Birmingham Star, 14th June, 2008
Sixteen US House of Congress members have expressed solidarity with the Bhopal gas leak victims in India and have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to bring Dow Chemicals to justice.
A letter from the Congress members is strong in its criticism of the US-based Dow Chemical, which took over Union Carbide, whose plant created a chemical disaster on December 2nd 1984.
The letter read: ‘The conduct of American corporations outside the US is a long-standing concern of ours. In this case, US corporations have refused to submit to the jurisdiction of foreign the Indian courts. It is outrageous that the executives of Union Carbide and its successor, Dow Chemical, have yet to be brought to justice.’
In the Bhopal gas disaster, the Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked over 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas, which killed at least 3,800 people and affected many thousands.
Survivors of the disaster have been holding protests and hunger strikes.
The survivors and their supporters marched 500 miles in February and March from Bhopal to New Delhi in the hopes that their demands for compensation could be heard.

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