NEW DELHI: Victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy began an indefinite sit-down strike Friday outside the Supreme Court to demand the Indian govt’s clear stand on its February 1989 settlement with the multinational Union Carbide company and the setting up of a national commission on the disaster.

The victims who reached the capital from Bhopal in central India Early Friday marched from the railway station to the Supreme Court which was expected to pronounce its verdict on the case soon.

The victims will begin a relay hunger strike to demand a verdict which they said should protect the interests of the affected and establish a precedent for the third world to ensure that multinationals do not get away with mass murders the strike or Seizers said.

More than 2000 people were killed and several thousand others were seriously affected by a poisonous gas lead from the union carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal in late 1984. The leak has been described by many as the world’s worst industrial disaster

Article extracted from this publication >> August 2, 1991