India Court Orders Release of Payment to Gas Victims

[redqueen]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040719/sc_nm/environment_india_bhopal_dc

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court ordered the government on Monday to distribute millions of dollars in compensation still due to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy which had been delayed due to legal wrangles, lawyers said.

In December 1984, tons of a toxic gas leaked from an Indian pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide in the central Indian city of Bhopal, killing 3,800 people almost immediately. Thousands more were injured.

Environmental group Greenpeace says that, since then, over 20,000 people have died from exposure-related illnesses, and of the approximately 520,000 people exposed to the poisonous gas, some 120,000 people remain chronically ill.

Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemical Co., paid $470 million in compensation to residents in 1989, but only some of that amount has been distributed, say lawyers for the victims.