Campaigners in India have burned an effigy of former Tory MP Sebastian Coe in protest at Dow Chemical’s sponsorship of the Olympic Games.
This is the anniversary of the the Bhopal disaster which was one of the world’s worst industrial accidents. A chemical leak saw over 2,000 people die at the time of the incident and perhaps 8,000 die in the years after from related diseases, not including thoe who have suffered severe health problems and birth defects.
The company responsible, Union Carbide, was renamed and the plant itself was bought up by Dow Chemical who have refused to take full responsibility for the disaster. The company has not cleaned up the site of the disaster an the Indian government is claiming£1 billion in damages from the company. Protesters thought it was unethical for the Olympics committee to accept sponsorship for the company.
As well as an effigy of Seb Coe protesters also burned an effigy of Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the head of India’s Olympic Organizing Committee and ere is a great deal of pressure for India to boycott the Games.
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