Green Party calls on Minister for Foreign Affairs to put pressure on India over Bhopal
Six people, including three victims of the Bhopal gas disaster, began an indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi on Tuesday 11th March 2006 . They are part of a 46-member team that walked 800 km from Bhopal to New Delhi to present their demands to the Indian Government. The Indian Prime Minister has yet to meet them, or offer any response to their demands.
Green Party Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs John Gormley TD said, “What happened in Bhopal in December 1984, was, and continues to be, the worst chemical disaster the world has seen. Thousands of people - 15,000 according to official figures and 33,000 according to activists - have died and 100,000 suffer from chronic illnesses related to the gas leak. Over twenty-one years after the disaster occurred, the site has not been cleaned up, the people remain without clean water and Union Carbide, and its parent company, Dow Chemical Company, has not been made accountable for the failures that led to the tragedy.
“People from fifteen countries, including Ireland, will participate in a rolling international hunger strike in support of the victims. Their demands include a national commission on Bhopal, clean water, the prosecution of the criminal case against Union Carbide and the clean up of the toxic factory site by its current owners Dow.
“I would strongly urge the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, particularly in the light of senior Government figures’ recent trip to India in January of this year and the signing of three Memorandums of Understanding between the Irish Government and the Indian authorities, to exert pressure on the Indian Government through all channels available to him, in order that the people of Bhopal get justice.”