WASHINGTON - The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) and survivors organizations have prompted the Indian government to serve a longstanding notice to the U.S. government to extradite former Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson.

Anderson is wanted in the Bhopal Court for his primary role in the 1984 gas disaster in Bhopal that has claimed more than 20,000 lives to date.

"This long awaited move is a major step foward in our struggle for justice," said Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh (Bhopal Gas-Affected Women Stationery Workers Association). "We will ensure that this is not just a token gesture."

Warren Anderson at his home in Bridgehampton, New York. (Daily Mirror Photo/Shannon Sweeney)

Bee said her organization will continue to pressure the Indian government until Anderson and others responsible face trial in the ongoing criminal case, and ICJB says its network of U.S. supporters has already initiated moves to ensure that the U.S. government honors the extradition request.

"After all the talk about justice, it is now time for the U.S. government to walk the walk and get Anderson to face criminal trial in Bhopal," said Krishnaveni Gundu, ICJB's coordinator in the United States.

The request for Anderson's extradition has come after three years of intense pressure on the Indian government by survivors' organizations in Bhopal, their supporters worldwide and the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Bhopal.

During the early hours of December 3, 1984, methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a storage tank at a Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing facility in Bhopal. As it escaped, the gas moved across adjacent communities killing thousands of people and injuring many thousands more. According to the Indian government, some 3,800 people died, but others estimate that as many as 8,000 people were killed by the gas.

Billed as the world's worst industrial disaster, the Bhopal tragedy injured 500,000 people. Survivors and their children are impoverished and continue to suffer drastic long term effects in the absence of economic rehabilitation measures and appropriate medical care.

According to the latest official estimates, 380 gas affected people succumb to health effects each year, and more than 20,000 are exposed to the toxic wastes lying in and around the Union Carbide factory site in Bhopal.

In 1992, the Bhopal court declared Warren Anderson a fugitive from justice, after he ignored a summons issued by the Bhopal court to appear in the criminal case.

Anderson and Union Carbide stand accused of manslaughter, grievous assault, poisoning and killing of animals and other serious offenses.

In February 2001, the Dow Chemical Company based in Midland, Michigan acquired Union Carbide as a 100 percent subsidiary. However, Dow has refused to accept Carbide's Bhopal liabilities.

In 2002, documents unearthed in the process of a class action suit against Anderson and Union Carbide in New York revealed that not only did Union Carbide knowingly export untested and hazardous technology to Bhopal, but also that this decision was authorized personally by Anderson.

"Criminal trial of corporate CEOs is not merely a necessary legal measure for justice in Bhopal," said Raj Sharma, the attorney representing the survivors in the class action suit. "It is an essential prerequisite for tackling the growing crisis of corporate crime."

Copyright 2003 OneWorld.net

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