Martin Sheen has thrown his support behind a campaign to win justice for victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster in India.

The Departed actor stars alongside Mischa Barton in new film, Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, which portrays an account of the catastrophic gas leak that poisoned half a million people.

Sheen plays Warren Anderson, the former Chief Executive of the Union Carbide Corporation which ran the chemical plant responsible for the incident, which is often branded the world's worst industrial disaster.

Anderson, who died last week (ends02Nov14), consistently refused to apologise to victims and bosses of Union Carbide have never been criminally charged for the leak.

Sheen tells humanitarian charity Amnesty International, "Bhopal is not just a human rights tragedy from the last century. It's a human rights travesty today. Those who survived have faced long-term health problems, but receive little medical help. For 30 years the survivors of Bhopal have campaigned for justice, for fair compensation, health care and for Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemicals, to be held to account. This was not an unavoidable accident. There is evidence that the companies responsible for the factory site failed to take adequate precautions both before and after the leak."

Kate Allen, UK Director of Amnesty International, adds, "Three decades on from the Bhopal disaster, the lives of people living

around the plant continue to be poisoned. It's welcome news that Martin Sheen has added his voice to the global chorus calling for justice for the people of Bhopal. Generation after generation has been fobbed off and disregarded. They deserve justice and Dow, as the successor to Union Carbide, should take responsibility for the huge suffering inflicted on thousands of people."