After 20 Years In Court, Bhopal Survivors Ask UN For Help

by Haider Rizvi

(IPS) UNITED NATIONS -- Disappointed after 20 years of appeals to courts and governments, survivors of the Union Carbide gas disaster in India are urging United Nations agencies to start relief and rehabilitation work in their hometown Bhopal, where hundreds of thousands of people still suffer from exposure to toxic material.

"The conditions are so bad that people think it would have been better to die on that night," Rushed Bee, one of the survivors told reporters Thursday before meeting UN officials. "People continue to die at the rate of one a day. Yet the UN agencies, such as UNICEF, WHO and ILO remain silent."

Bee, 48, lost six of her family members as a result of the Bhopal tragedy, when 40 tons of lethal methyl isocyante (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant. She and another survivor, Champa Dev Sukla, 52, said the United Nations has failed to act in Bhopal because the incident was not a natural disaster.

"Is this an indication of the UN's willingness to sacrifice its mandate in the face of corporate might?" she asked.

Earlier this month, both Bee and Sukla won the 2004 Goldman Award for their activism. They are now touring the United States to bring the Bhopal case to the attention of U.S. lawmakers and citizens.

More than 12,000 people died as a direct result of the 1984 gas leak. The incident has left a trail of health problems, as thousands of tons of toxic waste abandoned by Union Carbide in and around its factory site remain in the city.

Health activists say poisons from the wastes have leached into the groundwater used by more than 20,000 people living close to the abandoned factory, and another 100,000 people are seriously ill.

"People are forced to drink this contaminated water," said Dr Sathinath Sarangi, who works at a clinic in the disaster-ridden area. "There are many health problems. Lack of blood is very common. Children are born with missing fingers, missing pallets and other deformities."

Last year, the 'Journal of the American Medical Association' published a study that found male children born to gas-exposed parents in Bhopal were lighter, thinner, shorter and had on average smaller head circumferences than other children, confirming the impact of the toxic gas on the second generation.

"Children are born with cancer because their mothers' milk is poisoned," said Bee, her voice choking with emotion. "These children know when they are going to die and we don't know what to tell them."

Bee and other survivors say they want the World Health Organization (WHO) to start epidemiological and clinical studies of the residents and to help develop sustainable treatment methods. They are also asking the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to research and monitor children of exposed parents and to start rehabilitation work.

Union Carbide and its new owner Dow Chemical have refused to help clean up and rehabilitation efforts at Bhopal. Dow continues to evade summons to appear in the on-going criminal case in a city court, maintaining it has no moral or legal obligation for the incident.

Subsequent to the disaster, Union Carbide was charged with manslaughter, and its former chairman Warren Anderson still faces criminal charges in India for "culpable homicide not amounting to murder."

In 1989, the Indian Supreme Court ordered Union Carbide to pay $470 million to the Indian government. Activists say the amount is insufficient to meet the basic needs of survivors, including acute medical care, lost wages and compensation for long-term disability and clean up of the site. Most survivors received less than $500 from that judgement.

Unhappy with the Indian government's performance, Bee and other survivors took their legal fights to U.S. courtrooms. With the support of advocacy groups, they filed a class-action lawsuit in New York in 1999 against Union Carbide and Anderson, seeking damages to cover medical costs and clean up of the site.

Last month, an appeals court held that U.S. courts could hear the suit and consider requests from Bhopal survivors for redemption of contaminated soil and groundwater. Activists say it is a small legal victory against Dow, but feel frustrated that the legal process has taken so many years.

"Twenty years is a long time. I don't understand why they (Dow) are not being punished," said Bee. "Why are we being punished? Why do our children have to wait for so long for justice?"

Activists say Dow's actions violate some of the basic rights enshrined in the UN Charter, and charge that agencies like the UN Commission on Human Rights have done nothing to bring them to justice. They are urging the commission to make an example of the Bhopal case and take steps to hold the corporation legally accountable for its impact on human rights and the environment.

"Large corporations continue to manipulate the justice system. Like Carbide they do not want not be held liable in the home countries (for human rights violations, nor (they say) should they be held liable in their host countries," said Kenny Bruno of the U.S.-based Earth Rights International, an advocacy group.

"Yet they can sign up to the UN Global Compact."

UN officials defend the Compact, a project established in 2000 to encourage corporate social responsibility, but do not hesitate to admit that some companies that have pledged to follow the Compact's nine principles have also been accused of violating labor, environmental or human rights.

"It's a voluntary participation," says Georg Kell, who leads the Compact. "It's a long, long process."

Aware of growing criticism against the UN institution, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called a meeting of the Compact in June.

Whether UN agencies decide to take action in Bhopal, survivors-turned-activists from the disaster area say they will continue their international campaign until justice is done for the city's people.

"If Union Carbide is not punished, if justice is not done," said Bee, "then I fear there will be more Bhopals in this world."