Survivors of Bhopal disaster facing a lifetime of suffering

Is there any doubt that had the world’s worst industrial accident in history occurred in the United States or some other Western nation, the perpetrators of the disaster would now be behind bars and the survivors would be getting the best medical care money can buy? Of course not.

But in Bhopal, India, 30 years after 40 metric tons of poisonous gas enveloped the city, ultimately causing the deaths of 15,000 people and afflicting more than 500,000 others, the price that has been paid by the perpetrators is a sham.

Seven former executives of U.S. chemical giant Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary were found guilty of negligence and sentenced to two years in jail.

Union Carbide’s former chief executive, Warren Anderson, jumped bail and fled India after the disaster. There was a warrant for his arrest, but he died in a nursing home in Florida.

The company was bought by Dow Chemical Co. in 2001, which insists the legal case was resolved in 1989 when Union Carbide settled with the Indian government for $470 million.

Dow contends that all responsibility for the chemical manufacturing factory rests with the state government of Madhya Pradesh.

Thus, the story line on the 30th anniversary of the disaster is the same as it was on the 20th anniversary and on the 10th: The world just doesn’t care.

MORE PUNISHMENT, COMPENSATION

If it did, there would have been a major push for harsher punishment for those responsible, additional compensation for the victims, and, most importantly, an answer to this question: Why are thousands of children being born in Bhopal with brain damage, missing palates and twisted limbs.

Residents insist that the contamination of the groundwater by the poisonous gas is responsible for the medical problems being encountered by thousands.

But the Indian government is unwilling to provide a definitive reason for the massive health fallout, saying that the research is still ongoing.

It is clear that the state and central governments realize that the cost of cleaning up the contamination and of providing all the medical care that is demanded will be exorbitant.

After three decades, it is shameful that the residents of Bhopal are left to fend for themselves — as they deal with the reality of big business in the underdeveloped world operating with no conscience.

For Dow Chemical to insist that it has no responsibility for what happened shortly after midnight on Dec. 3, 1984, is to confirm the belief of many that the corporate world views human beings as expendable.

The 15,000 who died did not go gently into the night. They suffered for years from gas-related illnesses, such as lung cancer and kidney and liver failure.

Thirty years later and survivors in Bhopal are wondering whether death would have been a better alternative to the lifetime of suffering.

The world’s silence is deafening.