Category: Occupy Movement

Tags: NTD, NTDTV, New, Tang, Dynasty, dow, chemical, Olympic, park, Bhopal, Medical, Appeal, bhopal, gas, leak, cancer, blindness, birth, defects, Union, Carbide, Trafalga

Protesters against Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the Olympic Games staged a "die in" demonstration outside the Olympic park on Friday. Around 20 people donned shrouds and lay on the ground as they continued their campaign against the US company. Spokeswoman Meredith Alexander said Dow Chemical should not have been chosen as an Olympic sponsor as it has not properly compensated victims of the Bhopal gas leak tragedy in India. [Meredith Alexander, Protest Organizer]: "The Bhopal Medical Appeal has come to the very gates of the Olympic park to remind everyone of Dow Chemical's toxic legacy. Dow has spent millions as a sponsor of the Olympics but what they are trying to do is hide the truth of themselves as a company. Dow is the company now responsible for the Bhopal tragedy which saw over 20,000 people killed and half a million exposed to poisonous gas. Dow has completely failed to take responsibility to give full and fair compensation to the victims and to clean up the site which has lain covered in poison for almost three decades." As many as 25,000 residents of Bhopal died in the aftermath of the gas leak at a pesticide factory that was owned by a subsidiary of Union Carbide in 1984. According to activists, about 100,000 people who were exposed to the gas now suffer from ailments that include cancer, blindness and birth defects. Dow, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, has repeatedly denied any responsibility for Bhopal and has refused demands, including from the Indian government, to increase a $470-million compensation package that Union Carbide paid to victims in 1989. Pressure group The Bhopal Medical Appeal says Dow should now shoulder the blame, and that financial payouts it has offered victims and their families are pitiful. Although police watched the protest unfold, they did not intervene. A similar demonstration in Trafalgar Square last week led to seven arrests for suspected criminal damage. Published on Jul 28, 2012 by NTDTV

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