Bhopal Convictions: Justice Delayed and Denied

The 1984 Bhopal gas leak was by most accounts the worst industrial disaster the world has ever seen.  There, a plant owned by Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary released tons of highly toxic methyl isocyanate into the air above a crowed residential area. An estimated 4,000 people were killed, and an additional 11,000 people are estimated to have died of their injuries in subsequent years.  Untold thousands were injured. The victims have long waited for justice. 

Just this past Monday, a court in India convicted eight former employees of Union Carbide’s subsidiary of “death by negligence.”  The court sentenced those convicted to just two years in prison.  Not surprisingly, the victims are outraged that after so long, the punishment was so little.

But even that meager sentence was more than Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)  itself received.  In 1987, Indian authorities brought criminal charges of “culpable homicide” and “causing death by use of a dangerous instrumentality” against Union Carbide, an American company, and its former chairman Warren Anderson, for their roles in the disaster.  Yet, both UCC and Anderson have managed to avoid prosecution in India by literally becoming fugitives from justice. 

In 1992, the Chief Judicial Magistrate issued a warrant for Anderson and gave lawyers for UCC a month in which to appear for trial.  Neither appeared, and UCC’s official spokesperson stated that UCC would flatly refuse to submit to the jurisdiction of India’s criminal courts.  UCC simply ignored summonses served on them through the U.S. Department of Justice and Interpol.  So, on February 1, 1992, UCC and Anderson were declared “proclaimed absconders” by the Bhopal District Court.  UCC also fraudulently transferred all of its properties in India.  On April 30, 1992, the Bhopal District Court held that “the primary objective of Union Carbide, USA, in selling its properties [was] . . . so that prosecution against them, as directed by the Honorable Supreme Court [of India], cannot be carried out and criminal prosecution against them cannot proceed in this court.”   To date, neither Union Carbide nor Anderson have appeared to face the criminal charges pending against them in India.

In short, UCC appears to have gotten away with its crimes. How is this possible?  They certainly aren’t hiding.  UCC continues to operate openly in the United States—it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical. Imagine our outrage if British Petroleum were to pull up stakes in the United States to avoid its liability for its cataclysmic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Wouldn’t we expect Great Britain to force BP to appear in our courts? 

But that’s not all.  In addition to the gas disaster, toxins from the Bhopal plant have now poisoned the drinking water of thousands of local residents.  For the last ten years, victims have been trying to force UCC to clean up its mess, in part through a lawsuit in U.S. federal court in which ERI serves as co-counsel to the plaintiffs. Yet, despite a mountain of evidence that UCC was involved in every aspect of the plant’s design and the handling of toxic waste, UCC blames its own subsidiary for everything. Worse, like the proverbial murderer who kills his parents and then tells the court it should go easy on him because he is an orphan, UCC claims that only an Indian court can order it to remediate the pollution, even though UCC is a fugitive from the Indian courts! And never mind that the Indian government has specifically asked the court to order such relief.  One would expect a criminal on the lam not to flaunt his own escape.  But UCC actually uses its flight as an argument for immunity.  The hubris is staggering. 

While 25 years is already far too long to wait for justice, the victims are resolute, and the struggle continues.