As the US watches the growing disaster from the BP oil spill unfold, it seems appropriate to take a look at what has happened in the wake of other modern industrial disasters. Unfortunately, the developments of this week illustrate that justice is not always served in the aftermath.
Twenty five years after a chemical gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India killed tens of thousands of people, an Indian court finally handed down its decision on criminal culpability. The verdict for eight Indian Union Carbide employees: guilty as charged of death by negligence. And the punishment for causing the worst industrial disaster in human history? Two years in prison.
To add insult to injury, all of the defendants were released on bail just hours after the conviction. Needless to say, legal experts and human rights groups both inside and outside of India are outraged. But the ongoing legal drama serves as a painful reminder of the difficulty of holding corporations responsible for even the grossest forms of negligence and the human toll that comes with it, especially when government profits are at stake and corruption becomes the general expectation instead of the exception.
Note: Aarti Ramachandran over on the India blog has more about the court case and resources for finding out more about the Bhopal gas tragedy.
