Key London panel member resigns over Dow deal
Source: Agencies |
January 27, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A MEMBER of the body that oversees the sustainability of the 2012 London Olympic Games has resigned in protest at a sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical because of the American company's ties to the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster that killed thousands in India.
The Games' organizers chose Dow to make the hundreds of plastic panels that will decorate the outside of the main stadium in a contract that has angered many Indians, including current and former athletes.
Activists say 25,000 people died in the years that followed the gas leak at a pesticides factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal. Dow bought the plant's owner in 1999 and campaigners have demanded that it boost a 1989 compensation package for those affected by the disaster.
Meredith Alexander, who sat on the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, said that she had decided to quit the independent body because she "didn't want to be party to a defense of Dow".
"People should be free to enjoy London 2012 without this toxic legacy on their conscience", she said in a statement released by rights group Amnesty International, which has supported her cause.
"It is appalling that 27 years on, the site has still not been cleaned up and thousands upon thousands of people are still suffering."
Dow has denied any responsibility for the accident and says the ex-owner, Union Carbide, had settled its liabilities with the Indian government.
The Games' organizers chose Dow to make the hundreds of plastic panels that will decorate the outside of the main stadium in a contract that has angered many Indians, including current and former athletes.
Activists say 25,000 people died in the years that followed the gas leak at a pesticides factory in the central Indian city of Bhopal. Dow bought the plant's owner in 1999 and campaigners have demanded that it boost a 1989 compensation package for those affected by the disaster.
Meredith Alexander, who sat on the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, said that she had decided to quit the independent body because she "didn't want to be party to a defense of Dow".
"People should be free to enjoy London 2012 without this toxic legacy on their conscience", she said in a statement released by rights group Amnesty International, which has supported her cause.
"It is appalling that 27 years on, the site has still not been cleaned up and thousands upon thousands of people are still suffering."
Dow has denied any responsibility for the accident and says the ex-owner, Union Carbide, had settled its liabilities with the Indian government.
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