An entire city gassed with deadly chemicals. The massacre of tens of thousands, according to
Amnesty International. An apocalypse designed by one of America's wealthiest corporations.
Yet when the Independent speaks of "rape", the Guardian of "disgrace" and Jon Snow of "a crime against humanity", they are not talking about THAT NIGHT - but of what has happened since to those who survived it.
The "Hiroshima of the chemical industry" was only the beginning. Join me below the flip for more about Bhopal - a disaster which remains one of the most graphic examples of the cruelty of corporations towards humanity.
This diary is the third in a series on Bhopal, which will eventually cover the world's worst-ever industrial disaster in more detail.
I'll be writing these semi-regularly over the next two weeks. While the past two diaries have discussed THAT NIGHT itself and the decisions which turned Bhopal into a gas chamber, this diary will focus on the poisons Carbide left behind in Bhopal - which continue to contaminate and kill.
By the way, if you're wondering "Why Bhopal, why now?" there's a simple reason. Several dozen Bhopal survivors - sick and destitute though they are - are nearing the end of a 5-week, 500-mile march to New Delhi. When they reach they intend to present their demands for justice and a life of dignity to the Prime Minister of India - simple requests such as unpoisoned water that many of us take for granted. You can support them right now by sending a FREE FAX to the Prime Minister of India. You can also see photos and read the daily blog from the march here.
Carbide killed tens of thousands in Bhopal, and like a guilty fugitive, it ran away. Its factory was left abandoned without being cleaned. Poisons lie heaped in the open. Local wells and breast-milk are now toxic. Union Carbide and its new owner Dow say that clean-up is not their responsibility. So the factory continues to poison. Four months ago a calf strayed in through a gap in the wall.
The death of a calf
This calf died on 24th November in Bhopal. People saw him stagger from the Union Carbide factory through a gap in the broken wall. He fell and started beating his head on the ground. His tongue protruded, he was foaming, his muscles were twitching, he was gasping to breathe. After a while his eyes bulged, and large tears rolled from them. He began urinating uncontrollably. Dung oozed from under his tail. Despite themselves being desperately poor, local people collected money to pay for a vet. But the calf's convulsions grew worse. People brought blankets from their homes and covered him, they lit a fire to keep him warm. After twelve hours in excruciating pain, he died.
The death of a city
Many people were crying as they tried to save the calf, for every detail of his death throes repeated the agonies of their relatives and friends on `that night' 20 years ago.
They were angry, too, that Union Carbide's factory, although now a rusting skeleton in a site turning to jungle, is still killing. It's a deeply poisonous place. Just three hours inside were enough to kill the calf. Last year, BBC reporter Paul Vickers could hardly breathe as he reported from a warehouse where gunny-sacks of pesticide have split open. Children have been in, you can see their footprints in the chemical dust. A wooden spinning top lies in weeds beside the wreck of tank 610, the tank that blew on `that night'. Nearby, drops of mercury gleam on the soil. In 1999 Greenpeace found that mercury pollution in some spots was 6 million times the safe limit (pdf), and that local wells were laced with huge amounts of chemicals known to cause cancers and birth-defects. A 2002 study found the same poisons in breast-milk of women living nearby (doc). People who use the water suffer from illnesses that echo those that still afflict survivors of the 1984 gas disaster: breathlessness, chronic cough, menstrual chaos, recurring fevers, numb limbs, aching bodies, anxiety, depression. Cancers and growth problems are on the rise. And the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms (pdf) that the chemical disaster in Bhopal is spreading to the children, a second generation of victims.
The life of a child
Alfaaz lives near a place near where Union Carbide dumped thousands of tons of toxic chemicals in open-air lagoons. At 18 months he began losing weight and wouldn't grow. Doctors could do no good. His only word is ammi when he wants his mum's attention. She blames contaminated water for his illness, but is cynical about the chances of his story moving anyone. "Who has ever listened to us? What good does talking do?"
You can understand her cynicism. For years the politicians have done nothing. And sometimes even worse.
"We asked for clean water and they beat us"
I did not see the man who struck me. The police were kicking women, hitting really hard with thick sticks. People were crying and screaming. I was trying to get my children down the stairs and out of that place. The fist flew from nowhere into my eye. Such pain, I thought I'd gone blind. I was terrified for my children. When we got outside I sat down and thought, `My God, are we less than human that they treat us this way?'
Three hundred of us women had gone with our kids to see a high official of the local government. Our wells are poisoned by chemicals leaking from the Union Carbide factory. We have no other water at all, we can't afford to buy it. We are all ill. Children's skin erupts in boils. People's bodies are filled with aches. Some get so giddy and breathless. Two doors from me is a man who has gone so anaemic he can hardly stand up. Many people are too sick to work. Neighbours help each other, but we are all of us rather poor people, rarely's there anything to spare. A year ago thanks to a friendly lawyer, we petitioned the Supreme Court for help, the Supreme Court ordered the local authorities to supply us with clean drinking water. They simply ignored the order. Nearly two years has passed but next to nothing has been done. I wanted to say to this big official, `My daughter's sick. Our water is poisoned. Why have you ignored the Supreme Court's order? Why won't you help us?'
We were told the man wasn't there. Riot police came, carrying shields and thick sticks. They began beating us. They hit so hard that stick-shapes are bruised on people's bodies. (See the pictures here.) Our friend Rashida was honoured in front of the whole world when she won the Goldman Prize last year, they hit her on the head, her hair was full of blood. They had no pity even for the children. We'd taken them along so the authorities could see the little ones who all their lives have been drinking and washing in poison. My small two, aged 6 and 3 were crushed in the panic.
Our water began stinking years ago. It had a fiery taste, sometimes it was a browny colour. We told the authorities but nothing was done. The problem was the nearby Union Carbide factory. After that horrible night when the factory killed thousands, Carbide left without cleaning it. They left tons of chemicals. Far away in America, they denied they were poisoning our water. Their own company papers show that they knew otherwise. When they put fish in water from the factory, all the fish instantly died.
To this day if you go the factory you can see the poisons for yourself. In open warehouses children and animals leave footprints in chemical dust. Chemicals spilled from rotted tanks lies in piles of brown rocks. Since 1984 we've had 21 monsoons, three months of hard rain each year. The poisons wash deep into the soil, into the underground water, into our wells. In 1999 Greenpeace did tests and found that the water was full of poisons known to cause cancer and birth defects. Still the company and politicians wouldn't help. A local government minister paid us a visit. In front of journalists he drank a glass of well water to prove that it was safe, but we saw him a minute later behind a building sticking two fingers down his throat. Since then the same poisons have been found in the breast milk of local women. Still nothing was done. We asked the Supreme Court to help, the rest you know.
Sanno said that the women who were beaten for asking for their rights are poor. She did not tell you how poor - that to stave off hunger people will bind cloths round their bellies, or when their children cry from hunger give them water to fill their stomachs. Many lived in their houses long before Union Carbide built its factory nearby. They did not ask to be gassed on the night of horror, to watch their loved ones die, for their health to be ruined, then as if this weren't bad enough, for Union Carbide to poison their water. They deserve better than company and politicians each cynically blaming the other, both getting away with doing nothing. What is being done to them is wicked, unjust and immoral. Please don't be one of those who just close their eyes. If the beating of innocent women disgusts you, or the wasting away of small children, do something about it.
To learn more or do more, visit Students for Bhopal and bhopal.net.