US COURT RULING HAS NO BEARING ON UNION CARBIDE’S BHOPAL CRIMES

1 September 2000

NEW DELHI -- The recent dismissal of a lawsuit filed against Union Carbide by the victims of Carbide’s gas disaster in Bhopal, India, by a U.S District judge does not absolve the Dandury, Connecticut – based MNC of its toxic legacies and liabilities in Bhopal, said international environmental group Greenpeace.

The suit was filed last November on the 15th anniversary of the disaster that took the lives of 16,000 people and left at least 500,000 people with permanent health effects. The case was dismissed on grounds that the victim’s claims are barred by a 1989 settlement where Union Carbide paid a pittance in damages for the gas disaster.

Greenpeace said that the 1989 settlement covered gas disaster related damages and did not address the ongoing damage to environment and human health caused by the several tons of toxic wastes left behind by Union Carbide at its Bhopal factory site.

A November 1999 investigation report by Greenpeace revealed that Union Carbide has abandoned several hundred tons of life threatening toxic wastes including pesticide wastes and mercury contaminated sludges, in its Bhopal factory. The Greenpeace report found that the factory site was extensively contaminated with persistent chlorinated poisons, including hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and chlorobenzenes, and heavy metals. Some sites within the factory have mercury levels up to 6 million times in excess of background benchmarks, More than 20 tons of HCH in sacks and another 20 plus tons of residue of sevin (a carbamate pesticide) in open drums are left lying open to the elements. The ground water used by the communities of gas victims living around the factory site is dangerously polluted with toxic chemicals such as chloroform and carbon tetrachloride.

The toxic wastes found inside the factory were produced by Union Carbide before the 1984 gas disaster.

"Union Carbide is an environmental criminal fighting hard to erase its liabilities in Bhopal. But the evidence of Carbide’s crimes are still there in Bhopal for all to see in the form of hundreds of tons of poisonous wastes, hundreds of tons of liabilities" said Nityanand Jayaraman, Greenpeace’s toxics campaigner in India. "Policy makers worldwide should cringe every time they say ‘Polluter Pays’ and realise how hollow it sounds when one of the biggest polluters is still roaming free."

The legal systems in India and the USA and the impotent Governments of the two nations may be unable to make Union Carbide pay. But Carbide’s victims in Bhopal and their supporters worldwide will continue to fight to bring the US corporation to justice.

On August 14, more than 2000 gas leak survivors from Bhopal participated in a cyber petition campaign organised by Greenpeace and Bhopal based survivors groups targeting Union Carbide, Dow Chemicals and the Government of India. Their demands: clean water; clean up of the factory site; and justice.

Over the last two weeks, more than 3000 people from around the world have added their petitions to the calls for justice launched by Union Carbide victims by sending emails to Union Carbide. The company’s response, however, has been to shut out their voices by blocking these emails.

"The US court ruling merely exposes the limitations of the legal system, and has little to do with justice. The story is not over until the Polluter Pays, until Union Carbide or whoever acquires it cleans up Bhopal and faces the pending criminal charges in Indian courts" said Jayaraman.

In a deal announced in August 1999 Union Carbide is set to merge with US based global chemical giant Dow Chemical Co.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Shailendra Yashwant, Media Coordinator, tel. +91(0)9820182304 or +91 22 6182098, e-mail: shailendra.yashwant@dialb.greenpeace.org

Website: www.greenpeaceindia.org