Greenpeace tracks down US exec wanted over Bhopal deaths

AFP ^ | Friday August 30, 11:03 AM | AFP

[Destro]

Friday August 30, 11:03 AM

Greenpeace tracks down US exec wanted over Bhopal deaths

Greenpeace says it has tracked down a former chairman of Union Carbide who faces homicide charges in India over the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster that killed thousands.

Calling on both India and the United States to begin formal extradition proceedings immediately, Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner Casey Harrell said Friday he had found Warren Anderson living in the upscale Hamptons resort district in Long Island, New York.

Anderson has been the subject of an 11-year-old Indian arrest warrant for culpable homicide, but his extradition from the United States has never been sought -- partly because the Indian authorities said his address was unknown.

"If Greenpeace can track down India's most wanted, I find it hard to believe that nobody else could have done it," said Harrell, who confronted Anderson at his home two weeks ago and taped the meeting with a hidden video camera.

"At first he tried to deny who he was and then he ran into the house," Harrell said, adding that he had handed Anderson a copy of the Indian arrest warrant.

A court in Bhopal Wednesday rejected an application by India's Central Bureau of Investigation to have the charges against Anderson reduced to negligence.

Anderson, 80, retired from Union Carbide, which is now owned by Michigan-based Dow Chemicals, in 1986.

Some 3,000 people died and more than half a million people were seriously injured December 3, 1984 when a cloud of lethal gas was released into the air from Union Carbide's Bhopal facility in central India.

At least another 10,000 deaths have been linked to the disaster, according to victims' groups.

"Groups like Greenpeace are going to play a positive role in pushing this sighting to the next level where we demand that both governments act," Harrell said, adding that the delay in seeking Anderson's extradition was due to India's fear that it might scare off foreign investors.

"It is amazing that these people (Bhopal victims) have not been able to get any justice or even a fair trial for the man who ran the company that has killed tens of thousands of people," Harrell said.

"We need to push India and the United States to do the right thing and get some closure. After all, it's been almost 18 years."

[Destro]

I wonder if Bush will extradite Anderson or more importantly will India request his extradition? India may not want to try Anderson.

[KineticKitty]

I'm not sure how true it is, but didn't they ultimately try to blame a "disgruntled worker" for the release of chemicals/poisons?

[Paleo Conservative]

Prior to the accident at Bhopol, the Indians didn't want the kinds of automated valves that could have prevented the catastrophe. They wanted manually operated refineries that would provide more jobs.

[Burkeman1]

What an ignorant sick stunt on the part of greenpeace. Andersen had nothing to do with the Union Carbide India accident. Though technically owned by Union Carbide it was nearly an Indian state run facility. It chose who was employed and how the plant was managed and oversaw the safety precatuions (or total lack of any). Union Carbide USA had zero to do with that accident and morally bears none of the resposibility for it. The charge of murder should be levied against those who ran the plant locally. To charge Anderson with murder is just typical Indian anti- Americanism and blame avoidance by the left wing in that country. That Greenpeace chooses to go along with it proves what kind of organization they are.

[Destro]

That is why I wrote India may not want to try Anderson.

[E Rocc]

Calling on both India and the United States to begin formal extradition proceedings immediately, Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner Casey Harrell said Friday he had found Warren Anderson living in the upscale Hamptons resort district in Long Island, New York.

If he is a United States citizen I believe he is immune from extradition. Most extradition treaties specifically exempt citizens from extradition from their own nations.

-Eric

[Destro]

That is why I wrote what I wrote. See #5

[CdMGuy]

I think they ought to put the Greenpeace guy on trial for being a first class a-hole. As I see it, just another reason to dismiss Greenpeace as the group of left wing Luddite disruptors they really are.

[Trident/Delta]

....he had found Warren Anderson living in the upscale Hamptons resort district in Long Island, New York.

Yes, it is apparent that he was in hiding...living the slums of the Hamptons... Note that there is no reference to him living under any kind of assumed name... If India had wanted to make anything of this, then InterPol would have initiated an international warrant and the local PD or the DMV would have nailed the guy when he renewed his drivers license. This is just election year posturing... look for him to ultimately be identified as a GOP donor and all the rest of the dirty laundry that goes along with this. Greenfleas is just a bunch of S**tdisturbers....

Semper Sheesh...

[Freeper 007]

I'm actually pretty sure the the reality is exactly the opposite. Unless an extradition treaty exists, then no country is under any kind of obligation to help enforce another country's laws.

Of course...I''m talking about the way things were without the ICC. I have no idea how the International criminal court effects this situation, if at all.

[Destro]

Bhopal was a great crime of negligence but the fault lines almost exclusively with the local Indian authorities. This is why I do not think India would want to try him because it would bring that out.

[Destro]

Bhopal was a great crime of negligence but the fault lies almost exclusively with the local Indian authorities. This is why I do not think India would want to try him because it would bring that out.