Bhopal Activists Declare Victory in US Courts

November 27, 2001 -- Survivors of the December 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal and their supporters today celebrated their recent victory in the US Second Circuit Court Of Appeals with a simple feast. The November 15, 2001 decision by the appellate court has reversed nearly half of the rulings taken by Judge Keenan of the Southern District Court in New York when he dismissed the class action suit by the survivors last year. The appellate court decision, which affirms the environmental damage claims of the survivors, is likely to have far reaching consequences for Dow Chemical Company, which acquired Union Carbide in February this year.

The suit was filed by seven individual victims and five survivors and activist organizations in November 1999 against Union Carbide, USA and its former chairman Mr. Warren Anderson. Union Carbide had called for dismissal of the case through a summary judgment. Anderson, who has avoided Indian courts for the last several years submitted to the judiciary in the course of hearing on the suit. The suit was dismissed by Judge Keenan in August last year and the survivors moved for an appeal before a 3 judge bench of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Himanshu Rajan Sharma who represented the plaintiffs in the appeal, calls the decision "an unqualified victory with regard to seven out of fifteen complaints." He expects that the Nov 15th decision will make it possible to access corporate documents from Union Carbide regarding its control and environmental safety guidelines with regard to the factory in Bhopal.

As a result of the appellate Court ruling, Union Carbide and Warren Anderson are now answerable to charges of contaminating the ground water and soil in and around the Bhopal factory premises and causing health damage to thousands of people.

"The US court has suggested that the Indian government could use the Indo-US extradition treaty to compel Carbide and Anderson to appear before the Bhopal District Court" says Abdul Jabbar, Convenor of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan.

In February 6, 2001, Union Carbide became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company, the Midland, Michigan based chemical giant. Balkrishna Namdeo, President of another survivors' organization -- Gas Peedit Nirashrit Morcha, Bhopal -- said "now it will be possible to make Dow Chemical answer charges of poisoning thousands of people residing in the neighbourhood of the abandoned factory." Namdeo's organization has been actively campaigning for Dow Chemical to accept the long-term medical, social and environmental liabilities of Bhopal.

An obviously pleased Satinath Sarangi, of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, a support organization behind the class action suit, said "In a very real sense, we can say that the US court rejected Union Carbide's claim that "Bhopal is history" and that it can escape from the legacy of its wrongful conduct in Bhopal altogether."

"Given that Dow Chemical has substantial assets and planned investments in this country" he says, "the goal of securing justice in Bhopal now seems more real."

* Gas Peedit Nirashrit Sangharsh Morcha (Bhopal), Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, Bhopal Group for Information and Action

• 116 Human Rights