Activists remind DOW-Carbide of their Bhopal liabilities in Paris
Visitors attending the release of DOW's new textile at Premier
Vision's exhibition, were received by the youngsters and Greenpeace
activists dressed in black t-shirts revealing the faces of the
victims of Bhopal and handing them information regarding the
company's corporate irresponsibility. ICJB is also demanding that
the multinational pay for the medical rehabilitation of the
survivors and clean up of the large stockpiles of dangerous poisons
and the contaminated underground water left behind at the site of
the accident.
"The
people affected by the disaster now live in the shadow of an
ongoing environmental and health catastrophe. We, the people of
Bhopal have suffered for 20 years now and it is disheartening to
discover that instead of taking responsibility for cleaning up the
polluted disaster site in Bhopal and offering medical assistance to
the ailing survivors, DOW is busy making profits," said Rani
Niloufer, a 20-year-old Bhopal survivor. (1)
On 3 December 1984, more than 40 tonnes of poisonous gases
leaked from a storage tank at a Union Carbide (2) pesticide factory
into the heart of Bhopal city, immediately killing 8,000 people.
Since then, more than 20,000 deaths have been attributed to the
disaster. Survivors and their children continue to suffer long-term
health effects ranging from cancer & tuberculosis to birth
defects and chronic fevers.
In June 2004, the Government of India submitted a statement to
the New York District Court on the Bhopal contamination clean up
case asking Union Carbide (effectively Dow, the new owners of UCC)
to carry out the Bhopal plant-site remediation. (3)
"DOW
investors, and all those who will buy this fabric, should be aware
that DOW has blood on its hands and no new textile will help them
hide their crimes in Bhopal. Only when they pay completely for the
medical treatment of all the ailing survivors and only when they
clean up the poisonous site, will justice be done. Only then will
DOW be free of this taint," added Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace
campaigner from India protesting today in Paris.
Greenpeace has been campaigning for Justice in Bhopal since 1999
when a team of Greenpeace scientists worked with Bhopal community
groups to analyse the severity and extent of the contamination on
and around the factory site. The study found substantial and, in
some locations, severe contamination of land and water supplies
with heavy metals and chlorinated chemicals.
For more information please contact:
Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace India Toxics campaigner: +
919845535418
Anne Castelain, Greenpeace France Media Officer, + 33 6 84 25 08
25
Namrata Chowdhary, Media Officer, Greenpeace India:
+919810850092
footnotes
(1) Rani Niloufer and Sanjay Verma were both born in 1984, the
year of the disaster. They have been suffering the effects of the
toxics spread all over Bhopal since then.
(2). In 2001, the US multinational company Dow Chemicals bought
Union Carbide (UCC) for USD 9.3 billion.
(3). This case has been filed by Bhopali Survivors against Union
Carbide Corporate demanding their involvement in the Clean up of
the contaminated site. The court was asking for the Indian
government to pass its no objection.
On July 19, 2004, the Supreme Court ordered the Government of
India to distribute the balance of compensation remaining from
Union Carbide's settlement among the 566,876 Bhopal survivors whose
claims have been successfully settled. The balance of the hitherto
undistributed compensation has accumulated interest and grown to
Rs. 1,505 crores (some $327 million).