BP has just put a new cap on its leaking oil well in the Gulf Of Mexico. It’s not clear yet whether this latest attempt to halt the flow of oil will work. The US government has been uncompromising in its punishment of BP. The clean-up has cost the company $3.5bn so far, and the Obama administration has forced it to set aside another $20bn to pay for further clean-up, compensation and other costs.
When an American company is the guilty party, though, US attitudes are rather different. Yesterday, protestors in India demanded the extradition from America of Warren Anderson. Mr Anderson was the boss of US company Union Carbide when cyanide gas leaked from its plant in Bhopal in 1984, and the Indian authorities have a warrant out for his arrest. The US has resisted all their efforts.
While the BP accident killed 11 people, Bhopal cost the lives of at least 3,800 in the immediate aftermath, while up to 20,000 more may have perished since, and perhaps another 120,000 are still suffering ill effects – making this probably the deadliest industrial accident in history.
So how many billions in compensation did Union Carbide pay? Er, no billions actually - just $470 million.
(See also my blogs of June 9 and Aug 1, 2009; March 17, April 24, May 1, June 7 and 9, 2010.)
Showing posts with label Warren Anderson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warren Anderson. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Monday, 7 June 2010
Bhopal convictions
More than 25 years after the Bhopal disaster, eight people have been convicted for causing “death by negligence”. They include former senior officials of the Union Carbide company which owned the plant, including Keshub Mahindra, who was chairman of its Indian arm. The crime carries a maximum prison sentence of two years.
Campaigners have complained that the verdict is too little, too late, and have said it means the disaster has been treated “like a traffic accident.” Warren Anderson, Union Carbide’s chairman at the time of the accident, still notionally faces charges, and is officially regarded by the Indian courts as an “absconder.”
Forty tons of highly poisonous gas escaped from the plant. Union Carbide admitted that about 3,800 people died in the immediate aftermath. Campaigners claim that up to 20,000 more have perished since from the effects of the gas, with another 120,000 still suffering ill effects.
This would make it the deadliest industrial accident in history, though some environmentalists claim that Chernobyl may eventually outstrip it with deaths from cancer caused by its radiation eventually reaching 200,000. For more details, see A Disastrous History of the World. (See also my blogs of 1st Aug 2009 and 17th March 2010)
Campaigners have complained that the verdict is too little, too late, and have said it means the disaster has been treated “like a traffic accident.” Warren Anderson, Union Carbide’s chairman at the time of the accident, still notionally faces charges, and is officially regarded by the Indian courts as an “absconder.”
Forty tons of highly poisonous gas escaped from the plant. Union Carbide admitted that about 3,800 people died in the immediate aftermath. Campaigners claim that up to 20,000 more have perished since from the effects of the gas, with another 120,000 still suffering ill effects.
This would make it the deadliest industrial accident in history, though some environmentalists claim that Chernobyl may eventually outstrip it with deaths from cancer caused by its radiation eventually reaching 200,000. For more details, see A Disastrous History of the World. (See also my blogs of 1st Aug 2009 and 17th March 2010)
Saturday, 1 August 2009
Bhopal, America and extradition + 1,000th anniversary
Almost 25 years after the world’s worst industrial disaster, a new arrest warrant has been issued for the former boss of the company responsible. When the Union Carbide pesticide plant at Bhopal in India leaked poison gas in the early hours of December 3, 1984, 2,000 people were killed in the next few hours, followed by at least 15,000 over the next few weeks. How many more have died from its effects in the years that followed is not known, but it is thought that more than half a million have been damaged in some way.
Warren Anderson was arrested soon after the disaster, but got bail, left India and has never returned. Now a court at Bhopal has asked the Indian government to seek his extradition from the United States. In view of the Obama regime’s intransigence in demanding the extradition of the British computer hacker Gary McKinnon, it will be interesting to see how it reacts if a request comes from another government to surrender a US citizen for alleged wrongdoing abroad.
On this day…..1,000 years ago, a fearsome Danish army landed in England. Over the next two and a half years, the Danes harried the land mercilessly – ravaging fifteen counties and burning down towns such as Oxford and Northampton.
Eventually in April 1012, they accepted £48,000 – an enormous sum in those days – to leave the country in peace, but not before they had murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Danes had demanded a separate ransom for him, but he bravely insisted that nothing more should be paid, so they pelted him, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with the “bones and heads of cattle” then split his skull open with an axe.
Warren Anderson was arrested soon after the disaster, but got bail, left India and has never returned. Now a court at Bhopal has asked the Indian government to seek his extradition from the United States. In view of the Obama regime’s intransigence in demanding the extradition of the British computer hacker Gary McKinnon, it will be interesting to see how it reacts if a request comes from another government to surrender a US citizen for alleged wrongdoing abroad.
On this day…..1,000 years ago, a fearsome Danish army landed in England. Over the next two and a half years, the Danes harried the land mercilessly – ravaging fifteen counties and burning down towns such as Oxford and Northampton.
Eventually in April 1012, they accepted £48,000 – an enormous sum in those days – to leave the country in peace, but not before they had murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Danes had demanded a separate ransom for him, but he bravely insisted that nothing more should be paid, so they pelted him, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with the “bones and heads of cattle” then split his skull open with an axe.
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