An Indian court has listed Warren
Anderson as an absconder in a case to determine his responsibility in
the Bhopal disaster, a gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant that
killed thousands of people a quarter of a century ago.The United
States has turned down a previous extradition request for Anderson, who
was chairman of Union Carbide when the accident occurred.But a
ministerial panel reviewing the case recommended reviving the
extradition request this month as well as examining the liability of Dow
Chemical, which bought Union Carbide ten years after the accident."We
will try to ensure that US government takes a more favourable
attitude towards extradition. But we have not approached them yet,"
Singh told reporters.India's Congress party, which heads the ruling
coalition, faces embarrassment in the case as the party was in power
when the accident happened. Opposition parties have said its leaders
allowed Anderson to "flee" Bhopal on a government airplane.Bhopal
activists have also accused the United States of double standards after
the Obama administration extracted billions in compensation from oil
giants BP Plc for the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.They
want similar treatment meted out for the Bhopal disaster and have called
for more compensation for the victims and a cleanup for the plant site.Singh's
government set up the ministerial panel after public outrage over a
perceived lenient verdict against former Union Carbide officials this
month in the first convictions handed out by India's slow-moving justice
system.In a rare admission of failure by the top-ranked government
official, Singh acknowledged the shortcomings of the legal system,
saying: "That it should have taken 25 years before the case could be
decided is something that we have to reflect about and the inadequacies
of our judicial system."The Bhopal accident killed at least 3,500
people according to government estimates. But rights activists say
25,000 died in the immediate aftermath and around 100,000 people suffer
ailments such as blindness, cancer and birth defects to this day.
