Obama visit: Bhopal gas victims seek compensation

Bhopal: Victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy held a demonstration in the city on Saturday protesting against US President Barack Obama's India visit and sought to know why he and his predecessors remained silent over the world's biggest industrial disaster.

"Despite knowing that over 25,000 persons have died till now due to the leak of poisonous gas from the Union Carbide factory here, why did the previous Presidents of America, in the last 26 years, and Obama himself not bother to utter a word on the Bhopal Gas disaster?" questioned an open letter given by the gas victims to Obama through the US Embassy.

This clearly shows that Obama like his predecessors wants to protect the "criminal" US company Union Carbide Corporation, Dow and former UCC Chairman Warren Anderson, they alleged.

Echoing their sentiments, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the issue of extradition of former Union Carbide chief and Bhopal Gas Tragedy accused Warren Anderson, with the US President.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Chouhan said, "Anderson continues to elude law and he could not be produced in court to face criminal charges because the government of the day had chosen to provide him the safe passage."

Chouhan also said that Obama's visit to India presents an apt opportunity to convey the sentiments of the people in the state, especially those of the victims and to take up the extradition issue in the right earnest.

"The demands of justice must prevail over all other considerations," the Chief Minister said.

He also sought Prime Minister's personal intervention in this matter of "immense public importance" and urged him to fulfill the hopes of people in Madhya Pradesh.

The Bhopal gas tragedy victims, meanwhile, rued that though Obama was unable to make UCC-Dow take future responsibility of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, he has come to India with over 200 CEOs of multi-national companies for "controlling Indian market."

The letter complained that inadequate compensation was given to the Bhopal Gas victims and wanted to know when they would be paid adequate money as per international norms.

The Bhopal gas disaster caused after leakage of the lethal methyl isocyanate from the Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 killed over 15,000 people and maimed several others.