US official enrages India with warning over BhopalArticlePictures: BhopalChildren near the Union Carbide site in Bhopal are reported to be still suffering from the effects of the explosion in 1984
A senior White House official has warned India that it risks damaging its investment relationship with the United States if it seeks justice from the American company behind the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in which many thousands died.
Michael Froman, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, told an Indian counterpart in an e-mail: “We are hearing a lot of noise about the Dow Chemical [Company] issue. I trust that you are monitoring it carefully.”
Mr Froman, who is a close friend of the President and is regarded as one of the most influential technocrats in Washington, added: “I am not familiar with all the details, but I think we want to avoid developments which put a chilling effect on our investment relationship.”
The e-mail comments were made to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the deputy chairman of India’s Planning Commission. The correspondence, which apparently referred to a surge of anger in India earlier this year over a lack of justice for Bhopal victims, was obtained by an Indian television channel. Neither country has denied its authenticity.
Mr Ahluwalia had been canvassing for US support for Indian access to loans from the World Bank. Mr Froman’s apparent linking of that issue to Bhopal has caused uproar in India.
In 1984 a leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, killed about 3,500 people in three days, according to the Indian Government. Campaigners say that the gas killed at least 25,000 and caused illness, including cancer, blindness and birth defects, in up to 500,000 more.
India originally tried to sue Union Carbide for $3.3 billion in damages in the US, but agreed to accept $470 million in compensation in an out-of-court settlement in 1989. In 2001 the company was bought by Dow Chemical, another American corporation, which said that the legal case had been resolved. The Indian Government recently signalled that it will seek more than £200 million in additional compensation.
Indian anger over the tragedy was reignited in June when seven former Union Carbide managers were convicted for negligence, but only sentenced to two years in jail and fined 100,000 rupees (£1,380). Each was allowed to remain free on bail pending appeal.
The lenient sentences led to renewed calls in India for the extradition of Warren Anderson, Union Carbide’s elderly former chairman, who lives near New York. Activist groups also want Dow Chemical to pay further damages. An advocacy group for Bhopal victims criticised Mr Froman’s comments, saying that the Obama Administration was “not pursuing the same levels of accountability from American Dow Chemical as it has from BP” over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The leaked e-mail showed that the Administration “values profit over people, when the profit benefits American corporations”, the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal said. “Froman’s statement shows callous disregard for ongoing injustice and lack of accountability 26 years after the disaster,” it said
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