Bhopal Solidarity : Candle Light Vigil
Mon, 07/05/2010 - 15:28 — vinaynp
Austin Bhopal Candle Light Vigil Press Release
Media Coverage:
The
Daily Texan gave front page coverage to the vigil part 1
The
Daily Texan gave front page coverage to the vigil part 2
 |
| Austin Candlelight Vigil for justice to Bhopal survivors and to demand accountability |
Dow Chemical in Bhopal Criminal Case
Bhopal survivors and to demand accountability
| What: | Candle Light Vigil. The event is part of a series of worldwide events that are taking place to protest the injustice caused to the survivors of Bhopal tragedy and to show solidarity and support. |
| Where: | Texas State Capitol, Congress and 11th, Austin, TX |
| When: | Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 08:30 pm - 10:00pm |
| Who: | Association for India's Development - Austin, and The International Coalition for Justice in Bhopal |
| Why: | A guilty verdict was handed down on June 7, 2010 against the Union Carbide India Limited and 7 individuals accused in the Bhopal Disaster criminal case. The accused were given a very light sentence and they have all already posted bail for their 2 year jail sentence, and each had to pay about $2000 in fines. The verdict has been met with outrage by Bhopal Survivors and their supporters worldwide |
| What you can do? |
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austin.aidindia.orgOn June 7, 2010, more than 25 years after the disaster, a court in Bhopal, India has issued the first verdict against Union Carbide India Limited (currently owned by Dow Chemicals) and 7 individuals accused in the criminal case. Seven persons, who knowingly approved cost-cutting measures compromising the safety and knowingly approved inferior technology that resulted in this disaster, have been awarded a mere two year imprisonment sentence and then let off on bail. The world’s worst industrial disaster that took over 20,000 lives has been reduced to the equivalent of a road accident.
At the heart of the denial of justice is the fact that Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and its former CEO Warren Anderson, the principle accused in the case, have thus far escaped trial. Dow Chemical-owned UCC and Anderson have been charged with culpable homicide, but have ignored summons to appear in court. In 1992, the Indian Government declared them absconders. Dow is also named in a case pursuing clean up of the ongoing water pollution from the abandoned factory site, which dubiously began polluting the city well before the 1984 gas leak.
It is ironic that in the US Gulf Coast disaster, BP is being slapped with several billion dollars of expenses and thousands of lawsuits within the first month; whereas in Bhopal, 26 years after the worst-ever industrial disaster in the world with 25,000 lives lost, those responsible are being let off with barely a sentence and with paltry compensation for the victims.
Dow Chemicals has systematically sought to pre-empt the judicial outcome of the Bhopal case by putting pressure on officials at the Indian Embassy in Washington and the Indian government. Recent citizens' efforts, in the form of Right to Information Application, has revealed that DOW has been pressurizing the Indo-US CEO forum to suppress any attempt to hold DOW accountable for Bhopal.
More at: http://www.bhopal.net
