Americas

Home page

Americas

U.S. will not reopen Bhopal gas leak investigation, says Blake

08 June 2010 22:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.S. government virtually ruled out any further review of the investigation into the Bhopal industrial disaster of 1984, and in particular refused to discuss the extradition of American citizen Warren Anderson, CEO of the company behind the leak of poisonous gasses that led to the death of many thousands of people, APA reports quoting The Hindu.
Speaking to the media here, shortly after an Indian court announced the conviction of seven accused in the case, Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said: â€œLet me just say that we hope this verdict helps to bring some closure to the victims and their families. But I do not expect this verdict to reopen any new inquiries or anything like that.â€
Mr. Blake underscored the U.S.â€™s unwillingness to take the matter any further at its end, saying, â€œOn the contrary, we hope that this is going to help to bring closure.â€ However, he acknowledged, â€œWith respect to Bhopal, obviously that was one of the greatest industrial tragedies and industrial accidents in human history.â€ He also said that the announcement made by the Indian courts was â€œan internal matter to India.â€In response to a question on whether the U.S. would be more receptive to any requests for extradition of Mr. Anderson or other American officials connected with the Bhopal disaster, Mr. Blake said, â€œOn the question of extradition â€“ as a matter of policy we never discuss extradition so I cannot comment on that.â€
Mr. Blake also did not comment on a question whether the U.S. would be willing to exert any pressure on Dow Chemicals for compensation to victims, as the administration is currently doing in the case of British Petroleum and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.