WORLD : Indians Protest Bhopal Settlement

Thousands of women and children who survived the Bhopal gas leak staged a sit-in in front of the Supreme Court today and shouted, “Justice has died,” to protest the $470-million settlement between Union Carbide Corp. and the government.

The demonstration, sponsored by the Bhopal Women Gas Victims Front, started as Parliament began a three-month session in which opposition parties plan to question Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s administration about the accord. Opposition leaders, victims’ right groups, newspaper editorials and survivors of the Dec. 3, 1984, leak of lethal gas from Union Carbide’s now-defunct pesticide plant in Bhopal have condemned the settlement as insufficient. The government had been seeking $3 billion in damages from the U.S.-based multinational but last Wednesday agreed to the Supreme Court-mediated settlement.