THE HINDU, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 3, 2006
New York, Dec. 3 (PTI): Scores of campaigners seeking justice for victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy, one of the world’s worst industrial catastrophe, held demonstrations in pouring rain near the Indian Consulate here demanding that Dow Chemical take responsibility for clearing up the disaster site and provide adequate compensation for survivors.
Dow Chemical is now owner of Union Carbide from whose plant the deadly gas had leaked on December 2, 1984, killing and injuring thousands.
They also held mock funerals of Dow Chemical leadership on Friday.
The Campaign, an umbrella organisation on which several human rights bodies are represented, said similar funeral marches will be organised in seven cities across the United States over next six days and its members would hold candle vigils to remember the victims.
Besides, its supporters in Chicago and Washington would send members of the Board of Dow Chemical orange jumpsuits that prisoners wear to highlight the fugitive status of Union Carbide in the Indian courts.
The activists say Carbide’s owner Dow Chemical is to blame for daily deaths in Bhopal due to its refusal to clean up the disaster site and provide adequate care to the survivors.
Ryan Bodanyi, Students for Bhopal US Coordinator, said Dow’s 2001 purchase of Union Carbide transferred legal liability and moral culpability for the clean-up of contaminated waste in Bhopal to Dow.

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