Informant38

"I was not present when the tragedy of Indian partition took place in 1947. But I have heard the stories about people simply running away from their homes in panic to save their lives. The scene I saw in Bhopal rivaled that scenario of panic and chaos."

"The air was thick with the gas. I reached the plant, in spite of the fact that almost everyone was running in the reverse direction. When I reached the factory, I inquired what was the stuff that was leaking out and what was the antidote. This was around twelve at night. But they did not tell me anything. It was around three in the morning before someone from the factory came to tell me at the police station that the substance that had leaked out was methyl isocyanate (MIC). I wrote these words on a torn sheet from the daily case diary - roznamcha - and I still preserve that piece of paper as a souvenir."
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"Even today, no one knows the right kind of treatment that has to be offered to someone who inhales MIC gas," says Dr Satpathy who works at the Hamida hospital, the only state hospital operating on the night of the disaster. "As the company that has been handling this dangerous stuff for decades, it is the responsibility of Union Carbide to advise the people in general and the medical community in particular about the line of treatment for someone who is exposed to MIC. But we do not have any official information from the company on this subject."
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The entire liability was settled for $470m - peanuts compared to the $5 billion so far paid in punitive damages by oil giant Exxon for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989.

Although Exxon fought local claims in the courts ? and is still fighting to reduce the amount of punitive damages ? the money already paid far exceeds anything offered in the Bhopal case. Not a single person died as a direct result of the Alaska accident, whereas over 20,000 persons have died in the aftermath of Bhopal. To make the comparison worse, Exxon paid $940 for cleaning each oil contaminated sea otter. In Bhopal, human victims damaged for life each received an average compensation of $500, barely enough to cover rudimentary medical expenses for five years.

Dr Satpathy has performed more than 20,000 autopsies on victims of the gas leak. "From the autopsies of the people who have died in the aftermath of the gas leak we have discovered at least 27 harmful chemicals which could only have come from the gas inhaled by them. But there is no information about the processes that could have led to the presence of these chemicals."

Information from corporate research including those carried out at the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, US, in 1963 and 1970 remain 'trade secrets'.
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The people wanted Warren Anderson, the chairman of Union Carbide to be imprisoned for this crime. Anderson did come to Bhopal for a brief period, but was treated as an important visiting dignitary rather than as the head of an operation guilty of a major crime against humanity. He was actually given an airlift from the company's air-conditioned research and development center overlooking the magnificent Bhopal lake. It is common knowledge in Bhopal that this glass-house was often used by the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh, for conducting his official business away from the public gaze.

The hard reality is that, in spite of the existence of an extradition treaty with the United States, the Indian law enforcement agencies have not been able to find Anderson, who is now a proclaimed absconder and wanted by Interpol.