[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 20 July 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
20 July 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex
_____________________

#1. Pakistan: Islami Mahaz threatens to cut cable TV
#2. India: Thackeray must be prosecuted
#3. India: Official carrying top secret Ayodhya files to Delhi, died in
mysterious circumstances
#4. Lawsuits filed in New York, renews attention to Bhopal disaster in India

_____________________

#1.

http://www.brecorder.com/story/S0000/S0000/S0000101.htm
Bussiness Recorder
20 July 2000

ISLAMI MAHAZ THREATENS TO CUT CABLE TV IN PAKISTAN

PESHAWAR (July 20) : An alliance of Islamic groups on Wednesday gave the
government until Sunday to ban cable television in Peshawar or they would
cut the cables.
"We warn the administration to ban forthwith all the cable networks in
Peshawar or we will do it by force," Maulana Abdul Malik, head of the
newly-formed Islami Muttahida Inqilabi Mahaz, told a news conference.
"These cable networks spread obscenity in our society," said Malik, whose
alliance groups 23 religious organisations, including Jamaat-e-Islami and
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam.
The threat came four days after General Pervez Musharraf issued a decree
reviving Islamic provisions of the country's suspended constitution and two
weeks after the Peshawar High Court overturned an earlier ban on six cable
networks in the city.
NWFP Governor Muhammad Shafiq on June 21 announced a province-wide ban on
cable television, which is allowed in the rest of the country, but later
retracted his order saying it applied only to networks operating without
government permission.
"We do not accept the (high) court verdict, it was un-Islamic and
unconstitutional," Malik said, calling for the dismissal of the judges who
had reached it.
The protests against cable television follow several incidents of
anti-television action in semiautonomous tribal regions near the Afghan
border by followers of Afghanistan's ruling Taleban movement which has
banned television in the war-ravaged country.
Supporters of the Taleban's vision of creating the world's purest Islamic
state are reported to have seized video cassette recorders, television sets
and hi-fi equipment, which they see as an affront to Islamic values.-Reuters

Copyright 2000 Reuters (Published under arrangements with Reuters)

______

#2.

The Praful Bidwai Column
24 July 2000

PUNISHING COMMUNAL BULLIES
THACKERAY MUST BE PROSECUTED

By Praful Bidwai

Mr Bal Thackeray must be one of the world's luckiest demagogues. His
sleazy, criminalised, communal politics has thrived for more than 30 years
as much because of fortunate circumstances and his opponents' mistakes and
stupidity, as because of his own (usually devious) tactics. Thus, in the
late 1960s and the 1970s, his vicious anti-South Indian campaign found a
willing audience in industrial Mumbai. For the children of textile
millworkers, especially from the Konkan, who lacked any prospect of
employment, even a future, this carried an instant if perverse appeal, as
did the cult of Shivaji, freshly revived and legitimised in the Samyukta
Maharashtra agitiation for a separate Marathi-speaking state. It was
tempting, although utterly wrong and irrational, to blame and victimise
"outsiders" for all ills of the "locals".

For many of Mumbai's industrialists, including such worthies as
Ramakrishna Bajaj, the Shiv Sena was a handy instrument, if not a hammer,
with which to smash pesky trade unions and eliminate their activists, some
of them from the South. Inside the "Number Two" finance-based film
industry, the SS "settled" debts through goon tactics. As far as vada-paav
stall-owners and sundry traders were concerned, the SS ran a protection
racket against which they had no defence. For unscrupulous politicians, the
SS was a mercenary force to be nurtured and used at will against factional
opponents.

When the SS's successes with the Marathi-chauvinist agenda began to run
out, it turned against Muslims, first tentatively and rather briefly in the
1970s, then at full tilt in the 1980s. Meanwhile, it first blackmailed
Gujarati businessmen and then made peace with them. It destroyed the
principal trade unions bases of the Left in Mumbai, Pune and Nasik. It
flirted with the Emergency: how could Mr Thackeray miss out on a
celebration of authoritarianism even if he was not a Congress ally? The SS
had by then penetrated the ranks of the police, repeatedly attacked Dalit
groups and run relentless hate campaigns against religious tolerance. It
had all but razed the last vestiges of the influence of Maharashtra's 150
years-long social reform movement. Throughout the 1980s, the state's effete
and compromised politicians simply lacked the guts to bring it to book.

In the early 1990s, riding the Mandal wave, Mr Thackeray built a base in
central and eastern Maharashtra amongst OBCs disillusioned with the
Maratha-dominated Congress. He also got into intense competition with the
BJP on the terrain of militant, shamelessly fascist, Hindutva. He yet again
got lucky--with the Ayodhya agitation gathering momentum in conditions
ideally suited for lumpens, in which SS stormtroopers had a "natural"
advantage. When the Babri mosque fell on December 6, 1992 under the
crowbars of the BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal-SS combine, Mr Thackeray grotesquely
took credit for one of the most disgraceful episodes in our history.

The Ayodhya aftermath provided Mr Thackeray a unique opportunity to
politically outflank the BJP in brutalising Maharashtra. In January 1993,
he launched a pogrom against Muslims, in which the police were complicit.
He set about his task methodically through the pages of the daily Saamna
(confrontation), which he edits. The conditions were then just ripe for
drumming up hysteria and unleashing violence--to settle intra- and
inter-gang scores, grab prime property, blackmail people, terrorise all and
sundry... "Burn them, kill them" was Mr Thackeray's exhortation for "firm
action" against the "anti-national" katuas, the landyas, out to create
"mini-Pakistans".

Mumbai's communally compromised police watched passively as frenzied mobs
razed Muslim bustees, set fire to shops, and Mr Madhukar Sarpotdar (now SS
leader in the Lok Sabha) rode an open jeep directing savage attacks on
Muslims with illegal arms...Chief Minister Sudhakar Naik, one of
Maharashtra's lowest-grade politicians, abjectly failed to stop this. As
Mumbai burned, Mr Sharad Pawar, then defence minister, too, counselled
"restraint" to army units thus compromising the army's secular image,
effectiveness and integrity. The state's firefighters were instructed not
to douse fires in Muslim bustees. All this was richly and convincingly
documented by the media.

Meanwhile, Mr Thackeray directed the anti-Muslim pogrom through editorial
after inflammatory editorials in Saamna. The words, calculated to "offend
the sentiments" of a particular community, and spread "communal hatred,
enmity and ill-will" towards particular religious groups could not have
been more eloquently applicable. The Srikrishna commission has documented
this diabolical activity in detail.

There was an open-and-shut case against Mr Thackeray under Sections 153A
and 153B of the Indian Penal Code. But the government refused to charge
him. He, expectedly, threatened mayhem if arrested. Maharashtra's chief
ministers, expectedly, repeatedly chickened out. The bully proved he could
get away by threatening more violence. It wasn't just the political
executive which refused to act against him. The higher judiciary did the
same. In 1993, public-spirited citizens--including a former Maharashtra
chief secretary--filed a well-drafted petition demanding Mr Thackeray's
prosecution. They cited nine Saamna editorials--all directly attributable
to him, not based on interpretation or nuanced judgment. Mr Thackeray
didn't deny their authorship. They left no room for any other
interpretation than that he was prima facie guilty and must be prosecuted.

However, the Bombay High Court dismissed the petition on the specious
ground that Mr Thackeray had only vented his spleen at "anti-national"
Muslims, not all Muslims--when in reality he indiscriminately attacked
whole mohallas and branded all Indian Muslims "anti-national traitors." The
Court also feared the "practical" consequences of a proper, legal
judgment--a wholly despicable argument, considering its job was to lay down
the law and not to talk of administrative consequences.

The Supreme Court too washed its hands off an appeal against this mindless
verdict by saying that the High Courts are closer in touch with reality on
the ground; hence it won't "interfere". This too was a classic instance of
judicial failure. It was crticised as such by a galaxy of luminaries,
including H.M. Seervai, F.S. Nariman, H. Suresh, S.M. Daud, Nani
Palkhivala, and even Soli Sorabjee (since reappointed Attorney-General by
the BJP-led government).

This past fortnight witnessed a sudden revival of the prosecution issue at
the state level. Thanks to the Sena's openly--and
nauseatingly--blackmailing tactics and its ministers' "resignation", the
coming week might see its eclipse. Although technically correct, deputy CM
Chhagan Bhujbal's abrupt decision to sanction Mr Thackeray's prosecution
was driven less by legal considerations than a desire to pre-empt a faction
of his own Nationalist Congress Party from breaking its alliance with the
Congress, in order to join the NDA at the Centre while possibly forming a
new opportunist alliance with the BJP-Sena in the state. Consider the
background.

Mr Pawar has been increasingly marginalised since he split from the
Congress and created a quasi-regional party with just eight MPs. The NCP's
other prominent leader, Mr P A Sangma, has been tugging at his sleeve to
join the NDA, whose agenda he has endorsed by agreeing to sit on the
Constitution Review Commission. Mr Bhujbal, an ex-Sainik whom Mr Thackeray
hates, would be the biggest loser from any NCP-SS rapprochement. He
unilaterally decided to revive the Thackeray prosecution issue by falsely
linking it with the reported (but repeatedly denied) statement by Samajwadi
Party chief Abu Azmi about Islam being more important than national
integrity. The two issues were separate. Mr Azmi's case calls for
investigation of facts, Mr Thackeray's for a legal determination. Their
consequences are radically different.

Mr Bhujbal's panicky, premature official announcement on July 15 only
forewarned the SS. Predictably, Mr Thackeray threatened: "the country will
burn..." Sainiks went on a spree of arson and looting. Its MPs and Central
ministers got hyperactive. The SS, in serious decline and reduced to such
trivial issues as agitating against non-Marathi signboards, got an
unexpected shot in the arm.

Within a day, the Maharashtra cabinet started backtracking. But then, it
yet again declared that the law would take its own course. Given this
vacillation, it now seems likely that if there is any arrest at all, it
will be of a "technical", token, or half-hearted nature--mainly to show the
Supreme Court that the state government is not defaulting in its legal
duty. This is a recipe for a serious botch-up.

Logically, Mr Thackeray's prosecution should have followed an established
age-old procedure: pre-emptively round up a couple of hundred SS shakha
pramukhs and then swoop down on their boss. Just such a plan was originally
drawn up by the Mumbai police in 1994. If properly executed, it would have
called the SS's bluff and restored the public's faith in the ability of the
system to bring communal thugs to book. That now seems unlikely.

People of Mr Thackeray's ilk, like RSS leaders, are cowards, their
militant rhetoric notwithstanding. They are incapable of deep conviction
and spirited resistance. By surrendering to their bullying for years, the
Maharashtra government did no credit either to itself, or to the cause of
secularism. It must now repair the damage, but only after discreet
preparations and in a clean, professional fashion. There must be no retreat
on the prosecution issue. Mr Thackeray must not get away.--end--

______

#3.

The Week
July 23, 2000

Journey of Death:
UP official Subhas Bhan Sadh, who was carrying top secret Ayodhya files to
Delhi, died in mysterious circumstances. His father accuses Delhi Police of
cover-up.

By Ajay Uprety

Subhas Bhan Sadh was a troubled man before his visit to Delhi on April
30. "I have been working on a sensitive task that if the accused
come to know I'll be bumped off," the officer on special duty (OSD) in
the Uttar Pradesh home department had told his wife Kanta a couple of
weeks earlier. She is now quite sure that her husband was not the
victim of a mishap 'as the police claim' but "was killed by some
persons who would have been harmed" by the top secret files he carried
to Delhi.

Subhas Bhan Sadh's wife Kanta (in pic with Subhas) is sure that
her huasband was not the victim of a mishap, but was killed by persons
who would have been harmed by the top secret files on Babri Masjid
demolition.

Kanta vividly remembers having asked her husband to carry the
files in a leather bag instead of a brief case as that would be more
comfortable. "He told me to keep them properly in the bag as they were
very important and related to the Babri Masjid demolition case," she
told The Week. The files, which were to be submitted to the Liberhan
Commission probing the case, apparently contained official accounts of
the pre and post Babri Masjid demolition and details of several top BJP
leaders who were sympathetic to it.

"My son was murdered for those two secret files which were missing
from his bag after the police returned it to us," said Bir Bhan, the
octogenarian father of Subhas. "The rest of the things were intact." He
claimed that Subhas had told officials before his death that he was
pushed off the moving train by someone. "But why are they bent on
describing it as a mere accident?" he asked. Exasperated with the
callous attitude of authorities in probing the death of his son, the
former freedom fighter approached the Delhi High Court, which has
ordered fresh investigations.

Subhas boarded the Kashi Vishwanath Express from Lucknow railway
station on April 30. The next morning, he was allegedly pushed off the
train at the Tilak Bridge railway station, a few minutes from New Delhi
railway station where he was to alight. Subhas, who was caught between
the platform and the train, died a day later at the Ram Manohar Lohia
Hospital in the capital.

Though Subhas had his identity card, pass to the Liberhan
Commission office and phone numbers of officials of the UP home
department on his person, the police made no effort to inform the
authorities in Lucknow or relatives after the mishap. Randhir Jain, a
lawyer and Subhas's family friend, said an anonymous caller informed
him of the incident. The caller apparently had got his number from a
visiting card lying at the place where Subhas fell.

A father fights: Bir Bhan (right) and son Harish Chand with lawyer
Randhir Jain; (below) Kar sevaks storming the Babri Masjid on December
6, 1992

Jain, who is Bir Bhan's counsel in the case, informed Subhas's
father at Farrukhabad. He, in turn, informed his relatives in Delhi who
went to the railway station and from there to the Ram Manohar Lohia
Hospital. Bir Bhan said though his son died a day after the accident,
the police failed to record his statement. "They told us that his
statement could not be recorded as he was unconscious throughout, but
he spoke to me when I reached the hospital at 8 p.m. and to some
officials who were there. Does it not show that there is something
fishy?" he asked.

Bir Bhan claimed that his son lay unattended in the hospital for
more than four hours when timely medical attention could have saved his
life. The doctors refused to tell him about his son's condition and the
resident commissioner of Uttar Pradesh had to intervene to expedite the
post-mortem. He further stated that he had to pay money to the hospital
staff to stitch his son's body after the post-mortem.

On May 20, Bir Bhan asked the Delhi Police for a thorough probe
into his son's death saying there was a design to kill Subhas. Two days
later, he sent a similar representation to Union Home Minister L.K.
Advani. However, both these were not acknowledged. He filed a case in
the Delhi High Court on June 21. A division bench of the court
issued notices to the authorities at the mortuary to explain their
apathetic attitude.

Randhir Jain alleged that the case had not been investigated
properly by the police. The Delhi Police is expected to file a report
on August 22 when the case comes up for hearing next. But K.C. Mittal,
standing counsel for the state, said there were no allegations of foul
play earlier, and since new facts had come to light, fresh
investigations would be conducted.

The police said that the first course of investigation would be to
find if anyone had followed the victim on the train. Details of the
content of the two files were also extremely important as they might
provide a clue to who would have wanted Subhas out of the way.

The family members accused the police of hushing up the matter.
Bir Bhan alleged that though the police initially said there were files
in his luggage they did a turnaround later. Moreover, the police
records mentioned him as 'an unidentified person'. "This is beyond
comprehension as the name of the deceased was there in the documents
found from his possession," said Jain.

The hospital authorities are also silent about the exact time of
Subhas's death. "Most probably he died in the wee hours of May 2, for I
spoke to him the previous evening after reaching the hospital from
=46arrukhabad," his father told the Week.

Among other things there seems to be a discrepancy in recording
the timing of the incident. While police records show that they came to
know about the incident at 8.05 a.m., hospital records show that Subhas
was admitted there at 8.10 a.m. It is virtually impossible to reach the
hospital from the incident spot in five minutes.

Home department officials in Lucknow are tightlipped about the
incident. They refuted the allegations that Subhas had been killed and
denied that any files were missing. Moreover, they maintained that if
at all he was carrying any document it could have been photocopies.
However, Bir Bhan said the special secretary in the UP Home department,
K.B Agrawal, had asked him over phone about the files.

Subhas had been with the home department for 20 years. He was at
the district collectorate in Farrukhabad in western UP before coming to
Lucknow in 1981. Known for his honesty and integrity, he was made the
OSD in 1993, during the regime of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Subhas had often
told his wife that he was doing some secret work which involved risk of
life. Perceiving the risk in his job, Bir Bhan had even urged him
to take voluntary retirement which he was contemplating seriously.

Subhas had gone earlier to Delhi on April 21 and returned four
days later. His family members found him in a pensive mood after this
visit. He was extremely busy and would go to the office early and come
back late at night. A couple of weeks before his death, Kanta even had
heard him saying that he was dealing with "such an important work that
if anything happened to him, it would become a big news in the
capital."

with Somnath Batabyal/Delhi
______

#4.

LAWSUITS FILED IN NEW YORK, RENEWS ATTENTION TO BHOPAL DISASTER IN INDIA
By TRIPTI LAHIRI
=A9 Earth Times News Service

Just after midnight on December 3, 1984, 40 tons of deadly gas escaped from
a Union Carbide chemical plant located in Bhopal, India. Several thousand
died soon after exposure to it and countless more were left partially or
totally disabled. In spite of ongoing legal proceedings in India, and a
multi-million dollar settlement, survivors and activists claim justice was
never done, while Union Carbide, on the verge of a merger with Dow
Chemical, says it has been more than generous. Now, two unexpected lawsuits
filed recently in the Southern District of New York hope to revive
international attention in "the world's worst industrial disaster," as well
as make it a lesson of the havoc multinationals can wreak in the process of
going global.

On November 15, 1999, Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow, LLP and Curtis V.
Trinko, LLP brought a class-action against Union Carbide and its former
chairman, Warren Anderson, on behalf of seven individuals and five
survivors' groups. The lawsuit was born out of a course Rajan Sharma, of
Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow, LLP, took as a law student in 1995 with
Upendra Baxi, who had provided legal counsel to the Indian government.
Sharma said he became fascinated with the issue, and went to Bhopal to
speak with survivors and gather information until he saw a way of bringing
the case to U.S. courts. "It was a tough road to go down," said Sharma, but
eventually, what started as a thesis became the first class-action lawsuit
"to apply international human rights law to the commercial conduct of a
multinational corporation." In May, the two firms proceeded to file another
class action, this time focusing on the Dow/Union Carbide merger, alleging
on behalf of shareholders that Dow, in its SEC filing, had failed to
disclose the fact that Union Carbide still faced "significant criminal and
civil potential liabilities" stemming from the gas leak and continuing
environmental contamination of soil and groundwater in Bhopal.
The November class-action, in effect, acts like a boomerang, bringing the
Bhopal legal proceedings full circle, to the same district and the same
judge before whom the case was initially brought. When the fatal gas leak
first took place, the Indian government made itself the representative of
the victims through the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief Act and filed a suit in
the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York, asking for
compensation. Union Carbide argued, on the grounds of "forum non
conveniens," that because the incident happened in India, the plant was in
India, and all the injured parties were in India, the case should be tried
in Indian courts. In May 1986, Judge Keenan agreed, and Union Carbide
pledged to submit to the jurisdiction of the Indian courts. Sharma
commented, "The real victory for Union Carbide was sending the case to
India." Bhopal activists accuse the company of using India's overburdened
legal system, in which civil cases can take up to 20 years, and the lack of
any class-action mechanism, meaning each claimant would have to file a
separate case, to delay and ultimately avoid taking full responsibility for
the leak and its consequences.

As the civil case was unwinding, India's prosecuting agency, the Central
Bureau of Investigation, decided in 1987 to press criminal charges in the
Bhopal District Court against Union Carbide and Anderson, accusing them of
culpable homicide. In 1989, Union Carbide and the Indian government agreed
to a settlement of $375 million in order to put an end to all proceedings.
Two years later, after protests against the terms and the amount of the
settlement by survivors, and rumors of a payoff of governing party
officials, an Indian Supreme Court judge reinstated the criminal charges.
Union Carbide and officials ignored later summons of this court, and as a
result, Union Carbide's assets were attached.

Plaintiffs contend that the company has reneged on its 1986 agreement to
abide by the jurisdiction of Indian courts. Building upon the Indian
criminal case, and citing elements of international law like the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Declaration of
the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the plaintiffs
intend to demonstrate a "depraved indifference to life" on the part of
Union Carbide both before and after the leak, in order to force the company
to take finally take full responsibility for the tragedy. When asked about
these allegations, Tomm Sprick, a spokesman for the company said, "Union
Carbide did take moral responsibility ... [but] no company in the world can
prevent an act by an individual who is intent on doing harm." Union Carbide
has always pointed to local causes for the leak itself, citing, in a fact
sheet, "employee sabotage", and the fact that, "as a U.S. appeals court
concluded, '=85the [Bhopal] plant has been constructed and managed by Indian=
s
in India." Bhopal lawyers and activists say there was never any sabotage
and that the leak was the direct result of safety issues that were
consistently ignored by those who had ultimate authority over the Indian
affiliate-executives at top levels of the parent company.

According to the lawsuit and a report written by Satinath Sarangi, who has
been active in Bhopal since 1984, Union Carbide began producing Methyl
Isocyanate (MIC) in India as a way to keep majority control of Union
Carbide India Limited in response to India's 1974 act requiring foreign
holdings to be reduced to a maximum of 40 percent. By producing the
chemical locally, instead of importing it as an ingredient for the
pesticide SEVIN, the company would fall into a "special technology area,"
as part of the Green Revolution. And so, in 1975, even though the initial
permit for the area was rejected by local zoning authorities, the MIC
facility was built by the existing Carbide plant, in a populated area of
the city, rather than in a less congested area, downwind. The lawsuit goes
on to describe internal safety audits which were ignored, a siren which was
delinked from the factory alarm so as not to cause "undue panic" over
"routine minor leaks," a refrigeration unit which was turned off thus
allowing the gas temperature to rise, overstorage, and other technical
shortfalls in the design of safety features. Plaintiffs allege that because
local management reported directly to U.S. superiors, these failures cannot
be attributed to local management alone.

After the leak took place, survivors charge that top Union Carbide
officials made matters worse by downplaying the dangers of MIC, comparing
it, initially, to tear gas, and refusing to disclose necessary information
on its effects or on the exact composition of the toxic cloud. Sarangi,
whose Bhopal Group for Information and Action is a plaintiff in the U.S.
case, added, "They said it was a trade secret." Sprick responded," I feel
that claim is just not accurate. We sent medical teams over. Our medical
teams took supplies of intravenous steroids to treat respiratory problems.
We also marshaled together all the information we had about the effects of
Methyl Isocyanate, published and unpublished, and that was shared with the
Indian medical community." Sarangi's report confirms that medical teams
were sent to India, but questions their motives, remarking that those
doctors repeatedly told media sources that the leaked gases would not have
long-term medical effects.

In a separate, though related, issue, activists also feel that the Indian
government, in its eagerness to attract new technology and to industrialize
agriculture, colluded in the making of the disaster. Sarangi said, "The
government was totally committed to its path. It was very, very brutal at
that time. People were arrested several times [for protesting against Union
Carbide]. There was no match between the estimates of death of the Indian
Commission of Medical Research and of the state agency. Now, there is a
lack of medical research and totally apathy from the Indian government."
Pointing to these circumstances, and the economic climate at the time,
activists and lawyers say that justice and attention to their cause is
vital not just for the survivors and for the city, but because they see
Bhopal as an example of the worst the can happen when corporations are
welcomed too eagerly by governments hungry for investment. In the United
States, Bhopal activists have made alliances with groups that make large
corporations their targets, such as Essential Action, which was set up by
Ralph Nader, and Infact, a corporate watchdog.

These same fears extend to the merger with Dow, which will create the
second largest chemical company in the world. Sarangi explained,
"Survivors' organizations have written to Dow to say that [in the event of
a merger] it should accept liability. Dow says 'that was another company,
another product, we weren't there, don't blame us.' Dow produced Agent
Orange and given Union Carbide's history, if they get together, it spells
major problems for safety. That's why we are opposing this merger." Sue
Breach, director of Dow's North American global media relations, feels that
activists should not worry, at least as far as Dow is concerned. She said
that if the merger takes place, Union Carbide would retain its own assets
and liabilities, but added, "Dow is a very committed company. Responsible
care is very important to us. I can't speak for Union Carbide, but if a
merger goes through we aim to move forward in the same way." David M.
Romero, manager, litigation resources, for Curtis V. Trinko, LLP,
co-counsel on both lawsuits, commented, "It's true the Dow has done a great
deal to attempt to improve its public reputation, which has been scarred by
many controversies in its own past. But for that reason, some Dow investors
may privately see Dow's acquisition of Union Carbide, with the dark shadow
of Bhopal still unresolved, as contrary to what Dow has been trying to do
over the last few years."

Yet, a major question that remains is, even if these lawsuits achieve their
aims, will it improve the lot of those exposed to the gas, many of whom
suffer from partial or complete disabilities and so cannot support
themselves. This physical suffering is also accompanied by social stigma
that results in families being unable to find husbands for their daughters
because of fears of sterility or birth defects. Sprick says the Indian
government is solely to blame for the unresolved plight of Bhopal victims:
"Everything we did had to go through the government. Attempts to provide
relief in certain areas were totally negated. The government negotiated the
settlement. We promptly paid and we have no way of knowing how much money
has gone to the victims. We've had to rely on Indian media reports that
very little has got to the victims." Sarangi and Sharma, who estimate about
500,000 cases of disability, say that $375 million was too small a sum to
begin with, but agree that the settlement has been abysmally administered.
Claimants go through tortuous claim routes often to end up with the
equivalent of just $400, which barely covers a few years of medical costs.
Still, Sarangi remains optimistic, saying that one great benefit of
receiving damages through the new lawsuit would be the ability to cut out
the middleman-the government. His idea: An independent commission of people
trusted by the community who would be willing to work with survivors on a
number of areas, particularly in setting up long-term medical monitoring
plans, of which there are none at the moment. In fact, there have been no
medical studies since December 1994. Sarangi added, "There have been no
studies from outside agencies, international agencies, government agencies.
I really feel this is because a corporation was involved, it was not an
'Act of God' disaster."

He went on to say that aside from providing appropriate relief for the
people in Bhopal, a successful legal outcome could teach companies the only
sort of lesson that works-an expensive one: "The disaster in Bhopal is not
an isolated event. Workers and communities are routinely poisoned all over
the world ... the safety of our health and lives depends on watchful
monitoring, strict enforcement of regulations and exemplary punishment to
offending agencies. In this respect, ensuring justice in Bhopal can be seen
as a public health initiative with potential for significant and widespread
change."
______________________________________________
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informal, independent & non-profit citizens wire service
run by South Asia Citizens Web (http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex)
since 1996. Dispatch archive from 1998 can be accessed
by joining the ACT list run by SACW. To subscribe send
a message to <act-subscribe@egroups.com>
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_________________________
Harsh Kapoor
SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex
e.mail: aiindex@m...