Greenpeace activist Alia Yeung arrested today in Bhopal.
At 10.30am this morning, police brutally arrested 56 volunteers,
including survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster and
Greenpeace activists from fourteen countries, to
prevent them from cleaning up dangerous toxic waste in
Bhopal.
The volunteers were attempting to safely contain some of the
hundreds of tonnes of chemicals and obsolete pesticides abandoned
in Bhopal by the U.S. multinational when it fled the Indian city,
after a gas leak at
its factory caused the world s worst industrial disaster that
killed 8,000 people within days and injured half a million (1).
It s Dow, as the new owner of Union Carbide, that s behaving
criminally by abandoning these poisons here, not these peaceful
volunteers. It's surprising that the Government of India arrested
us rather than supporting our efforts to protect people and make
sure Dow accepts it's responsibilities in Bhopal," said Mr.
Ananthapadmanabhan, Executive Director of Greenpeace India, who was
among those arrested this
morning.
Despite repeated demands by survivors of the 1984 disaster,
neither Union Carbide nor Dow have come forward to clean up the
site.
Greenpeace scientists have been assessing levels of
contamination in and around the factory site since 1999. They have
found hundreds of tonnes of toxic pesticides and other hazardous
materials throughout the
factory that have leaked into the soil and contaminated the
water used by nearby communities (2). The entire factory site and
the area around is so contaminated, it is an ongoing threat to the
health of 500 families that
live nearby (3).
"Here in Bhopal, many people say the lucky ones are those who
died in 1984. Dow's refusal to clean up the factory site is
poisoning us daily.
By refusing to clean up the site, Dow is exposing another
generation of children to dangerous chemicals. They can arrest us
but will not stop us in our struggle for justice, said Rashida Bi,
who survived the 1984 gas
disaster.
"The Bhopal disaster will not end until Dow Chemicals cleans up
Bhopal, provides medical assistance, clean running drinking water
and full compensation to survivors," Dow has accepted liabilities
for environmental crimes committed by Union Carbide in the U.S.,
now it must accept its liabilities here in India, (4)" added
Ananthapadmanabhan.
VVPR info: Photos and video of Bhopal and today's action are available on request from Greenpeace Communications. Video: Mim Lowe + 31 653504721 Photos: John Novis + 31 653819121
Notes: (1) Today, the death toll stands at 20,000. One person a day still dies from gas-related diseases. (2) For further information on contamination levels in Bhopal see Greenpeace report "The Bhopal Legacy", available on www.greenpeace.org (3) This month, Greenpeace published step by step technical guidelines that explain how to clean up the contamination in Bhopal properly, usingthe best available techniques. The report has presented these guidelines to Dow. See www.greenpeace.org(4) On January 9 2002, Dow accepted a lawsuit in Texas, the U.S., originally filed against Union Carbide.