Current Affairs
Bhopal, India: 'An atomicbomb about to explode'
By Claude Salhani
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- Here is a quick quiz;which recent nefarious event killed the most people, and who wasresponsible for it?
If the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, onthe Twin Towers and the Pentagon, jumps to mind as the most devastatingattacks, think again. And if you believe Osama bin Laden to beresponsible for the most civilian deaths in recent history, goback to your history books.
There was another incident -- 18 years ago-- that killed far more people.
The devastating incident in question occurredin the Indian city of Bhopal, on the night of Dec. 3, 1984. Itwas not terrorist-related, but the result of terrible miscalculationby Union Carbide, one of the world's leading chemical producingcompanies. UC was a behemoth corporation consisting of 130 subsidiariesin 40 countries, with 500 production sites that employed 120,000people.
This goes to show that sometimes a multi-nationalcorporation can kill far more people than terrorists -- and getaway with it.
Of course, the Union Carbide executivesdid not set out deliberately to murder thousands of innocent people.And that makes their crime - essentially homicidal negligence- some degrees less vile than Osama bin Laden's plot to destroythe World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
But on that deadly night, a highly toxic,inodorous, and invisible gas escaped from the plant, killing thousandsof people and creating sheer pandemonium, as thousands more fled,not knowing exactly what hit them.
In a new book called "Five Past Midnightin Bhopal," (Warner Books, 403 pages, $25.95) famed authorDominique Lapierre looks back at the string of events that ledto the largest industrial catastrophe in history, and left between16,000 and 30,000 people dead, and another 150,000 suffering fromcontinuing consequences.
Some of the experts warned UC of the dangersof the Bhopal plant: "Your engineers are out of their minds.They're putting an atomic bomb in the middle of your factory thatcould explode at any time," Lapierre quotes one of the experts.
In his moving and revealing book, Lapierre,and co-author Javier Moro, give a human face to the protagonistsof an industrial adventure that implicated the wealthy West andthe India of One Thousand and One Nights, and that ended up asan industrial Titanic.
In an exclusive interview with United PressInternational, Lapierre (who authored "The City of Joy,"and along with Larry Collins wrote "The Fifth Horseman,""Freedom at Midnight," "O Jerusalem," and"Is Paris Burning,") said he was asked to establisha gynecology clinic for the women of Bhopal who were left withoutresources.
"I went to Bhopal and I was terrifiedand maddened that 18 years after the tragedy, nothing was donefor these people," said Lapierre. "So I opened up thisclinic and decided to tell the story of what occurred. We decidedto do something for the 150,000 victims of the largest industrialcatastrophe in history who continue to suffer."
What pushed Lapierre to become involvedwith India and Bhopal?
First and foremost, says Lapierre "it'sa love story with India. It was also the challenge to reconstructone of the most important events of our history -- the independenceof India, a country that comprises one fifth of humanity."
"Then, with Bhopal, it was for humanitarianreasons, said the investigative author.
Lapierre is the only author at age 50 toshare all his royalties with humanitarian actions. Having writtenseveral books on India, ("Freedom at Midnight," and"City of Joy,") since 22 year now, he has contributedtowards the healing of 4 million people suffering from tuberculosis,and helped save 9 million children affected by leprosy in theslums of Calcutta. He has built 548 wells of potable water, andcommissioned 4 hospital ships in the Ganges Delta that assist1 million people living on 54 islands that do not appear on anymaps.
This investigation gave me a real love ofthe people of India. And when "Freedom at Midnight"became a huge success, I decided, along with my wife, to showmy gratitude toward the Indian people. I went to Calcutta, metMother Teresa, and began to work in the slums, using the royaltiesfrom my book."
Research for the Bhopal book took a painstakingthree years, and made the author wonder if large, multi-nationalcorporations could be trusted.
"Five Past Midnight in Bhopal,"which has already sold more than one million copies in Europealone, has acted as a wake up call to the dangers posed by thechemical industry.
Because of this book, the French governmenthas reassessed the number of industrial sites at risk -- and discoveredthere were 1,209 in France that represented a potential threat.As a result some of the sites were shut down, including the onein Toulouse where an accident in Sept. 2001 killed 29 people andinjured more than 4,000.
"It's a book that warns about the dangersof such installations," cautions Lapierre. "Especiallytoday, in light of terrorist threats, this book becomes even morefactual. If terrorist today, for example, where to penetrate intothe (former Union Carbide) chemical plant in Charleston, WestVirginia, where the same pesticides that were being made in Bhopalare being produced, with the same millions of liters of methylisocyanate, we would have a catastrophe that would endanger thelives of some 250,000 Americans living the Kanawha Valley."
While the threat in West Virginia of potentialterrorism lingers in the air, much like the nauseous smells producedby the chemical plant, the ill effects of Bhopal continues, unabated.
Today, 18 years after the catastrophe, thereare still about 9,000 tons of toxic waste on the former site ofthe Union Carbide plant.
"This," says Lapierre "causesthe water tables that feed into the wells where more that 150,000people live, to become polluted with chrome, mercury, lead andzinc. That surpasses several hundred times the allowed levels.Greenpeace just did a study, and it is frightening."
Lapierre is upset that nothing is beingdone to care for, or treat, the survivors of the Union Carbidecatastrophe, and their children.
Four years after the incident, Union Carbidepaid 470 million dollars to the Indian government to settle alloutstanding issues. Funds, which the government never filtereddown to the people. There was never a trial, and no one was everbrought to justice.
"The question was asked, what is anIndian life worth," said Lapierre. "The Wall StreetJournal did a study and said that an American life is worth moreor less half a million dollars. Based on India's gross nationalproduction, which represents 1.7% of the American GNP, the lifeof an Indian was found to be worth $8,000."
And the problems are far from over.
"Today, the conditions of genital cancers,of children born with deformations, of respiratory problems areterrifying, which allows us to believe that similar to atomicradiation, the gas that was being produced by Union Carbide haspenetrated into the genes."
"What worries me more," said Lapierre,"is that even 18 years later, Union Carbide has never acceptedto reveal the composition of the toxic gas that killed between16,000 and 30,000 people. The medical corps was never able toestablish a particular treatment for the victims.
Why that great a discrepancy in the numberof deaths? Indians, explains Lapierre, do not carry identificationcards. Many of the victims were migrant workers with no fixedaddress. Entire families died and left no one to report theirdeaths.
Following local traditions, the dead wererapidly buried or cremated.
"We traced and found the invoices oflogs of wood that were used for funeral pyres by Hindus, thenfound invoices for cloths that were used as burial shrouds byMuslims," said Lapierre. That, he said, was the only solidevidence to go by.
Warren Anderson, chairman of Union Carbideat the time of the accident is the man that Lapierre holds responsible."He is involuntarily responsible. Do you know a man thathas caused more harm than Osama bin Laden?" he asks. "Yes,"he replies to his own question. "Warren Anderson, who todayremains in hiding. No one has been able to find him, even thoughtInterpol has a warrant out for his arrest."
Lapierre will continue to pressure so thatthose responsible are brought to justice. "It is unthinkablethat a tragedy that caused so many deaths, remains unpunished"
But, thanks to the book, some things arestarting to change. A New York judge has just forced Union Carbideto reveal something the company was always reluctant to -- thesecret composition of the gas that killed. If that happens, Lapierreis hopeful that a treatment could be found.
One of the reasons cited by the industryfor not revealing the components is that they claim that terroristscould learn to copy these lethal gasses.
"Maybe things will change. Until now,the U.S. justice always said this occurred in India, and thatit was up to them to solve them. Union Carbide today no longerexists, having been taken over by Dow Chemicals. Dow says theynever had any responsibilities in this affair. They were neverin Indian and never fabricated Sevin," the gas that killedthe thousands in Bhopal.
But Lapierre believes that 9/11 has changedmany Americans. "They have discovered that people are vulnerable,and that they (Americans) are more vulnerable, too. There is greatersolidarity today following the Twin Towers."