01 May 2004	Saturday	10 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

UNITED NATIONS: Disappointed after 20 years of appeals to courts and governments, survivors of the Union Carbide gas disaster in India are urging United Nations agencies to start relief and rehabilitation work in their hometown Bhopal, where hundreds of thousands of people still suffer from exposure to toxic material.

"The conditions are so bad that people think it would have been better to die on that night," Rushed Bee, one of the survivors told reporters on Thursday before meeting UN officials. "People continue to die at the rate of one a day. Yet the UN agencies, such as UNICEF, WHO and ILO remain silent."

Bee, 48, lost six of her family members as a result of the Bhopal tragedy, when 40 tons of lethal methyl isocyante (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant. She and another survivor, Champa Dev Sukla, 52, said the United Nations has failed to act in Bhopal because the incident was not a natural disaster.

"Is this an indication of the UN's willingness to sacrifice its mandate in the face of corporate might?" she asked. Earlier this month, both Bee and Sukla won the 2004 Goldman Award for their activism. They are now touring the United States to bring the Bhopal case to the attention of US lawmakers and citizens.

More than 12,000 people died as a direct result of the 1984 gas leak. The incident has left a trail of health problems, as thousands of tons of toxic waste abandoned by Union Carbide in and around its factory site remain in the city.

Health activists say poisons from the wastes have leached into the groundwater used by more than 20,000 people living close to the abandoned factory, and another 100,000 people are seriously ill.

Last year, the 'Journal of the American Medical Association' published a study that found male children born to gas-exposed parents in Bhopal were lighter, thinner, shorter and had on average smaller head circumferences than other children, confirming the impact of the toxic gas on the second generation.

"Children are born with cancer because their mothers' milk is poisoned," said Bee, her voice choking with emotion. "These children know when they are going to die and we don't know what to tell them."

Bee and other survivors say they want the World Health Organization (WHO) to start epidemiological and clinical studies of the residents and to help develop sustainable treatment methods. They are also asking the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to research and monitor children of exposed parents and to start rehabilitation work.

Union Carbide and its new owner Dow Chemical have refused to help clean up and rehabilitation efforts at Bhopal. Dow continues to evade summons to appear in the on-going criminal case in a city court, maintaining it has no moral or legal obligation for the incident.

Subsequent to the disaster, Union Carbide was charged with manslaughter, and its former chairman Warren Anderson still faces criminal charges in India for "culpable homicide not amounting to murder". -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.