Indian court upholds Bhopal charges
On August 28, an Indian court rejected the United States government's push to reduce culpable homicide charges against former Union Carbide chairperson, Warren Anderson. In 1984, a gas leak at the US company's Bhopal plant killed more than 3000 people and injured 500,000. Another 10,000 deaths have since been linked to the disaster.
Washington had been pressuring the Indian government to reduce Anderson's charge to negligence, as this is not covered by the extradition treaty between the two countries. Anderson can now be extradited to India where, if found guilty, he could face a 20-year jail sentence.
US, China agree on 'terror'
On August 26, at the end of a visit to China, US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage announced his government's support for Beijing's war against the independence movement in Xinjiang. Washington agreed to list the East Turkestan Islamic Movement on its list of terrorist organisations. In exchange, China agreed to impose stricter controls on missile exports.
West Papua solidarity
August 15 was the 40th anniversary of the agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia that allowed Jakarta to annex West Papua. To mark the anniversary, Ireland's West Papua Action delivered a protest letter to the Dutch embassy in Dublin and staged a brief sit-in.
East Timor exempts US troops from ICC
On August 27, East Timor buckled to US pressure and became the third country to grant US troops immunity from prosecution at the International Criminal Court. Romania and Israel are the other two. Washington is also pressing East Timor to renounce any legal jurisdiction over US troops stationed there.
Aceh activists detained
Indonesian police detained 12 members of the Acehnese Democratic People's Resistance Front in relation to a mass rally they attended in the Acehnese capital, Banda Aceh, on August 15. The Pidie district police chief ordered the families of the 12 activists to present themselves at the district station. Two families complied, and were each presented with a demand for 500,000 rupiah (around A$100, an impossible sum for most Acehnese) before their relatives would be released. The families reported that their relatives looked weak, as if they had been severely beaten.
[Compiled by Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific. Visit for more Asia-Pacific solidarity news.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, September 4, 2002.
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