Gas tragedy: International campaign to make Dow Chemical appear in criminal proceedings in Bhopal court

Five organisations of the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal are spearheading an ambitious signature petition launched by their international supporters  to make Dow Chemical, owner of Union Carbide, appear in the criminal proceedings on the disaster in the Bhopal District Court on July 13th, 2016.

The petition, moved by the North America-based International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), on May 15th at the website of the White House [https://petitions.whitehouse.gov] calls on the U.S. Department of Justice to serve a notice issued by the Bhopal District Court upon Dow Chemical to appear in the ongoing criminal proceedings in India.

According to the organisations, the petition will have to get 100, 000 signatures before June 15, 2016 to make the US government formally respond to the petition. Already 3500 persons have signed the petition, Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group of Information and Action said.

Leaders of the organizatios said that as a result of social media actions around the launch of the petition, Dow Chemical's CEO, Andrew Liveris has had to make his twitter account private.

The organisations assert that the US Department of Justice is breaching an fifteen year old Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the U.S. and India by refusing to serve the four notices from the Bhopal District Court sent by the Indian Home Ministry.

The organisations said that their supporters in USA have garnered support for the petition from a number of US environmental and human rights organisations such as Greenpeace, Pesticides Action Network and Amnesty, and trade unions such as the AFL-CIO and other associations.

According to the Bhopal survivors' organizations, eminent US citizens including Gary Cohen, one of the ‘Champions of Change’ nominated by the US President in 2013, Martin Sheen, acclaimed Hollywood actor and activist and Noam Chomsky, Professor at MIT and world renowned academic have extended their support to the petition.

The organisations expressed hope that the pressure created by the ongoing petition will force the US Department of Justice to serve the notice on Dow Chemical which in turn will have to explain to the Bhopal court why it continues to shelter Union Carbide, a fugitive from justice.

[Photo courtesy: Bhopal.net]