Protests Recall Anniversary of Bhopal Deaths

Hundreds of survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak beat and burned effigies of the former chairman of Union Carbide Corp. on Saturday on the first of two days of protests marking the fifth anniversary of history’s worst industrial disaster.

Demonstrators staged evening processions through the streets of the capital of Madhya Pradesh state, 375 miles south of New Delhi, shouting “Down with Union Carbide!” and “Hang Warren Anderson!”

Anderson was the chairman of the multinational firm when poison fumes escaped in the early hours of Dec. 3, 1984, from an underground tank at the firm’s now-defunct pesticide plant and covered large areas of this city.

More than 1,750 people died that day, and since then, the lingering effects of the fumes have boosted the death toll to at least 3,600, with an average of five deaths a week, doctors say.

Hundreds of survivors joined Saturday night’s processions organized by private victims’ rights groups, with effigies of Anderson borne ahead of the marchers as they made their way through the streets in the cold evening air.