Monday May 28, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

India to try to extradite ex-Union Carbide head

World Jun. 25, 2010 - 04:37PM JST ( 12 )

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12 Comments

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IvanCoughalotJun. 25, 2010 - 05:07PM JST

Where was the immediate $20bn settlement to clear this disaster up? Oh that's right, we only need to put things right when it's American territory we destroy through negligence and greed.
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elbudamexicanoJun. 25, 2010 - 05:47PM JST

Union Carbide should be ashamed of themselves! We should also BOYCOTT them, hurt them were it really hurts! RIP Bhopal Indian victims.
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FadamorJun. 25, 2010 - 10:06PM JST

Seriously guys? This happened over a quarter of a century ago! I'm amazed that Indian courts are so slow that they're just now issuing verdicts.

elbudamexicano, feel free to boycott Union Carbide though I'm not sure how you would do so. The company hasn't existed for 9 years.

Union Carbide paid $470 million to the Indian government back in 1989 for the disaster, so that would be about $827 million in today's dollars. Now the Indian government wants to sue for MORE money?!? When will it stop?
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Good_JorbJun. 25, 2010 - 10:17PM JST

The government will also pursue liability claims against Dow Chemical Co, which took over Union Carbide in 2001, seven years after Union Carbide sold its interest in the Bhopal plant.

If a person buys a gas station with a leaky holding tank, they are liable for the clean up of the gas. Dow Chemicals bought the factory knowing that it was polluted, they inherited the cost of the remaining clean-up.
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MolenirJun. 26, 2010 - 01:25AM JST

If a person buys a gas station with a leaky holding tank, they are liable for the clean up of the gas. Dow Chemicals bought the factory knowing that it was polluted, they inherited the cost of the remaining clean-up.

Umm no. Really. In your analogy, the station paid for the cleanup, and then was purchased afterwards, once a settlement over the issue was complete. The neighbors though weren't happy, and demanded the government take them to task even more, and being politicians, they agreed. Legally, Dow has no connection to this. Union Carbide already settled the issue in 1989, prior to the purchase. The Indian Government getting hammered on the issue, now decides they want to do more. If this was 1988, they could certainly ask for more, but now, more then 21 years after the case was settled, no.
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FadamorJun. 26, 2010 - 01:57AM JST

And in this case, the plant was closed after the leak and before the clean-up. Union Carbide's interest in the Bhopal plant was sold in 1994, so when Dow purchased Union Carbide in 2001, the Bhopal plant was NOT part of the assets purchased.

The Indian government took the $470 million from Union Carbide so that THEY could do the clean-up. The Indian government is fishing for cash and they see a big lunker in Dow just within casting range. I don't think they're going to be reeling this fish in, however.
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sf2kJun. 26, 2010 - 02:41AM JST

try him in Japan, there's still a death penalty isn't there?
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MolenirJun. 26, 2010 - 04:06AM JST

try him in Japan, there's still a death penalty isn't there?

You say that, implying that he ought to get the death penalty. Did he murder someone, or order their deaths? Was he the one specifically setting policy to design plants so that they were unsafe, or was he merely the head of the organization.

Let me give you a quick example. Lets say a worker in Homeland Security does something stupid and accidentally kills a bunch of people. Should Obama be executed for it? That makes about as much sense as this. India already punished all of the people running the facility, and those above them. The only ones left are the actual head of the organization. So going along with the previous analogy, Napolitano and all her deputies get years in jail and now you're saying Obama should be executed as well.
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djuiceJun. 26, 2010 - 05:59AM JST

This will be a stretch even for India. Not likely to reach any settlement here at all, not even extradition.
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some14someJun. 26, 2010 - 06:18AM JST

This will be a stretch even for India. Not likely to reach any settlement here at all, not even extradition.

true, poor nations don't have equal rights.
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MolenirJun. 26, 2010 - 08:18AM JST

true, poor nations don't have equal rights.

Not about equal rights, its about justice. Trying to have someone arrested and extradited based on nothing, doesn't meet the smell test. You may hate him, blame him for what happened in Bhopal all those years ago, but that was settled by India more then 20 years ago. Trying for a redo all these years later just doesn't work.