JOIN US IN DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR BHOPAL FROM THE VISITING INDIAN PRIME MINISTER IN NEW YORK WHAT A vigil to mourn the deaths of over 20,000 Indians who have died till date as a result of the worst corporate crime ever - the Union Carbide Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1984. Launch of an indefinite hunger strike by Texan activist Diane Wilson to remind the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Bush that under the Extradition Treaty signed by the two countries, both their governments are responsible for upholding the August 28th, 2002 Bhopal Court decision to restate the extraditable charges of 'culpable homicide' against Warren Anderson ex-CEO of Union Carbide and also Union Carbide Corporation. A protest against the Indian government's complicity in the agonising delay of justice for victims of Bhopal and to demand that both governments must press for the new owner of Union Carbide, Dow Chemical to clean-up the contaminated factory site and take legal, medical and environmental responsibility for the consequences of their actions. WHEN Friday, September 13th 10.00am onward. The indefinite hunger strike will move to other relevant locations later in the day. WHERE New York. Outside the UN building where both heads of the State will be addressing the UN general assembly. Gathering at 47th & 1st Avenue, SW Corner. And walk-up to the 45th. Legally permitted if there are no megaphones and if it's not a big crowd disrupting traffic. Around 3.00pm, the hunger strike will move to Main Street, Bridgehampton, where Warren Anderson was recently discovered leading a life of luxury. Starting at 7pm, during Arundhati Roy's talk, a Bhopal solidarity stall will be organised at Cooper Union, The Great Hall 7 East 7th Street at 3rd Avenue, New York City. (Organised by Southend Press. $5 admission at the door. Free with Cooper Union ID) CONTACT Diane Wilson Mobile on site: 361 676 0663 Suketu Mehta suketu@suketu.com 718 623 2611 Nina Resnez NinaRezEsq@aol.com 212 473 6279 Arvind Rajagopal arvind.rajagopal@nyu.edu 212 982 0043 Nandita Ghosh nan_dita@excite.com Phone 718 446 9107 --------- BHOPAL SUPPORTERS DEMAND JUSTICE FOR BHOPAL DURING INDIAN PRIME MINISTER'S VISIT TO NEW YORK PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release September 13th New York New York-based Indians and supporters of the Campaign for Justice in Bhopal led by the survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster today called upon the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and US President George Bush, who are meeting today in New York, to uphold justice by speedily extraditing Warren Anderson and Dow-Carbide Corporation executives to India to face trial. Amongst the supporters is Diane Wilson, member of the Unreasonable Women for the Earth, and a fisherwoman turned environmentalist who has been fighting to save the waters of San Antonio Bay from toxic discharge by chemical companies, including Union Carbide-Dow Chemical. Ms.Wilson was on a solidarity hunger strike with the victims of Bhopal from July 18th to August 15th outside the Carbide/Dow chemical facility in Seadrift, TX. And earlier this month on August 26th Ms.Wilson had chained herself on the top of a 70 foot tower for 8 hours demanding that Dow accept Carbide's Indian and clean up its toxic mess in Bhopal. She was later arrested and released on bail. On one of her previous hunger strikes against Formosa Plastics in TX, Ms.Wilson secured a Zero Discharge agreement. "I've been fighting Dow to sign a Zero Discharge agreement also. Stopping them from terrorizing the victims of Bhopal is one of the first steps in that fight." Announcing the launch of another indefinite hunger strike Ms. Wilson said, "Bhopal is Dow's unfinished business. We are here to bear witness to the injustice that continues to be perpetuated on the victims of Bhopal by Dow along with the complicity of both the Indian and US governments. If the current United States administration is really serious about increasing corporate accountability and punishing corporate crime, then they must extradite Warren Anderson and Dow. And Dow must be made to clean up its mess in Bhopal." Warren Anderson, the chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster in Bhopal, was till recently untraceable. Both the Indian Government and the US authorities have dragged their feet in bringing the multinational corporation and its senior executives to book for their role in the deaths of more than 20,000 (till date) in the 1984 gas disaster in Bhopal, India. However, victims of the gas disaster and their supporters worldwide have consistently insisted that justice be done and have sought the extradition of the U.S.-based accused to face trial in India. Their campaign received a boost on August 28, when a Bhopal court restated that the Indian Government should expedite the extradition of Anderson and Dow-Carbide executives. "The Indian Government has publicly declared that it will pursue the extradition of Warren Anderson. Now that Bush, Vajpayee and even Anderson are here in New York, we believe that this is the most opportune moment for Vajpayee to initiate discussions with the US for extraditing him and the other Dow-Carbide representatives," said a supporter of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal from New York. The international manhunt for the corporate CEO accused of homicide for the deaths of twenty thousand people and catastrophic injuries to another 120,000 people in the Indian city of Bhopal has finally ended - in the Hamptons. Warren Anderson, the ex-CEO of Union Carbide Corp., maintains a luxurious lifestyle in two homes in the exclusive resort communities of Bridgehampton, New York, and Vero Beach, Florida. His house in the Hamptons, where he was recently discovered hiding by Greenpeace, alone costs a million dollars. This is the same man whose company, to save $47 in daily costs at the Carbide plant in Bhopal, ordered a series of essential safety mechanisms to be shut down, leading to the world's worst industrial disaster in 1984. He was arrested and then released on bail in Bhopal soon afterwards, in return for pledging that he would be back to face a trial. When he absconded, a warrant for his arrest was issued in 1992. In August, an Indian judge dismissed an attempt by the Indian government to dilute the charges against Andersen from culpable homicide to negligence. This week, Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee is due to meet President Bush in New York, at the meeting of the UN General Assembly. As a group of concerned US and Indian citizens, we feel that justice to the victims of Bhopal is long overdue. We call upon the Indian government to: - Obey the law and energetically pursue the extradition of Warren Anderson and the authorized representatives of Union Carbide Corporation's new owner The Dow Chemical Company, so that they face trial in the ongoing criminal case, whose next hearing is on October 17, 2002. - Distribute the balance of the settlement fund amounting to the survivors, providing each survivor with approximately $600. - Hold The Dow Chemical Company accountable for: i. Long-term medical care, research and health monitoring of the survivors and their children.   ii. Providing economic rehabilitation and social support to the survivors too weak to earn a livelihood or with no social support. iii. Cleaning up contaminated groundwater and soil in and around the abandoned pesticide factory in Bhopal. The Government of India is bound to undertake these steps - morally, as a democratically elected government; legally, as the parens patrie [parent] of the victims of Bhopal; and constitutionally, as a protector of fundamental rights. Much attention has been paid to the financial effects on ordinary Americans of the recent corporate disasters involving Enron, WorldCom and others. Imagine if those CEO's had been responsible for the death of twenty thousand Americans. Would Ken Lay continue to be allowed to summer in the Hamptons and winter in Florida? Americans call for an end to double standards in pursuing corporate crime. We demand that our government take immediate action to: - Cooperate with the Indian government in the extradition and trial of Warren Anderson and representatives of Dow-Carbide responsible for the world's worst corporate crime. - Investigate withholding of liability-related information by Union Carbide and The Dow Chemical Company in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission during their merger in 2001. The devastated victims of Carbide's monstrous crimes have never received adequate financial compensation - average awards from the settlement amount to $200 per person, for injuries that have left much of Bhopal a land of the living dead. Now they seek, at the very least, some judicial accountability for the executives who did this to them. Perpetrators of corporate terror should be brought to justice no less than perpetrators of any other kind of terror. Eighteen years is long enough. Warren Andersen must be extradited and face justice--now. For more information on the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal visit www.bhopal.net