PRESS
RELEASE
16 January 2004
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
Activists mount global challenge to Dow 16 January, 2004, Bhopal - More
than 25 representatives from various organisations, including 11 international
delegates from USA and South Africa, met in Bhopal from January 14-16, 2004
to devise collective strategies to fight for justice in Bhopal and hold
Dow Chemical accountable for its toxic legacies around the world. Corporate
accountability activists and global supporters of the International Campaign
for Justice in Bhopal announced plans to mobilize public pressure against
Dow Chemical in the lead-up to and following the 20th anniversary of the
Bhopal disaster. The organisations resolved to support the demands of Bhopal
survivors for disbursement of compensation funds to survivors, provision
of drinking water to the bastis affected by contaminated water, setting
up of livelihood generation schemes and pinning legal liability on Dow Chemical
for Bhopal.
"This is just the beginning of a globally coordinated fight to expose
the
toxic skeletons in Dow Chemical's closet and make the company address its
pending liabilities among the millions of people poisoned by Dow's
factories, products or its subsidiaries like Union Carbide," said Satinath
Sarangi of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.
Dow Chemical has alienated communities worldwide, including in the
neighborhood of its headquarters in Midland, Michigan. Residents of Saginaw
County, Michigan, who live in the dioxin-contaminated floodplains downriver
of Dow's headquarters in Midland have filed suit against Dow demanding
compensation for devaluation in land value because of pollution. Dow's
neighboring communities are demanding that Dow should clean up the 55-mile
stretch of polluted river, and initiate comprehensive environmental and
health monitoring and rehabilitation.
"Dow has poisoned its own nest. As in Bhopal, where the company denies
its
liabilities and even the existence of a criminal case against Union Carbide,
Dow has the dubious distinction of being a consistent liar even here in
Michigan," said Michelle Hurd-Riddick of the Lone Tree Council, a community
environmental group from Saginaw City, Michigan. Dow has mounted a massive
PR effort in Michigan to understate the dangers of dioxins and evade
liabilities for clean-up and compensation for threatening the health of
communities living in the contaminated area. "Grassroots globalisation
is
the appropriate challenge to the global reach of Dow Chemical's poisons, and
we're here to lend and take solidarity from the struggles of the people in
Bhopal, Vietnam and other Dow-affected communities."
On January 10, 2004, Vietnamese people affected by Agent Orange - a
dioxin-contaminated herbicide used in the chemical warfare waged by the US
in Vietnam in 1965-73 - came together as Agent Orange Victims Association.
Like in Bhopal, a wide range of disabilities and ailments are being found in
children born to Agent Orange-exposed people. Hundreds of thousands of
children born to exposed parents are also reportedly affected. The Agent
Orange Victims Association has expressed interest in joining forces with the
global struggle to hold corporations accountable.
In a 2003 study titled "Second National Report on Human Exposure to
Environmental Chemicals," the US Center for Disease Control confirmed the
presence of toxic chemicals manufactured by Dow in the blood and urine of
all the American individuals that were tested as part of the study. "In
a
sense, people around the world are all united in Dow Chemical's web of
poisons. This is a form of trespass - a chemical trespass into our bodies -
and numerous NGOs in the US and Europe are fighting for laws to prevent the
manufacture of such deadly chemicals and to hold manufacturers like Dow
liable for contamination and injury caused by their products," said Skip
Spitzer of Pesticide Action Network North America.
The global solidarity group and 170 Bhopal survivors, including a cultural
troupe, will attend the World Social Forum, Mumbai Resistance and other
gatherings in Mumbai from 17-21 January, 2004.
Besides representatives of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery
Karmachari Sangh, the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sanghatan, and the
Bhopal Group for Information and Action, the meeting was attended by the
following: Tracey Easthope, Ecology Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan Jay Feldman,
Beyond Pesticides, Washington, D.C. Gary Cohen, Environmental Health Fund,
Boston, USA Skip Spitzer, Pesticide Action Network North America,
California, USA Michelle Hurd-Riddick, Lone Tree Council, Saginaw, Michigan
Bobby Peek, groundWork, Durban, South Africa Ryan Bodanyi, International
Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, USA Maude Dorr, photographer, USA Zeina
el-Haj, Greenpeace International, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Ward Morehouse,
Council for International and Public Affairs, New York, USA Vinuta Gopal,
Greenpeace India, Bangalore, India Shailendra Yashwant, Greenpeace India,
Bangalore, India Nityanand Jayaraman, Dow Accountability Campaign, Chennai
Anuradha Saibaba, The Other Media, New Delhi Rachna Dhingra, International
Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, Bhopal Rasheeda Bi, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila
Stationery Karmachari Sangh Champa Devi Shukla, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila
Stationery Karmachari Sangh Satinath Sarangi, Bhopal Group for Information
and Action Shahid Noor, Bhopal survivor
For more information, contact:
Rasheeda Bi (cell) +91 755 3132298 or +91 755 2743157
Or visit <www.bhopal.net> |
