government. It has fuelled new opposition to the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill, which would cap foreign companies’ liability at little more than $100m in the event of a disaster. By international standards this is low, but the legislation is crucial to an historic civil-nuclear technology deal between India and America (see article). Energy-starved, India wants American companies to help expand its nuclear power, but they are deterred by the lack of protection from big compensation claims. Opposition parties and human-rights activists, however, argue that the law could allow foreign firms to shirk paying proper compensation to the victims of a future Bhopal.


The Economist, 24 June, 2010, http://www.economist.com/node/16439185?story_id=16439185&source=hptextfeature


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