Bhopal vigil marks grim anniversary

Survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster in India gathered Friday to mark the 20th anniversary of the tragedy by calling for more compensation and greater cleanup efforts.

• VIEWPOINT: Bhopal: Victims and warriors

Young and old carried candles and held photos of some of the 2,000 to 3,500 people who died immediately when 40 tonnes of lethal methyl isocynate gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant on the night of Dec. 3, 1984.

Government records say the total death toll from the tragedy is about 15,000, factoring in all those who died of leak-related diseases and injuries since 1984, but local victims' rights activists say the figure is at least double that.

One estimate says 555,000 people have become ill or suffered birth defects because of lingering toxins in the groundwater that supplies the central Indian city of Bhopal.

Calling the leak "genocide," the protesters at Friday's vigil shouted "Death to Dow!" and "We will fight, we will win!"

Michigan-based Dow Chemicals Co. bought Union Carbide Corp. three years ago.

Union Carbide paid about $560 million in a 1989 settlement to provide compensation for victims of the leak, but little has made its way to those most affected.

The Indian government says it wants to take proactive and urgent measures to clean up the abandoned plant, which still leaches toxic waste, but the environmental group Greenpeace says that after 20 years, this is the slowest first step in history.

The group estimates it will cost at least $35 million to remove carcinogenic toxins from soil and groundwater in the area affected.

Activist offers hoax statement from Dow

On the day of the anniversary, the British Broadcasting Corporation had to retract a story reporting that Dow Chemicals had accepted full responsibility for the Bhopal tragedy and was poised to offer $12 billion more in compensation.

An activist "falsely identified himself as a Dow employee" and made the claim to the BBC, according to a statement posted on Dow's corporate website.

The statement continues: "Dow confirms that there was no basis whatsoever for this report."

(With files from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.)