Bhopal

Dear friends,

Thanks so much for your support for the Bhopal campaign! Our online petition to Dow has collected nearly 6000 signatures from all over the world (http://www.petitiononline.com/bhopal/). In the past year, public pressure has helped us win several major victories (see http://www.bhopal.net/article.php?pid=121 as one example), but several other challenges loom on the horizon for the campaign, including:

- an attempt by the State Government to end the free medical care for gas victims in Bhopal (see http://www.centralchronicle.com/20050213/1302024.htm);
- reluctance to comply with the Supreme Court order to provide a permanent, piped supply of safe drinking water (see http://bhopal.aidindia.org/waterwebfax.htm);
- possible forced relocation of those living near the abandoned Carbide factory site;
- an effort to squash an order, issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Bhopal, for Dow to appear in court and explain why it continues to harbor its fugitive subsidiary, Union Carbide, from trial.

These issues and others will be confronted over the coming year, and urgent international pressure may again be necessary. If you haven't yet done so, please consider signing up for our low-traffic remember-bhopal listserve, at http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/remember-bhopal. This list will keep you informed of urgent action alerts and other opportunities to support the campaign and the cause of justice for Bhopal.

More information about how you can contribute to the campaign is available at http://www.bhopal.net/gda/todo.htm, and donations to the Sambhavna Clinic, which provides free medical care to the victims of the Bhopal tragedy, can be made at http://www.bhopal.org/donations/index.html.

Thanks so much once again for your support!

Peace & justice,
Ryan Bodanyi
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
http://www.studentsforbhopal.org
http://www.bhopal.net