A year after the 1984 gas disaster, the US multinational Union Carbide Corporation had launched a full-fledged propaganda to project that “evidence was overwhelming to prove that the tragedy at Bhopal was an act of employee sabotage” but both UCC and its subsidiary Union Carbide (eastern), Hong Kong, [now renamed as Union Carbide Asia Pacific Inc. and Union Carbide Asia Ltd.] failed to appear in the chief judicial magistrate’s court here and face trial on the basis of firm evidence.
The UCC corporate communications department at Danbury, USA, had widely circulated a pamphlet in 1985 to publicise the sabotage theory which was later used to the hilt to deflect the charge of contributory negligence.
The UCC pamphlet titled: “Setting the record straight on employee sabotage and efforts to provide relief” went on to emphasise, “new information uncovered during an ongoing investigation has Ied UCC to the conclusion that the tragedy was caused by employee sabotage and that there was a cover-up afterwards by certain operators on duty that night.”
Union Carbide kept projecting the sabotage theory through news-media and other public forums even before the New York district court, which was hearing the Carbide case, had given the judgement that the Indian courts were the most suited to hear this case. Even before submitting evidence in court, UCC started publicising that scientists and engineers who investigated the incident at Bhopal have proven that a substantial amount of water-enough to fill an oil tank in an average home-was necessary to cause the chemical reaction that occurred.
A UCC pamphlet said its investigation has established that water was deliberately introduced into a methyl isocyanate storage tank from a source only a few steps away. A few hours after the incident, a hose with water running out of it was found lying near the storage tank. In addition, several witnesses discovered that a pressure gauge had been removed, leaving an unplugged opening into the tank. Investigators believe the pressure gauge was removed after a valve was closed and that the hose was deliberately attached to the pressure gauge opening. Then, valves were opened to permit water to flow into the tank.
Through this pamphlet, UCC not only projected the sabotage theory but also said that the company’s primary concern was providing relief and assistance to the victims.
The pamphlet said that UCC donated $1 million to Sentinelles, a Swiss-based humanitarian organisation. In October 1985, Sentinelles had approached this correspondent for defining and running a system of relief.
This offer was rejected on learning that Sentinelles was handling funds donated by the Union Carbide Corporation.