Bhopal disaster: justice delayed, justice denied

Discussion Open Forum
1

Wow what a tragedy. I didn’t realize there were still legal proceedings going on in this case, 26 years after the crime. And what pitiful verdicts. :raspberry:

[quote]India convicts 7 in 1984 Bhopal gas disaster

Former executives of U.S. chemical giant Union Carbide’s India unit are sentenced to two years. The first criminal convictions in the 26-year-old case are widely condemned as a mockery of justice.

Nearly 26 years after a toxic gas leak killed thousands in Bhopal, India, seven former executives of U.S. chemical giant Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary were found guilty of negligence Monday and sentenced to two years in prison.

The trial represented the first criminal convictions in one of the world’s worst industrial disasters. But victims and activists declared the sentences as wholly inadequate.

“Victims here believe that rather than a deterrent, this judgment is actually an encouragement for companies to work in a dangerous fashion,” said Satinath Sarangi, a metallurgist and founder of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. “They know that they will get away with mass murder.”

In the early hours of Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide factory owned by Union Carbide India Ltd. in the central Indian city of Bhopal released approximately 40 metric tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas.

The poison spread on the wind, exposing an estimated half a million people, many of whom woke up coughing, blinded and vomiting. The Indian government said the disaster killed 3,500 people, while activists put the number as high as 25,000.

Thousands more have lived with cancer, blindness, respiratory problems, mental retardation and immune, neurological and reproductive disorders.

Particularly galling for many was the verdict’s lack of mention of Warren Anderson, who was Union Carbide’s chief executive at the time and who jumped bail and fled to the United States after the disaster.

India maintains a arrest warrant for Anderson, now 89. The United States has been unable or unwilling to extradite him even though Greenpeace activists located him in on New York’s Long Island in 2002.

The seven people who were convicted, all Indian nationals, were released on $530 bail and are expected to appeal, leaving some question that they will serve any prison time. Each defendant was also ordered to pay a fine of $2,100. An eighth person named in the conviction has since died.

Union Carbide India Ltd. was fined $10,600. But it’s not clear the fine will ever be paid: Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co. acquired Union Carbide, the parent company, in 2001 and has denied any inherited responsibility for the incident or its aftermath.

A report released late last year by Bhopal Medical Appeal, an advocacy group, said groundwater tested last June had 2,400 times the recommended safe levels of carbon tetrachloride, a known carcinogen banned from U.S. consumer products in the 1970s.

Indian courts, with an estimated 30 million cases pending, are notoriously creaky and it’s not unusual for a trial to take decades. . .

Union Carbide agreed in 1989 to a $470-million out-of-court settlement with the Indian government that absolved it of further liability. Many victims and survivors got about $500. Tens of thousands of people, unable to navigate the complex registration process, received nothing, critics said. . . [/quote]
latimes.com/news/nationworld … 8744.story

I almost posted this in the Foxconn thread, because it’s a related issue – multinationals manufacturing in third world countries due to the lax environmental and labor laws and ineffective enforcement of such laws, that permit them to make billions at the expense of the poor ignorant locals. The dirty side of globalization.

2

One of the greatest man-made ecological disasters of the last century nearly on a scale of the Chernobyl reactor incident. No, justice was NOT served (to put it mildly) for the people who suffered directly from this incident.

3

That’s why Bush didn’t sign on to Kyoto.

4

Is this legal? All you have to do to dump all responsibility is sell the company, you pocket the money, and the new owner doesn’t inherit any liabilities?

I’ve always been completely outraged by this case and the lack of justice involved. :fume: Something’s very wrong with the system.

5

26 years to get to a conviction… maybe another 26 for the appeal process

They will be either dead by then or the whole issue lost in the history books

6

Actually, Chernobyl was in the minor leagues compared to the deaths and disease caused by the Bhopal disaster. Less than 100 deaths can definitely be linked to Chernobyl, and the incidence of cancer for those who were living in the area has turned out not to have been as high as had been predicted. In contrast, when that tank of methyl isocyanate vented into the open air, thousands of people who were downwind were killed within hours, if not minutes, and people have continued to live in the area and be affected by the residue. Of course, people from my country don’t give much of a shit about it since methyl isocyanate doesn’t carry in the wind as well as radioactive isotopes, and it was one of our companies that was responsible rather than an “Evil Empire.”

The Soviet response to Chernobyl looks like a model of responsible management when compared to what happend after the Bhopal disaster.

7

Used to be an old saw that a rail crash in Britain that killed two people would in the news for weeks and weeks, but a train crash in someplace like India would require at least 2,000 dead to make the news. Little brown people in faraway lands dying for you and me. Its what globalization is all about. Pitiful, and not going to leave any cinemas near you for the forseeable future.

8

Amen brother [edit: father], couldn’t have said it better myself

9

Amen brother, couldn’t have said it better myself[/quote]

Hell, you don’t even need 2 dead people to make global news if you’ve got a white baby.

White baby trapped in a well made front page global headlines for weeks, spawned books, movies and TV shows, earned a Pulitzer prize, helped make CNN the powerhouse it is today, and earned fame and fortune for countless “heros” and promoters of the story, including over $1M for the baby.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_McClure

Anyway, Bhopal DID make big worldwide headlines, but the victims of course never received anywhere near the compensation of that one stupid baby. But, what would one expect from the Indian legal system. (No offense intended to the country of India or the people of India, but it would be surprising if they could deliver swift, efficient and proper justice for their 1.3 million people or whatever.)

10

Sorry but you can’t chalk this one up to globlization. The pesticides being produced where for the local market. This wasn’t a case of ‘little brown men dying for you’.

11

It’s an American company doing business in a poor country with crappy regulations and cheap later, I don’t see why the product has to be sold elsewhere for it to be part of globalization. They saw extra profit there, they knew better, case closed. Globalization is not just first world companies importing foreign manufactured goods to the first world, it’s first world companies using third world labor for big profits, wherever it is sold.

Though I agree that this happened before the big Globalization push.

12

Oh. OK. The little brown faraway people died because a big American company realized they could do pretty much what they liked and nobody would care if they killed a bunch of poor people in the process.
Seems a bit academic to me, though.

13

However, I got to say, if what Union Carbide was up to over there in Bhopal was in any way motivated by some kind of philanthropic impulse, I most certainly wouldn’t want them folks philanthropizin on me.

14

Wikipedia alone shows how pathetically they abused the regulations and cheaped everything (with the Indian government playing along the whole time).

[quote=“Wikipedia”]Several other factors were identified by the inquiry, including the fact that the operators chose a dangerous method of manufacturing pesticides, there was large-scale storage of MIC before processing, the location of the plant was close to a densely populated area, there was under-dimensioning of the safety features, and the plant depended on manual operations.[4]
Deficiencies in the management of UCIL were also identified. There was a lack of skilled operators due to the staffing policy, there had been a reduction of safety management due to reducing the staff, there was insufficient maintenance of the plant and there were only very loose plans for the course of action in the event of an emergency.[4][23]

Attempts to reduce expenses affected the factory’s employees and their conditions. Kurzman argues that “cuts … meant less stringent quality control and thus looser safety rules. A pipe leaked? Don’t replace it, employees said they were told … MIC workers needed more training? They could do with less. Promotions were halted, seriously affecting employee morale and driving some of the most skilled … elsewhere”.[25] Workers were forced to use English manuals, even though only a few had a grasp of the language.[15][26]

By 1984, only six of the original twelve operators were still working with MIC and the number of supervisory personnel was also cut in half. No maintenance supervisor was placed on the night shift and instrument readings were taken every two hours, rather than the previous and required one-hour readings.[15][25] Workers made complaints about the cuts through their union but were ignored. One employee was fired after going on a 15-day hunger strike. 70% of the plant’s employees were fined before the disaster for refusing to deviate from the proper safety regulations under pressure from management.[15][25]

The MIC tank alarms had not worked for four years.

The MIC tank had been malfunctioning for roughly a week. Other tanks had been used for that week, rather than repairing the broken one, which was left to “stew”. The build-up in temperature and pressure is believed to have affected the magnitude of the gas release.[/quote]

Just a very small set of examples. Whether run for extra profit or to reduce loss, it’s the same motivation for running it in India - lax regulation and enforcement and accommodating governments.

15

[quote=“TwoTongues”]Wikipedia alone shows how pathetically they abused the regulations and cheaped everything (with the Indian government playing along the whole time).

[quote=“Wikipedia”]Several other factors were identified by the inquiry, including the fact that the operators chose a dangerous method of manufacturing pesticides, there was large-scale storage of MIC before processing, the location of the plant was close to a densely populated area, there was under-dimensioning of the safety features, and the plant depended on manual operations.[4]
Deficiencies in the management of UCIL were also identified. There was a lack of skilled operators due to the staffing policy, there had been a reduction of safety management due to reducing the staff, there was insufficient maintenance of the plant and there were only very loose plans for the course of action in the event of an emergency.[4][23]

Attempts to reduce expenses affected the factory’s employees and their conditions. Kurzman argues that “cuts … meant less stringent quality control and thus looser safety rules. A pipe leaked? Don’t replace it, employees said they were told … MIC workers needed more training? They could do with less. Promotions were halted, seriously affecting employee morale and driving some of the most skilled … elsewhere”.[25] Workers were forced to use English manuals, even though only a few had a grasp of the language.[15][26]

By 1984, only six of the original twelve operators were still working with MIC and the number of supervisory personnel was also cut in half. No maintenance supervisor was placed on the night shift and instrument readings were taken every two hours, rather than the previous and required one-hour readings.[15][25] Workers made complaints about the cuts through their union but were ignored. One employee was fired after going on a 15-day hunger strike. 70% of the plant’s employees were fined before the disaster for refusing to deviate from the proper safety regulations under pressure from management.[15][25]

The MIC tank alarms had not worked for four years.

The MIC tank had been malfunctioning for roughly a week. Other tanks had been used for that week, rather than repairing the broken one, which was left to “stew”. The build-up in temperature and pressure is believed to have affected the magnitude of the gas release.[/quote]

Just a very small set of examples. Whether run for extra profit or to reduce loss, it’s the same motivation for running it in India - lax regulation and enforcement and accommodating governments.[/quote]

Wow, that’s 'way more words than I used. I guess you win the dispute. By the way, what was the dispute?

16

I don’t remember, just cant believe how many “brown people” got the shaft both in life and in death. Puh fucking thetic. Like the Valdez payment dwindling to the size of a shitstain on my pants after beef and beans night, all these companies have to do is appeal and delay long enough. As Bill Murray said in Stripes “something is wrong with us, something verrrry very wrong with us”.

17

[quote=“TwoTongues”]I don’t remember, just cant believe how many “brown people” got the shaft both in life and in death. Puh fucking thetic. Like the Valdez payment dwindling to the size of a shitstain on my pants after beef and beans night, all these companies have to do is appeal and delay long enough. As Bill Murray said in Stripes “something is wrong with us, something verrrry very wrong with us”.[/quote] I hear ya, man. I ain’t disputin that. :slight_smile:

18

Has anyone seen the Yes Men gotcha/spoof/documentary whatever ya call it? theyesmenfixtheworld.com/

They did a fake press announcement pretending to be Dow Chemical execs and announced that Dow would take full responsibility for the issue.

Check out their website theyesmen.org/

19

First off in no way was I defending Union Carbide or excusing them for this incident. What I am disputing is some trying to link this event to globalization or the idea that this plant was placed there to protect whites at the expense of ‘little brown men’. That plant was estabilished somtime in the 70’s (I’ll leave it to the ‘instant experts’ to Google or Wiki the exact dates). No doubt the lax regalatory evnvironment was an incentive, but that is the responsibility of the Indian government. While many like to point fingers at corporations for being financially motivated for locating in such juristictions, few think about the responsibility of the local governments for creating the lax regulatory environment motivated by the jobs resulting from these companies locating there. This was at the same time that many U.S. manufacturers were also moving their production to Mexico due the cheaper labour and lack of environmental regulations. It’s funny how when these things happen everybody looks to government as the solution rather than as a responsible party. How many officials from the responsible Indian Government department have been put on trial?

Once again, this was not a case of a chemical being produced off shore to protect Americans. Many dangerous chemicals have been and still are produced in the US. Just go visit Lake Charles LA. if you don’t believe me. Of course since you rely on Google or Wiki so much, just go do a search on ‘Super Fund Sites’.

20

Oh. OK. The little brown faraway people died because a big American company realized they could do pretty much what they liked and nobody would care if they killed a bunch of poor people in the process.
Seems a bit academic to me, though.[/quote]

Was it just a big American Company? I’m pretty sure it was a JV with a local company that had significant ownership in the venture.

Also, the reason 2 fatalities in a train wreck in the UK is given the same coverage in the UK as 1000 or so fatalities in an Indian train wreck is because the local media (Indian) doesn’t make a big deal out of an incident where one or two die. Natuarlly there is also the local factor where an incident is given more coverage by the media in the locale where it occurs. I can’t say for sure but when such a wreck happens in the UK or Europe there is a hell of alot more accountability then there appears to be in India. Again, not seeing much evidence of Western callosness towards others.