Indians Remember Industrial Disaster

Twenty years after a cloud of deadly gas savaged this central Indian city, about 1,500 survivors and their supporters marched to the gates of a former Union Carbide plant, demanding justice for those still suffering from the effects of the industrial disaster.

“Never again should a Bhopal happen anywhere in the world,” activist Balkrishna Namdev told the crowd outside the abandoned plant. “However long it takes, our struggles to get justice will go on.”

The factory leaked 40 tons of poisonous gas on Dec. 3, 1984, killing more than 5,000 people and affecting hundreds of thousands of others, although the exact number of victims has never been clear. Many died over the years of related illnesses, including lung cancer and liver disease.

Union Carbide paid $470 million in compensation under a settlement with India’s government in 1989. But much of the money has been tied up by bureaucratic and legal issues.