No new probe,says US; survivors angry

“With respect to Bhopal,obviously that was one of the greatest industrial tragedies and industrial accidents in human history. And let me just say that we hope that this verdict helps to bring some closure to the victims and their families,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia,Robert Blake told a news conference in Washington. Blake said he hoped the verdict would not lead to opening of new inquiries into the role of Union Carbide in the disaster. “But I don’t expect this verdict to reopen any new,you know,inquiries or anything like that. On the contrary,we hope that this is going to help to bring closure,” Blake said.

The Administration refused to discuss the issue of the extradition of Warren Anderson,a former chairman of Carbide’s parent company. On whether there was a request by India for Anderson’s extradition,Blake told reporters,“As a matter of policy,we never discuss extradition,so I cannot comment on that.”

In Bhopal,the survivors and activists accused the US government of adopting double standards on human rights and weighing an American citizen’s life as more precious than his Indian counterpart.

“The US government could have forced Warren Anderson to face trial in India and much before that made the Union Carbide company share its ‘trade secret’ to help doctors suggest an antidote for the deadly gas,” Convenor of Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangathan Abdul Jabbar said.

“The US bombarded Afghanistan on the suspicion that Bin Laden was hiding there but did little about handing over Anderson,who was declared an absconder in India,” Jabbar said. He said the US government’s stand that it had nothing do with the case was ridiculous because the Union Carbide Corporation had 50.9 per cent stake in UCIL,its Indian arm.

“Our Prime Minister should learn a lesson from Barack Obama,” Satinath Sarangi of Bhopal Group for Information and Action said while referring to the US president’s stand on the British Petroleum oil spill case.”

Activists held successive Indian governments,including those of the state of Madhya Pradesh, responsible for the travesty of justice. “Shedding crocodile tears after the verdict serves no purpose because they were in a position to influence the course of justice,” said Sarangi. “They could have become a party to any of these cases but they never intervened.”

“It began with Warren Anderson being escorted out of Bhopal on a state plane. Then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi even apologised to Anderson for his temporary detention in Bhopal,” Jabbar said. With PTI inputs

N-Bill to help more Andersons: CPM

NEW DELHI: The CPM on Tuesday mounted pressure on the government to scrap the Nuclear Liability Bill,pointing out that the proposed legislation which excludes foreign suppliers of nuclear reactors from any criminal liability may help more Warren Andersons.

“The Bhopal disaster and the utterly flawed legal framework shows how the American suppliers and owners have escaped any criminal liability…. The Bill limits compensation to even less than the paltry Bhopal settlement. Pushing ahead with the Nuclear Liability Bill means playing with the safety and interests of the Indian people,” the CPM said in a statement on Tuesday. ens