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Bhopal remembers toxic gas leak

AFP, Bhopal, India
A scries of torchlight rallies and vigils were held after darkness fell on this central Indian city yesterday as victims and activists jointly commemorated a night of horror 20 years ago when lethal gas leaked from a pesticide plant and killed thousands.
In Bhopal’s main Shajahani Park around 300 people - victims or relatives of those who died - gathered with burning flame torches at sunset
Before setting off on a inarch, they were addressed by Abdul Jabbar, chairman of the Bhopal Gas Affected Women’s Industry Organisation, who railed against the Indian government and against the US company which owned the killer plant
After lighting torches, the victims - -mostly women widowed by the gas leak - marched for about a kilometre towards the now derelict factory shouting slogans like" Death to Union CarbideTand "Union Carbide, quit India!" before returning to the park to disperse.
Seventeen-year-old Tahir Khan said his mother had sent him to the protest as a tribute to his father, who died due to the after-effects of inhaling the toxic fumes.
"My mother makes it a point to send me or my brother to join the protest every year." hesaid.
At another park in the Newmarket area of Bhopal, around 100 people gathered for a silent commemoration before leading a small torchlight procession.
A two-hour candlelit vigil was scheduled to start near the site of the accident, the Union Carbide pesticide factory, at 10:30 pm (1700 GMT), organisers said.
More than 3,500 people died during and immediately after the accident, in which about 40 tonnes of methyl Isocyanate leaked out of the plant soon after midnight on Decembers, 198*1.
According to government figures the total deatii toll from the tragedy in the past two decades is about 15,000, but local victims’ rights activists say the figure is double that.
Amnesty International in a report Monday said 22,000-25,000 people had died in the accident
Earlier in the day, participants of a seminar entitled "Toxic and MNC free India", demanded that Dow Chemicals, which took over Union Carbide in 2001, pay the medical expenses of the 800,000 injured in the gas leak.
They also urged Dow to clean up the site that activists say contains thousands of tonnes of toxic chemicals.
Also yesterday, an Indian official
said that the first steps had been taken to finally remove the waste from the site.
"The federal government has asked (state-run) Engineers India Limited to survey the Union Carbide plant to determine how much toxic waste there is on the site and how it can be disposed off," said Uma Shankar Gupta, a local minister in charge of relief for victims of the tragedy.
"The survey report of the Engineers India Limited will be the first step towards the cleanup of the plant," Gupta told AFR
But global rights group Greenpeace said the steps were not enough.
’While we welcome the announcement that the Indian government wants to take proactive and urgent measures to conduct the clean-up, Greenpeace believes that after 20 years this is the slowest first step in history," said VInuta Gopal. Greenpeace India campaigner.
"Greenpeace calls on the Indian government to immediately commit itself to most urgent and immediate measures of securing the site and providing clean drinking water to the survivors," Gopal said.
Fresh graffiti and skull and cross-bones signs, meanwhile, were painted by activists on the walls surrounding the Union Carbide pesticide plant wamingpeople to keep away.
One picture showed a group of women beating an effigy of former Union Carbide chiefWarrun Anderson with broomsticks, while another showed parents rushing children to hospital
Anderson, who has a charge of culpable homicide outstanding against him in India, and his company have been accused by human rights groups of cutting comers on safety features to save money.
Activists from India and abroad began converging here since Wednesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster.
Tbine Custers, an activist from Holland, said he had decided to attend the memorials after being moved by some of the stories he had heard about the gas tragedy.
On Friday local government representatives were to visit a memorial ■ - a stone statue depicting a woman with her children installed opposite the plant - and pay respects to the victims, a government official said.
This would be followed by an all religion prayer meeting hesaid.
A human chain by victims and supporters and a rally were also planned to mark the day, an organiser said.