Dear ICJB Supporters in the US,
The outlaw Jesse James, whose notoriety echoes through time, spent 16 years on-the-run. Union Carbide has now spent 30 years hiding in plain sight, inside the US yet, somehow, outside the law. Please help us try to end this grotesque farce.
21 of the 30 years Carbide has spent thumbing its nose at the law – while absconding from negligent manslaughter and other serious criminal charges in India – have been as a fully owned and controlled subsidiary of Dow Inc (formerly Dow Chemical).
Dow was first summoned (to the court that will eventually rule on the serious criminal charges still pending against Carbide) almost 20 years ago. On that occasion, Dow used a local subsidiary with which it had previously told the court it “had no nexus” to stall proceedings with a ‘stay order’.
Since that order was finally ruled without merit (in 2012), the court has issued Dow eight ‘notices to appear’. Seven of these notices have been passed to India’s Home Ministry, which in turn has sent seven requests for legal assistance to the US Justice Department under the mutually agreed terms of a bilateral treaty between India and the US, a treaty that is governed by international law.
The US DoJ, which is only being asked to serve notice papers upon Dow, has thus far ignored or obstructed every request made by its treaty partner India.
The beneficiary of this unexplained inaction is clear. ‘Dow has not been officially served under the negotiated and recognized process for service,’ a company spokesman said when asked about the Bhopal criminal trial, ‘and [therefore] has no obligation to appear.’
It’s believed that Jesse James was implicated in the deaths of approximately 24,984 fewer human beings than the company currently being actively protected by the United States Department of Justice.
Ask your Representative in Congress to add their signature to a letter to the US Dept of Justice to help ensure justice for the survivors of the Bhopal Chemical Disaster.
If you are living in the U.S., or are a U.S. citizen, please therefore take a few minutes to take the following action.
The latest summons to Dow requests that it appear in court in India this coming October. A letter led by U.S. Congress Reps. Tlaib, Jayapal and Pallone is attempting to put strong pressure on the U.S. DoJ to serve the summons upon Dow. The letter will be sent to the DoJ in early September to try to ensure that the DoJ finally serves the summons in time to force Dow’s appearance the following month.
Please take a moment to call or write to your member of the House of Representatives and ask them to endorse this letter. Rep Tlaib’s letter to her colleagues and the letter addressed to the DoJ with all the details is available to read below. The quill link is an internal link that only members of the house and senate can access.
You can find the details of your House and Senate representatives on this website: https://www.house.gov/representatives
This letter is a unique opportunity for us to break the 30 years impasse in the criminal prosecution of Union Carbide for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people in Bhopal.
Please help us ensure that the Dept of Justice letter carries as many signatures of members of Congress and the Senate as possible.
If you have any questions, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to write to ICJB NA directly at justice@bhopal.net
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