The Daily Star May 12, 2003 


      Brotee hopes to win arsenic Case in UK



      Staff Correspondent


      The organisations that won a judgement for Bangladeshi arsenic patients 
      against the British Geological Survey (BGS) at a London court hoped 
      yesterday that they would win the case. 
      "This is the beginning of a daring task we have taken up and hope to win 
      the case. Now we are preparing on behalf of thousands of arsenic victims 
      who have been exposed to the heavy metal poisoning just because the BGS 
      acted irresponsibly," Sharmeen Murshid told a press conference.
      Murshid, chief executive officer of Brotee, an NGO, and representative of 
      Bangladesh International Action Network (BIAN), a London-based 
      organisation of expatriate Bangladeshis, addressed the press conference at 
      Brotee's Banani office.
      Brotee first sought assistance from BIAN to help file the case with the 
      British High Court in March 2000 in favour of 750 Bangladeshi arsenic 
      patients.
      The court in the ruling on Thursday removed all obstruction to the next 
      steps of running the lawsuit against the BGS. 
      Murshid said: "It's a milestone for Bangladesh. Never before has the 
      British government faced such a challenge in court except for one in South 
      Africa."
      With the judgement, the path is now clear for the trial to move ahead, 
      lawyers fighting the case in Britain said in an e-mail.