Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-16-Speech-4-161"
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"en.20041216.12.4-161"2
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"Mr President, while Dow Chemicals and the Indian Government argue over who is to blame for the Bhopal disaster, the people continue to suffer and die from their two-decade legacy. More than 7 000 people died within days, but inaction has seen 15 000 further deaths which could have been avoided. Even today, 20 years on, neither side seems to care about the suffering, only about their reputations. As many as 100 000 people are suffering chronic and debilitating illnesses, with 10 to 15 people a month continuing to die.
The survivors still wait for justice: compensation and medical assistance in many cases. The plant site, which continues to pollute, will cost an estimated GBP 15 million to decommission, compared with Dow's yearly sales of GBP 16 billion and India's GDP of GBP 320 billion. The Indian Government has also yet to spend USD 330 million of the original compensation given to them by Union Carbide. The pollution in the water supply in nearby slums is also 500 times above the maximum recommended WHO levels.
How can the international community, a multinational company and one of the world's main countries, stand by and watch this happen? Just now it should not be about who is to blame, but who is going to stop the suffering. Bhopal resident, Abdul Jabbar Khan, who runs the Bhopal Women Gas Victims' Industrial Association, said in the Guardian newspaper in the UK: 'In New York after 9/11 there was compensation, punishment and clean-up in just a few months. In Bhopal, after 20 years, we have nothing.'"@en1
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