India: Bhopal verdict provokes public outrage (Verdict for 1984 Bhopal disaster finally...)

[Hannah Bell]

The sentences handed down by an Indian court last week against eight Union Carbide executives for criminal negligence in the 1984 Bhopal disaster have provoked widespread public anger and disgust. The judgment again demonstrates the contempt of the Indian establishment toward the thousands of victims and its commitment to defending the interests of big business and foreign investors.

The world’s worst industrial accident took place on the night of December 3-4, 1984...The toxic cloud claimed 8,000 lives immediately. The total number of deaths is now estimated at between 16,000 and 30,000. More than half a million people were affected by the gas, which particularly attacked eyes and lungs, and many continue to suffer a range of debilitating conditions.

A quarter century after the disaster, a district court handed down the first convictions. Eight executives of Union Carbide of India were each sentenced to two years jail and a fine of 100,000 rupees ($US2,100). The company was fined just the paltry amount of 500,000 rupees ($10,600). On the same day, the seven convicted—one had died in the interim—were released on bail of 25,000 rupees, or $500, pending an appeal.

Given the likelihood of further lengthy legal delays, it is quite possible that none of the seven will serve any time in jail. Those convicted include Keshub Mahindra, who was Union Carbide chairman at the time and is currently chairman of the major auto corporation, Mahindra and Mahindra. Warren Anderson, the American CEO of Union Carbide, the US parent company, was not among those tried—he was arrested when he visited Bhopal, but was released on bail and fled the country...It took 19 years for an Indian government to demand Anderson’s extradition, which was turned down by a US court.

Survivor Champa Devi Shukla told the media: “I felt like an idiot holding a placard outside the court while the accused left in big cars.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/bhop-j15.shtml


Love that "personal responsibility" for >18,000 deaths & even more disabilities.


Any guesses how many years the appeals will go on in the BP case?


Exxon got their damages whittled down from $5 billion to $500 million, 1989 through 2008.

In Alaska, the lawyers won $500 million in damages and $5 billion in punitive damages. After five years of trial and 14 years of putzing around in appeals court, the case finally arrived before John Roberts’s Supreme Court in 2008, with the punitive damages already reduced to $2.5 billion. “Roberts’s first question from the bench was, ‘Isn’t the question here how a company can protect itself from unlimited damages?’

By a 5-to-3 vote, the Roberts court slashed the punitive damages fivefold, from $2.5 billion to $500 million.

http://boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/06/15/get_ready_for_years_of_ugly_litigation_once_the_bp_oil_spill_disaster_hits_the_courts/
http://boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/06/15/get_ready_for_years_of_ugly_litigation_once_the_bp_oil_spill_disaster_hits_the_courts/

[Javaman]

1. This is why I have lost all faith in "the system".

10, 15 or 20 years from now, there will be a settlement from BP. It won't be pretty.

but by that point, it won't matter, what ever was left of BP will have been bought out by some other oil corp, much like Union Carbide was with Dow.

BP's CEO will retire to some place off the beaten path and live out his life free from harm or prosecution. Much like the CEO from UC.

The beat goes on...

[amborin]

2. exactly why, as Robert Reich argues, BP must be put in receivership now

[Javaman]

3. I agree.

but I fear that won't happen, because it would set a precedent that our president or our government choose not to deal with. You now, holding people responsible.

The cynical part of me is waiting for some talking head government spokes person to state, "we must move ahead and not dwell on the past". Even though the past is only a month and an half ago.

I get really tired sometime being a cynic.

[Hannah Bell]

4. "even though the past is only a month ago" = :>)

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Yes.

.