Warren Anderson
December 2, 1973 – Warren Anderson sits on a Management Committee meeting that takes a decision to deliberately underinvest in a new pesticides plant In Bhopal, India. The same meeting ratifies plans to install unproven technology in the ultra-hazardous MIC-Sevin process.
May, 1984–Warren Anderson, now Union Carbide’s CEO, signs documents approving a desperate plan to sell parts of the loss making Bhopal plant after the failure an earlier cost-cutting programme overseen by US managers.
December 2-3, 1984 – 27 tons of methyl isocyanate, a deadly chemical, leak from Carbide’s Bhopal plant, killing thousands, after six grossly under-designed safety systems fail. Many of them were shut down to save money.
December 7, 1984–As the scale of the disaster becomes known, Warren Anderson flies to Bhopal. He is arrested by the local authorities and charged with “culpable homicide”, or manslaughter. After pressure from the American and Indian Governments, Anderson is released after paying a $2000 bond and promising to return for any court case.
December 11, 1984 - The New York Times reports on a press conference at which Anderson is asked whether he would return to Indian to face trial if fully indicted. Andersonreplies, ''I would consider it, yes, certainly.''
December 1, 1987 – The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Indian equivalent of the FBI, formally charges Anderson with “culpable homicide” and other serious offenses. The Union Carbide Corporation and several of its subsidiaries and Indian executives are also charged.
February 9, 1989–TheChief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Bhopal, issues non-bailable warrant of arrest against Warren Anderson, accused No.1, for repeatedly ignoring summons.
February 14-15, 1989 – Union Carbide settles civil charges relating to the disaster with the Indian Government. As a condition of the agreement, the criminal charges pending against Andersonand are waived.
October 3, 1991 – In response to a legal challenge filed by Bhopal survivors, the Indian Supreme Court revokes the criminal immunity granted to Anderson and Carbide by the 1989 settlement.
November 11, 1991 - Criminal cases against Anderson, Carbide, and the other accused are revived in the CJM’s Court at Bhopal.
January 1, 1992–A proclamation calling for Anderson to appearin court is published in the Washington Post by the CJM.
February 1, 1992– After ignoring four court summonses, Anderson is proclaimed “absconding from justice” – a fugitive from law – by the court.
May 24, 2002 – The CBI, working under the Home Ministry, applies in the CJM, Bhopal to dilute outstanding charges against Warren Anderson, from "culpable homicide" to "criminal negligence". Whilst the former carries a possible sentence of ten years, the latter carries a sentence of only two years and is a non-extraditable offense. The attorney for the survivors protests that, “It is not within the experience of the law that an accused who absconds and evades the process of law and justice is rewarded by dilution of charges.’
June 29, 2002 – An indefinite hunger strike is launched in Delhi - in temperatures up to 47 degrees Celsius - by representatives of three survivors organizations to protest the attempt to dilute the charges against Anderson. A global relay hunger strike also announced. Over a thousand separate hunger strikers from India, USA, UK, France, Italy, China, South Africa and other countries take part.
August 28, 2002 – The charges of culpable homicide against Warren Anderson are reaffirmed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, who demands his immediate extradition from the U.S. to India.
August 29, 2002– Following a lead from the UK's Daily Mirror, Greenpeace finds Warren Anderson and visits him at luxury home in the Hamptons, New York: he has been in hiding for over a decade. Greenpeace serves him with an arrest warrant.
May 2003 – The Indian Government conveys its request for extradition of Anderson to the US Government via its embassy in WashingtonD.C.
July 13, 2004 –The US Government rejects India’s request for Anderson’s extradition. The rejection is made on technical grounds, such as the non-framing of charges against Warren Anderson in the ongoing criminal case in Bhopal district court.
Medical Situation
December 2-3, 1984 – 27 tons of methyl isocyanate and other reaction products leak from Union Carbide’s Bhopal pesticide plant, spreading throughout the city of Bhopal. More than half a million people are exposed to the gas and 8,000 die within days.
December 3, 1984 – Union Carbide’s Chief Medical Officer in Bhopal advises hospital doctors that the gas is similar to tear gas, and that patients should simply rinse their eyes with water.
December 13, 1984 –ACarbide doctor based in Institute, Dr Bipin Awasia, claims that sodium thiosulphate, a known antidote to cyanide exposure, is ineffective and should not be administered to gas victims, thus reversing advice he telexed on December 3. Administrations of this treatment are halted by the government, and records confiscated. Success of the treatment would have proven that the gases had crossed into the bloodstream, proving a more extensive liability for Carbide.
December 14, 1984 – Two doctors - ‘top medical experts’ – flown to Bhopal by Carbide claim that the effects of the gas will be temporary. One of the doctors, Hans Weil –previously reprimanded for unethical conduct by a US court for fudging medical data on behalf of the Johns-Manville corporation - predicted that ‘most victims would fully recover’. Pulmonary specialist Thomas Petty, also hired by Carbide, said that victims were ‘recovering rapidly’. No report made by Carbide sponsored doctors was made available to the Indian government.
February 11, 1985 –The Chemical & Engineering News reports: “Union Carbide toxicologists may have the best information on MIC toxicity around, but they’re treating it like a trade secret… Carbide considers details of its findings to be proprietary.” Gas relief commissioner Dr Dass confirms that Carbide refuses to release internal studies it has conducted on the health effects of MIC exposure – studies that would help doctors treat patients, and save lives – or disclose the complete composition of the gas that was released in Bhopal.
April 16, 1985– Judge Keenan, presiding over a civil case filed by survivors against Carbide in New York, orders Carbide not to wait for the outcome of litigation but to contribute ‘between $5-10 million’ to relief efforts as ‘a matter of fundamental human decency.’
November 1985 – After 7 months of wrangling Carbide donates the minimum $5 million to the Red Cross. This money is reclaimed by Carbide, in its entirety, via the 1989 settlement with the Indian Government, thus closing down the Red Cross hospital in Bhopal.
1988 - Mortality rates determined by the Indian Council for Medical Research show around 2,500 extra deaths in gas-affected areas in that year alone.
December 14, 1991 – Two US scientists publish theory of a “chemical taxi”, glutathione, responsible for transporting MIC around the bodies of gas victims and resulting in multi-systemic health effects. The theory follows mounting medical evidence of damage to organs and tissues such as eyes, heart, bones, muscles and gastrointestinal tract. Thousands of survivors have impaired immune systems, and many report reproductive problems. Spontaneous abortion rates remain high. Even children born since the disaster have suffered a range of ailments.
December, 1996 –The international Medical Commission on Bhopal (IMCB), a team of 13 independent expert doctors, publishes a final report. In addition to the widely recognised damage that methyl isocyanate caused to lungs and eyes, the IMCB identified likely neurotoxi-cological damage, and evident post traumatic stress syndrome. As many as 50,000 survivors may be still suffering from partial or total disability.
October 8, 2003– The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes a study that shows the second-generation affects of the gas: male children born to gas-exposed parents have a smaller head circumference and stunted growth compared to those children born to non-gas-affected parents.
November 29, 2004–Amnesty International releases a report stating that over 150,000 people continue to suffer from gas-related illnesses and diseases. More than 22,000 people have died till date, and one person continues to die each day in Bhopal because of their gas exposure.
Union Carbide’s Culpability
December 2, 1973 – Senior Carbide management in the US ratify a Capital Budget Plan for the Bhopal Plant that will result in a deliberate under-investment totalling $8 million:“the negotiated amounts will be mainly on the SEVIN project”. To make savings, the committee agrees to employ unproven technology in the ultra-hazardous MIC-Sevin process. The plan also prescribes a ”design review process” for the plant that requires any deviation from the process design supplied by US engineers to be reviewed by US engineers.
September 22, 1975 – In a loan application to a US export bank, Carbide announces it will source and provide valves, instrumentation, safety equipment and engineering services to the plant in Bhopal. Leaking valves, unable-to-cope safety systems and inadequate control instrumentation are primary factors in the disaster nine years later.
1978-1983 – The Bhopal factory, “an oversized plant with an under-sized market”, makes losses of $7.5 million.
June, 1979 –At a meeting of Carbide executives in Jacksonville, USA, the Bhopal plant is described as “the major critical issue”.
1981 – Robert Oldford, president of Carbide’s US-based agricultural products subsidiary, initiates a “Bhopal Task Force” to look at ways of making the plant profitable for Carbide.
May, 1982 – An internal safety audit of the Bhopal plant conducted by Carbide identifies 30 major hazards, 11 of which were in the dangerous MIC/phosgene units. Poorly trained personnel, rapid turnover of staff, leaking valves, shoddy gauges and inadequate water spray protection were all identified as representing “a higher potential for a serious incident or more serious consequences if an incident should occur.” All were identified elements in the disaster 30 months later, thanks to a continual cost-cutting programme imposed byCarbide that culled 335 jobs and which in 1983 realized savings of $1.25 million.
May 14, 1983 – The two unions at the Bhopal plant are forced to sign a ‘memorandum of agreement’ with Union Carbide India allowing cutting back of staffing and “eliminating such work practices which are not conducive to efficient working of the plant.” As a result, the numbers of field maintenance staff, and the operators in the MIC unit,are halved.
February 24, 1984 – Senior Carbide executives in the ‘Bhopal Task Force’ submit a desperate final plan to sell or lease parts of the loss-making Bhopal plant.
May, 1984 – Carbide engineers in the US authorize the installation of a ‘jumper’ or shunt line in the ultra-hazardous MIC unit. A cheap maintenance fix, the pipe enables water from a routine washing operation to take a short cut to a full tank of MIC seven months later.
September 10, 1984–An internal safetyreport on the MIC plant at Institute – Bhopal’s ‘sister plant’ –focussing on the dangers of MIC storage, states that a “catastrophic failure of the tank” could arise from “a combination of situations and possibilities”, and notes that there “have been instances of water contamination of the unit tanks in the past from several sources…”The report is not passed on to Bhopal. Three months later, the four central dangers cited in the report figure prominently in the disaster.
December 2-3, 1984 – 27 tons of methyl isocyanate, a deadly chemical, leak from Carbide’s Bhopal plant, killing thousands, after six grossly under-designed safety systems fail. Many of them were shut down to save money.
December 3, 1984 - Union Carbide’s lawyers begin a strategy for minimizing potential liability. William Krohley, of the law firm Kelley, Drye & Warren, boards a plane that evening as the first Carbide representative to head to India.
December 7, 1984–Jackson Browning, Carbide's vice president for health, safety and environmental affairs, confesses to theUK Guardian: "The Indian plant was designed and built by American nationals. As to the standards... they are the same. To the best of our knowledge, our employees in India complied with all laws and we are satisfied with the facilities and the operation of them."Soon after, company officials veer away from initial statements that admitted Carbide’s responsibility for design, safety and oversight in Bhopal.
March 20, 1985 – At the launch of Carbide’s report into the disaster, Warren Anderson completes Carbide’s volte face: “It’s their company, their plant, their people.” Congressman Henry Waxman remarks, “I don't think we can take Union Carbide's word for what happened in India and what might happen in Institute, West Virgina.” Five months later a gas leak at Institute – following Anderson’s reply to Waxman that he “can’t imagine such a thing happening here” - hospitalizes over 100 people.
June 19, 1985– Carbide’s lawyers devise a plan to delay all legal proceedings in order to squeeze the Indian government into accepting a low settlement. Carbide’s first offer is a paltry $100 million dollars, less than half its liability insurance cover, which the companyclaims “would pay the heirs of each dead person a hundred years of annual income in Bhopal”.Had this amount goneonly to a single relative of each of the officially dead, over one hundred years it would amount to $1 per week.
July 31, 1985 –In a memorandum of law submitted to the Southern District Court of New York, Carbide claims that the disaster was caused by Sikh terrorism. The previously unheard of group, ‘Black June’, is never mentioned again.
November 1985 – The American Lawyer reports on Bud Holman’s (Carbide’s counsel) delay tactics: “We can litigate 100,000 or 200,000 [separate damage trials] if we want to… If we’re going to defend ourselves – and we are – if there are 200,000 claimants, the 200,000 claimants are going to have to appear in court.” It’s estimated that this process would have taken around 2,000 years.
December 1985 – January 1986 –Company restructuring, or asset stripping, in the immediate aftermath of Bhopal lands its managers and major shareholders huge windfalls. Shareholders get a $33 bonus dividend plus $30 a sharefrom the sale of its battery business, and top executives a totalof $28 million in "golden parachutes". In the first nine months of 1986 alone, Carbide pays $410 million interest on debt accrued during the restructuring.
August 10, 1986 – Union Carbide claims that the disaster was caused by a “disgruntled employee” who deliberately introduced water into the tank of MIC after he was passed over for a promotion.
December 1, 1987 – The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Indian equivalent of the FBI, formally charges Carbide with “culpable homicide” and other serious offenses. Also charged are several of its subsidiaries, Indian executives and Anderson.
February 14-15, 1989–Union Carbide reaches a settlement with the Government of India, without the knowledge or consultation of the survivors. Carbide is to pay $470 million to the Indian Government for compensation, of which $200 million is not covered for by Carbide’s insurance. This amounts to 43 cents per share. Carbide’s annual report describes 1989, the year of the settlement, as its ‘best financial year on record’. In return, criminal immunity is granted to Carbide and its chief executive.
1989–By 1989, Carbide had spent at least $50 million on legal fees alone. How much it spent on public relations companies such as Burson Marsteller, whomit hired from Dec 20 1984, has not been disclosed.
November 11, 1991 - Criminal cases against Carbide, accused No.10, Andersonand others are revived in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s (CJM’s) Court at Bhopal.
February 21, 1992 – A proclamation of the CJM is published in the Washington Post declaring Carbide an absconder and ordering Carbide to present itself before the CJM. Carbide’s Indian shares become vulnerable to attachment due to its non-appearance in the criminal proceedings.
April 15, 1992 – Carbideannounces that it has endowed its entire shares in Union Carbide India Ltd to the so-called Bhopal Hospital Trust. The trust has been set up in London with a donation by Carbide of just £1000.
April 30, 1992 - The CJM, Bhopal refuses to recognize the claim of the so-called Bhopal Hospital Trust and attaches the shares and properties of UCC in India, declaring Carbide’s share transfer “malafide”.
February 14, 1994 – Exactlyfive years after the treacherous out-of-court settlement, inhearings presided over by Justice Ahmadi, the Supreme Court of India modifies the order of the CJM, Bhopal and allows UCC to sell off its shares in UCIL.Petitioners whose intervention led to the attachment of Carbide’s Indian shares are given no notice of this hearing and are therefore unable to present their views. Carbide thus escape the sanction of India’s courts. By way of reward, Justice Ahmadi is later installed as managing trustee of the Bhopal Hospital Trust.
February 2001 - Union Carbide merges with Dow Chemical, the last gesture of its attempts to escape its Bhopal liabilities. Dow claims it is not responsible for a factory it didn’t operate - lawyers advise that under Indian and U.S. law this is legal nonsense. Survivors point out that Dow is now responsible for all medical and environmental liabilities in Bhopal and that pending criminal liabilities against UCC should be transferred to Dow.
Compensation
December 2-3, 1984 – Thousands of people are killed and more than half a million injured after a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal releases a massive cloud of deadly gas.
December 1984 – April 1985 – Almost a hundred US law firms file suits against Carbide making claims totalling $150 billion.
February 20, 1985 – The Indian Government passes the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (processing of claims) Act, 1985, appointing itself as the sole legal representative on behalf of the Bhopal survivors in their legal case against Carbide.
April 8, 1985 - The Government files suit against Carbide in a federal court in New York, accusing the company of controlling its Indian subsidiary, UCIL, “from the cradle to the grave”.
June 26, 1985 – American trial lawyers also file suit against Carbide, seeking damages of an amount to be determined after the collection of scientific and medical data on the status of victims.
May 12, 1986 –After unsuccessfully applying pressure for an out-of-court settlement, Judge Keenan, the presiding judge in the case, decides it should be heard in India.