Ethics Newsline®

NEW DELHI, India
India last week renewed its effort to extradite a former Union Carbide executive from the United States, saying the man was a fugitive from justice who should face trial for the deaths of more than 3,000 people killed by a company accident.

The charges against former chief executive Warren Anderson stem from one of the world’s worst industrial accidents, which occurred during the early morning hours of December 3, 1994, when a holding tank began to leak.

The spill sent a rolling cloud of toxic gas through the city of Bhopal, killing 4,000 people in hours. Another 10,000 to 15,000 have since died, while thousands of others were permanently crippled, reported the Reuters news agency.

Anderson, who flew to Bhopal for a three-day visit following the accident, was arrested on charges of culpable homicide and released on bail. He fled to the United States before his trial, and never returned.

India, which has been seeking Anderson’s extradition for nearly 10 years, last week got a helping hand from Greenpeace and Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper, which located the retired executive in New York.

The location of Anderson, long sought by the Indian government, sparked renewed calls for his extradition under a 1997 agreement with the U.S. government.

“If a team of journalists and Greenpeace managed to track down India’s most wanted man in a matter of days, how seriously have the U.S. authorities tried to find him all these years?” Greenpeace campaigner Casey Harrell complained last week in a released statement.

“The U.S. has reacted swiftly on curbing the financial corporate crimes of Enron and WorldCom, but has clearly not made much of an effort to find Anderson, responsible for the deaths of 20,000 people in India,” Harrell said.

Union Carbide, which paid a settlement of $470 million in 1989, has disavowed any involvement in the proceedings against its former executive. The company, which insists the disaster was caused by a disgruntled employee, still faces criminal charges in India, noted Reuters.

Nine Indian executives from the Bhopal pesticide plant have had charges against them reduced. Last week, the same deal was rejected for Anderson when judges said he deserved no leniency because he fled, reported the Guardian.