A Bhopal gas disaster victim. Thousands of people died on Dec. 3, 1984, after the lethal methyl isocynide gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. More than 150,000 people were left severely disabled of whom 20,000 have since died of their injuries in a disaster now widely acknowledged as the world’s worst-ever industrial disaster. (Photo, as it appears on www. pdngallery.com)

A students’ association has responded to a resolution sponsored by a coalition of South Asian and environmental students groups calling on the University of California to divest from Dow Chemical, the world’s largest chemicals manufacturer, and refuse all donations from the company.

The resolution cites Dow’s refusal to resolve the civil and criminal liabilities of its subsidiary, Union Carbide, in Bhopal the ‘Hiroshima of the chemical industry,’ a press release said. Thousands of people died on Dec. 3, 1984, after the lethal methyl isocynide gas leaked from the plant. More than 150,000 people were left severely disabled of whom 20,000 have since died of their injuries in a disaster now widely acknowledged as the world’s worst-ever industrial disaster.

“Since its purchase of Carbide in 2001, Dow Chemical has refused to clean up the site, which continues to contaminate those near it; fund medical care or livelihood regeneration; or stand trial in Bhopal, where the Union Carbide Corporation faces criminal charges of culpable homicide (manslaughter), and has fled these charges for the past 12 years,” the students said.

Dow is a major donor to the University of California, Berkeley, with cumulative donations totaling $4.3 million as of October, 2003. The resolution, only the third of its kind in the nation, calls on the University to “reject all donations from Dow or its directly associated foundations in excess of that which the corporation spends to clean up the Bhopal site on an annual basis” which is currently nothing.

The resolution also demands “the University to…sell the stock” of Dow, and “calls upon the Chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley to write a public letter to Dow Chemical, asking that it accept liability for the disaster, clean up the Bhopal, India factory and provide safe drinking water.”

Two previous student government resolutions, at the University of Michigan and Wheaton College (MA), have cited Bhopal in calls for an end to university associations with Dow. Berkeley’s resolution is the first to call for divestment.

SADAN (South Asia Development Alternatives Network), ASAPA (Association for South Asian Political Action), and students from the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley supported the successful resolution.

“This was an important victory for justice, corporate responsibility, and for the thousands of people still suffering in Bhopal,” said Kamal Kapadia of SADAN, an Indian Ph.D. student at Berkeley. “Students at the University of California, Berkeley don’t want to invest in a company that refuses to stop the ongoing contamination of tens of thousands, for which it is responsible.

Dow’s behavior in Bhopal is inhumane, unjust, and immoral, and we won’t accept donations that should be spent instead to clean up Bhopal and save lives. Ten to fifteen people continue to die in Bhopal each month; we don’t want their blood on our hands.”

The Associated Students of the University of California is the central student government at the University of California, Berkeley, representing students from every school and college. As the official student voice at the University, it represents the University’s 33,000 students.