"Outrage of the Week"

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OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK

Dow Sues Protesters in Bhopal

 

(WOMENSENEWS)--The Dow Chemical Company has filed a lawsuit against a

group of female survivors of a toxic spill who demonstrated against

the company in Bhopal, India last month.

 

The lawsuit asks for $10,000 in damages from protesters who

participated in the peaceful two-hour protest, claiming the women

caused Dow employees "loss of work." The lawsuit also asks that

activists be restrained from holding future demonstrations within 100

meters of the Dow offices.

 

The Dow Chemical Company did not return calls seeking comment on the

lawsuit, filed two weeks ago. The Dec. 3 protest was held on the 18th

anniversary of the lethal gas spill at a Union Carbide plant in

Bhopal that killed thousands of people and harmed hundreds of

thousands.

 

Union Carbide became a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company in

February 2001.

 

About 200 women from the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary

Karmachari Sangh, a trade union comprised of women gas spill

survivors, and the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, a

coalition lobbying for survivors' rights, gathered contaminated water

and soil samples from the abandoned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal.

They carried them to Dow's headquarters in Mumbai, India, and handed

them to company representatives, along with traditional straw brooms.

 

They then asked the company to clean up the toxic pollution that

still covers the area and causes health and environmental problems.

Continued presence of toxic chemicals at the site and in the

groundwater could cause tainted breast milk, miscarriages and birth

defects, along with cancer and other health disorders.

 

"By filing this lawsuit, Dow is trying to establish a precedent, to

say 'you can't even talk about this,'" said Casey Harrell, a

Greenpeace Bhopal specialist. "These people have nothing but their

voices."

 

Representatives of Greenpeace International were present at the

protest and are also named in the lawsuit.

 

Union Carbide was held liable in 1989 for the spill and paid $470

million in direct compensation for the victims and financed a

hospital in Bhopal. Environmental activists have criticized the

settlement, saying it provided only about $300 to $500 for each

victim.

 

At the protest, Anand Vohra, finance director at Dow Chemicals, told

the activists that he would personally recommend to "higher

authorities," that action be take to alleviate the suffering of the

gas-affected people, according to Bhopal.net.

 

For more information:

 

Bhopal.net: - http://www.bhopal.net/welcome2.html

 

Statement of The Dow Chemical Company Regarding the Bhopal Tragedy: -

http://www.bhopal.com/position.htm