Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Disastro Bhopal: dopo ventisei anni, otto colpevoli

http://www.tgcom.mediaset.it/mondo/articoli/articolo483427.shtml
Disastro Bhopal: otto colpevoli
India, dopo 26 anni la sentenza
Disastro Bhopal: ventisei anni dopo uno dei disastri industriali più
terribili mai accaduti nella storia, una sentenza condanna otto
persone tra cui Warren Anderson, l'allora presidente della fabbrica di
pesticidi Union Carbide da dove fuoriscì il gas micidiale. A emettere
giudizio un tribunale della città, in India centrale.
Oltre a Anderson, tra i condannati, anche sette impiegati indiani,
tutti riconosciuti colpevoli di "negligenza" a due anni di carcere.
Finalmente, dichiara Mohan P. Tiwari, il più alto magistrato del
tribunale della città indiana, "i colpevoli hanno un volto".
La sentenza arriva dopo che un ampio collegio ha esaminato le
testimonianze di 178 persone e studiato 3mila documenti. Le autorità
statunitensi non hanno ancora concesso l'estradizione dell'ex
presidente della fabbrica di Bhopal della multinazionale americana,
Warren Anderson.
Disastro Bhopal
All'alba del 3 dicembre 1984, una nube di gas (40 tonnellate di
isocianato di metile) fuoriuscì dalla fabbrica della multinazionale
americana di pesticidi Union Carbide, uccidendo istantaneamente 3.500
persone e causando la morte di altre 25mila negli anni successivi,
nella città di Bhopal, nello stato indiano del Madhya Pradesh.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article448748.ece?homepage=true
Keshub Mahindra, 6 others get 2-year jail for Bhopal tragedy
Mahim Pratap Singh
A court here on Monday convicted all the seven accused, including the
former chairman of Union Carbide, Keshub Mahindra, in the Bhopal gas
tragedy case and awarded them a maximum of two years' imprisonment.
They were released on bail later in the evening.
The verdict came 26 years after the tragedy on the night of December
2-3, 1984 ravaged the city, killing over 3,000 people immediately and
thousands more in the following months.
Dozens of tonnes of poisonous methylisocyanate gas leaked out from the
Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant and over 35,000 people were
killed in the aftermath of the leak, according to rights activists.
Warren Anderson, chairman of the U.S.-based Union Carbide group, who
was named an ‘accused' in the tragedy, was absconding throughout the
trial period. Interestingly, the court did not mention his name on
Monday.
The judgment pronounced by Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P. Tiwari
convicted Mr. Mahindra, production assistant S.I. Quereshi, production
manager S.P. Choudhary, plant superintendent K.V. Shetty, manager J.N.
Mukund, vice-president Kishore Kumar and managing director Vijay
Gokhale.
The eighth accused is the UCIL. The ninth accused, R.B. Roychoudhary,
died in the course of trial.
The accused were convicted under Sections 304-A (causing death by
negligence), 304(II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336,
337 and 338 (gross negligence) of the IPC.
Hundreds examined
The trial, which ran for over 23 turbulent years, saw the examination
of hundreds of prosecution-side witnesses and deposition by eight
defence-side witnesses before over a dozen judges. Documents running
into thousands of pages were produced during the trial.
The FIR was lodged on December 3, 1984 and the CBI filed the charge
sheet on December 1, 1987.
The prosecution charged the company with not heeding the feedback on
inadequate safety norms and reports about other maintenance lapses.
Terming the verdict a “delayed-thus-denied justice,” NGO workers and
activists said the $470 million paid by Union Carbide 20 years ago
could never draw the veil over the heinous crime committed by the
corporate giant.
Protest by victims
PTI reports:
Disappointed with the verdict, scores of gas victims staged a protest
on the court premises and raised slogans against Mr. Anderson.
Reacting to the judgment, the U.S.-based company said neither it nor
its officials were subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian court as
they were not involved in the operation of the plant, which was owned
and operated by the UCIL.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article449002.ece
Fateful moments of Bhopal gas disaster
In the apocalyptic moments on the wintry night of December 2-3, 1984,
people simply started dying in the most hideous ways after a toxic gas
leak.
Some vomited uncontrollably, went into convulsions and fell dead.
Others choked to death, drowning in their own body fluids after the
Union Carbide's pesticide factory, whose safety systems were
reportedly not functioning, exploded filling the streets of Bhopal
with toxic clouds of methyl isocyanate gas (MIC).
During the intervening night of December 2, a large amount of water
entered ‘Tank 610,' which contained 42 tonnes of MIC, much more than
the safety rules permitted. A runaway reaction started, which was
accelerated by contaminants, high temperatures and other factors. The
reaction generated a major increase in the temperature inside the tank
to over 200 degree Celsius. This forced the emergency venting of
pressure from the tank, releasing a large volume of toxic gases.
The reaction was speeded up by the presence of iron from corroding
pipelines. It is known that workers cleaned the pipelines with water
but they were not told by the supervisor to add a slip-blind water
isolation plate. Because of this, and of the bad maintenance, the
workers consider it possible for water to have accidentally entered
the tank.
Union Carbide first maintained that a “disgruntled worker”
deliberately connected a hose to a pressure gauge. Its investigation
team found no evidence of this suggested.
The timeline of the fateful intervening night of December 2—3 as per
available information:
The scene inside
9 p.m.: Water cleaning of pipes starts.
10 p.m.: Water enters Tank 610, reaction starts.
10.30 p.m.: Gases are emitted from the vent gas scrubber tower.
12.30 a.m.: The large siren sounds and is turned off.
12:50 a.m.: The siren is heard within the plant area. The workers
escape.
The scene outside
10.30 p.m.: First sensations due to the gases are felt – suffocation,
cough, burning eyes and vomiting.
1 a.m.: Police are alerted. Residents of the area evacuate. Union
Carbide director denies any leak.
2 a.m.: The first people reach Hamidia Hospital. Symptoms include
visual impairment and blindness, respiratory difficulties, frothing at
the mouth and vomiting.
2.10 a.m.: The alarm is heard outside the plant.
4 a.m.: The gases are brought under control.
6 a.m.: A police loudspeaker broadcasts: “Everything is normal.”

Migliore articolo italiano:
--
http://www.corriere.it/esteri/10_giugno_07/strage-bhopal-otto-colpevoli_e94bda2a-720e-11df-9357-00144f02aabe.shtml
RISCHIANO UNA PENA MASSIMA DI DUE ANNI. I FAMILIARI DELLE VITTIME:
«PENA CAPITALE»
Bhopal, 8 colpevoli a 25 anni dalla strage
Identificati i responsabili del disastro che fece migliaia di morti:
sono ex dipendenti indiani della Union Carbide
NEW DELHI - Un tribunale distrettuale di Bhopal, in India, ha emesso
una sentenza in base alla quale otto persone sono riconosciute
colpevoli, per negligenza, della tragedia avvenuta più di 25 anni fa
in una fabbrica della Union Carbide. Gli otto imputati rischiano una
pena massima di due anni. Anche se domenica molti familiari delle
vittime sono tornati a chiedere la pena capitale per i responsabili.
ANDERSON - Fra gli otto imputati, tutti dipendenti indiani della
fabbrica, non figura, perché latitante, lo statunitense Warren
Anderson, ai tempi della tragedia di Bhopal presidente della Union
Carbide Corporatio. Arrestato nel 1984 e rilasciato dietro cauzione da
un tribunale dello Stato del Madhya Pradesh Anderson, 81 anni, è
considerato il responsabile principale del disastro, ma essendo in
stato di latitanza non ha potuto essere processato. Il 31 luglio 2009
la magistratura indiana ha formato un mandato di arresto nei confronti
di Anderson che però fino ad oggi non è stato eseguito dalla polizia.
IL DISASTRO - Nella notte fra il 2 e il 3 dicembre 1984, una nube
altamente tossica fuoriuscì dalla fabbrica della Union Carbide India
Limited (UCIL) di Bhopal, filiale indiana di uno dei giganti americani
della chimica: i morti furono migliaia, tra 8.000 e 10.000 secondo il
Centro di ricerca medica indiana, oltre 25.000 secondo Amnesty
International. Ad oggi si calcola che le vittime siano 20.000 e che
500.000 persone abbiano subito patologie di differente gravità per le
conseguenze dell'inquinamento di terra, aria e acqua.
IMPIANTO ABBANDONATO - A un quarto di secolo di distanza, l'impianto
giace abbandonato e dietro i suoi pesanti portoni d'acciaio c'è quello
che gli ambientalisti definiscono «un disastro nel disastro», un luogo
ormai altamente inquinato che, secondo nuovi studi, sta lentamente
avvelenando l'acqua potabile per migliaia di indiani.

 Disastro Bhopal: otto colpevoli
2 anni a testa. Ma il nostro Antola ci dice che nel capitalismo chi fa
disastri ecologici paga per gli errori fatti. Eccolo servito...

India, dopo 26 anni la sentenza
però alla BBC han fatto vedere le famiglie delle vittime e non erano per 
nulla contenti.
Due anni è un po' ridicolo, in effetti
Sembra l'Italia.

 Due anni un po' ridicolo, in effetti
Sì, è disgustoso, e il primo colpevole, l'americano, non ha mai pagato
nulla -- e per gli altri, ci sarà l'appello.

 Due anni un po' ridicolo, in effetti
http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article450120.ece
Pitiful justice
When eight out of 12 original accused in the world's worst industrial
disaster, the Bhopal gas leak of December 3-4, 1984, are brought to
justice nearly 26 years later, it is difficult to respond to the
verdict with anything other than dismay. Key protagonists Warren
Anderson and Union Carbide Corporation (UCC, USA) have literally got
away with mass murder. The eight Indians held guilty, among them
Keshub Mahindra, chairman of UCC's Indian subsidiary, have been
sentenced to two years' imprisonment by the trial court. Mr. Anderson
was Accused No. 1 in the 1987 charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau
of Investigation; as Chief Executive Officer of the parent UCC, he was
directly responsible for the deaths and devastation that came in the
wake of the leak of toxic methyl isocyanate gas from Carbide's Bhopal
plant. Mr. Anderson, who had approved and ratified the standards in
design, safety, and operations of the plant, was placed under house
arrest immediately after the calamity but he won his release on a
promise to return to India and stand trial. Of course, he never
intended to return, and successive Indian governments merely went
through the motions of trying to secure his extradition. In 1992, the
district court in Bhopal declared Mr. Anderson a fugitive from the
law. In 1993, the case was bifurcated and the eight Indian accused
were tried separately.
The families of the gas victims are bound to see the Bhopal verdict as
a cruel joke on their patience and suffering. The minimal punishment
handed down to the eight Indians is less a reflection on the Bhopal
judge than a consequence of a 1996 Supreme Court order diluting the
charges — from culpable homicide to causing death by negligence, which
carries a maximum imprisonment of two years. The unconscionably
delayed verdict also raises larger liability questions for industrial
disasters, especially in the context of the Civil Liability Nuclear
Damages Bill. The Bhopal toll and consequences, short- and long-term,
were horrific beyond precedent. The 4,000 immediate deaths and the
tens of thousands disabled were the First Act of a heart-rending saga
that continues to take its toll to this day. Thousands more have died
from long-term exposure, not to mention children born with congenital
defects and those falling sick from drinking water contaminated by the
uncleared waste lying around the Carbide factory grounds. What the
government has done for the generations of poor victims will go down
in the annals of infamy. It sued Carbide for $3 billion but settled
for 15 per cent of the amount, as a consequence of which survivors
received an average compensation of less than Rs.15,000. Those born
with disabilities and others suffering the long-term consequences have
been left to fend for themselves. It is truly a case of too little,
too late.