On December 2nd 2002 a peaceful march of around 200 women survivors from Bhopal delivered toxic waste from the abandoned Carbide factory back to Dow's Chemical Indian headquarters in Bombay with the demand that Dow take responsibility for the disaster and clean up the site. Union Carbide's (now known as Dow) negligent gassing and poisoning of thousandsin the Indian city of Bhopal killed between 3,000 and 20,000 and left thousands more with serious diseases and injures. [Union Carbide' website documenting this has now been made private]
December 3rd was the 18th anniversary of the criminally negligent disaster in Bhopal. Dow however continues to stamp down on dissent, and shows utter contempt for its legal and moral responsibilities. Whilst CEO Michael D. Parker exploited the anniversary of the incident as an opportunity to express his "profound sadness for the accident", Dow also announced it's decision to sue the female protesters for $10,000 in compensation for the corporation's "loss of work" during the two hours that the peaceful protest lasted. To put Dow's claim in perspective it is important to point out that Dow/Carbide provided only $300-$500 compensation to those most severely affected by the Bhopal disaster. Read reports 1 and 2
Read Dow's full suit (PDFs)Paper_1 | Paper_2 | Paper_3
Read two articles about Dow Chemical's refusal to compensate the victims of Bhopal chemical explosion.
For more news and background information see: Bhopal.net | Carbide's 'poison papers' | IMC-India
