Bhopal's long fight for justice

Sanjay Sharma with his nephew, Anshul. Photo / David Graham

Twenty five years ago, Sathyu Sarangi's life changed immeasurably.

At the time, he was living about 130km from Bhopal in a small village, but when he heard the news on the radio he left immediately for the stricken city to offer his help. Memories of 1984 remain vivid and what Sarangi witnessed will never leave him.

"When I arrived in Bhopal at the railway station there were thousands of panicked people. People were in pain, they were groaning, their eyes and faces were swollen. Some were carrying dead bodies. I went to help in the bustees (slum areas) and there were whole families lying dead on the floors of their homes - men, women and children. I recall seeing large piles of bodies being burned, a man with his head covered in blisters, people digging mass graves. I was not prepared for this mentally," he says.

The 54-year-old, an acclaimed Indian human rights activist and writer, is speaking in Bhopal about his 25-year campaign to seek justice for Bhopal's gas victims and the marathon legal battle against Union Carbide and the corporate executive he wants held accountable for the catastrophe.

Sarangi initially intended to stay in Bhopal for a week, but those first few days proved such a recalcitrant experience that he gave up his home and studies and stayed in the city permanently. He recalls that in the immediate aftermath of the gas leak, no information was being given to the people by the authorities and there were no medicines available to treat victims.

"While mass graves were being dug the Indian government was sneaking Union Carbide's chief executive out of the country. We decided to form an organisation to highlight the immediate concerns of the population and the campaign for justice grew from there," Sarangi says.

Investigations into the disaster revealed that something had gone fundamentally wrong with a tank storing methyl isocyanate (MIC). During the night of December 2/3, 1984, large amounts of water entered tank 610, containing methyl isocyanate.

The resulting reaction increased the temperature inside the tank to over 200C, raising the pressure to a level the tank was not designed to withstand. This forced the emergency venting of pressure from the MIC holding tank, releasing a large volume of toxic gases.

Union Carbide has always claimed that its Indian subsidiary - Union Carbide India Limited - was solely responsible for the management of the plant and that the accident was the result of sabotage.

Sarangi dismisses this as "nonsense" and says no evidence has been produced by Union Carbide to support its claim.

"We have documents to show that Union Carbide cut costs in 1984 so they cut back on vital safety systems. At the time of the leak these safety systems were turned off and that's why the gas escaped," he says.

Such was the deep sense of injustice within the people of Bhopal about Union Carbide withholding vital information about MIC after the leak, that the movement for justice, with Sarangi at its head, began to garner support internationally.

In 1991, Bhopal's authorities charged Union Carbide's chief executive, Warren Andersen, with manslaughter but to date the retired American has avoided an international arrest warrant and a US court summons.

Andersen was declared a fugitive from justice by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal in 1992, for failing to appear at court and he remains a bete noire for Bhopalis.

Although orders were passed to the Indian government to press for his extradition from America, Sarangi says ministers have not put forward a strong case fearing a backlash from foreign investors who are vital to the Indian economy.

Union Carbide was taken over by Dow Chemicals, the makers of Agent Orange, in 2001. Dow Chemicals insists that all liabilities were settled in 1989 when Union Carbide paid around £300 million to the Indian government to be allocated to survivors.

Furthermore, Union Carbide insists that it did all it could to alleviate the human suffering following the disaster and points out that it paid for a hospital in Bhopal to offer free medical care to victims.

However, Sarangi and fellow campaigners argue that the compensation paid was wholly inadequate and does not account for the after-effects of the gas leak or toxic pollution that continues to seep from the abandoned factory site which, to date, Union Carbide has refused to clean up.

"Union Carbide fought tooth and nail in the courts as it did not want to pay a single penny, and when they eventually did pay victims were given a pittance. We found that 91 per cent of the people received as little as £150," Sarangi says.

He adds that most people are unaware that the disaster in Bhopal continues to this day, citing a 1999 Greenpeace report that found serious contamination of soil and water polluted with heavy metals and chemical compounds.

Amnesty International, whose 2004 Clouds of Injustice report backed Greenpeace, said, "Toxic wastes continue to pollute the environment and water supply ... and it is appalling that no one has been held account for the leak and its appalling consequences."

Sarangi is a trustee of the Bhopal Medical Appeal, which funds a unique clinic in Bhopal called Sambhavna. It offers free treatment to gas victims combining western medicines and traditional Indian therapies. He says that an estimated 120,000 to 150,000 survivors of the disaster are chronically ill and more than 23,000 have died of exposure-related illnesses.

"Thousands of children born after the disaster suffer from health problems, including congenital defects, and many teenage women suffer from menstrual disorders. TB is several times more prevalent in the gas-affected population and cancers are on the rise," he says.

We see the horrendous health legacy for ourselves when we visit some of the slums of Bhopal. On our way to Shankar Nagar, a poor area just north of the abandoned Union Carbide factory, our rickshaw stops at a café to allow us to take shelter from torrential rain.

There, we meet Sapna Sharma who is holding her 1-year-old son, Anshul. The mother explains that her child was born with 12 toes and 12 fingers. It's a chance encounter but our translator says this type of defect is very common in children and is believed to be a consequence of people drinking contaminated water.

Indeed, the 1999 Greenpeace investigation found "extensive and, in some areas, severe chemical contamination of the environment surrounding the former Union Carbide plant.

Analysis of water samples drawn from wells serving the local community has also confirmed the contamination of groundwater reserves with chemicals arising either from previous or ongoing activities and/or incidents.

As a result of the ubiquitous presence of contaminants, the exposure of the communities surrounding the plants to complex mixtures of hazardous chemicals continues on a daily basis.

Though less acute than the exposure which took place as a result of the 1984 MIC release, long-term chronic exposure to mixtures of toxic synthetic chemicals and heavy metals is also likely to have serious consequences for the health and survival of the local population."

Half a mile along the road we meet with another affected family. Bhoori Bai explains that her 5-year-old son, Khusbu, cannot walk or chew and suffers from TB.

"The doctors said bad water could have been a cause of my son's condition. Older people here were gas victims and the younger people are now victims of the water," she says.

We leave Bhoori's home and walk back to our rickshaw in pouring rain but en route we stumble across another child born with health problems.

Rajesh is 12 and has hardly any hair and severe learning difficulties, and his 50-year-old mother, Yashdabai, says she was exposed to MIC gas in 1984.

Her daughter, Sonia, a pretty girl with black hair pulled back off her face, looks about 12 but says she doesn't know her age. A colleague notices that Sonia's feet and toes are huge.

Over the next few days we interview dozens of people in Bhopal with similar gas- and water-related illnesses including Khilaan Singh, 45, who lives a few hundred metres from the former Union Carbide factory in Atala Nagar with his wife and three children.

Singh was exposed to MIC gas in 1984 and has had respiratory problems since which make him unable to work.

"Many people here are sick so there must be some gas left in the factory," he says pointing across to the derelict site. "The water here is bad but we have no choice but to drink it. We are all quite scared."

Later that day, back at Sambhavna, a researcher at the clinic explains that a year-long survey began in January to try and ascertain the extent of current health problems in some areas of Bhopal.

"There are 10 researchers. I'm covering 20,000 people in 17 neighbourhoods. So far I have surveyed 5000 people and found more than 200 cases of children with congenital defects. This is a very high rate of incidence. Many have twisted limbs and many have mental health issues," says Santosh Kshatria.

It's these harrowing stories that push campaigners like Sarangi on with their fight for justice for Bhopal. Sarangi's commitment has come at great personal cost but although his devotion to the cause has resulted in prison sentences, beatings and death threats, to this day he remains unbowed.

He had a bomb thrown at him a few years ago and has been badly beaten on many occasions. Prison sentences come with the territory, he says, and there was even a contract put out on him when a local underworld figure in Bhopal was asked to kill him.

"The man refused to do it but I never found out who ordered the contract," Sarangi says. Recently a close friend committed suicide. He'd lost seven members of his family in the disaster and was found hanging by the neck from a rope wearing a T-shirt which read "No more Bhopals".

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the disaster in December, a Hollywood movie Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, starring Martin Sheen and Mischa Barton, is due for release, while a new film by the Yes Men called The Yes Men Fix the World will also feature the Bhopal story. For his part, Sarangi remains confident that one day Bhopal's victims will have their day in court with Union Carbide.

For more information visit the Bhopal Medical Appeal's website at www.bhopal.org