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Chinese Officials Face "Stern" Punishment for Mine Deaths - Agency

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 December 2005, 12:00 CST

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Xinan, Henan Province, 7 December: As rescuers continued desperate search for the 42 miners trapped somewhere underground after a recent coal mine flooding in central China's Henan Province, stern punitive measures have been levied on those responsible for the accident.

Ten officials of Sigou Coal Mine, a privately-run firm where the flooding took place, have been detained as of Wednesday [7 December].

The 10 officials were found to [be] held responsible for the accident, which left 42 miners missing for over 110 hours, an official with the provincial public security department said Wednesday [7 December].

The whereabouts of the missing miners remain unknown and rescuers kept draining water from the shaft and drilling new a hole for oxygen supply.

Li Jianwei, owner of the ill-fated Sigou Coal Mine who fled to southwest China's Gansu Province after the accident, was captured Wednesday in a massive manhunt launched by the local government.

According to a rule taking effect Tuesday in Henan, one of China's major coal producers and also a principal venue of many coal mine accidents, collieries engaging in illegal operation that have fatal accidents will be fined 1m yuan (over 123,000 US dollars) for each death.

In addition, coal mines found to engage in production without required operation licenses will be fined between 2m yuan and 5m yuan (over 617,000 US dollars), and forced to close.

Four officials in Hebei Province were given three-year imprisonment with five-year reprieves Tuesday for dereliction of duty in a deadly coal mine fire over a year ago, according to the provincial procuratorate.

The flames, triggered by electric welding, spread to four other connected mines in the city of Shahe and claimed 70 lives, causing direct economic losses of over 6m yuan (720,000 US dollars).

Most of the four were in charge of production safety supervision in the city.

In another mine cave-in case in the same province, five officials, including a county-level security supervision bureau chief, have been detained recently for dereliction of duty.

The cave-in took place on 6 November in three plaster mines in Xingtai County, leaving 33 miners dead and causing 7.44m yuan in economic loses.

An initial investigation showed that the five officials had turned a blind eye to safety problems in the unlicensed mines and allowed their operation.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate has started an investigation on the case along with local procuratorial authorities.

A county head, named Zhou Zhao, in southwest China's Guizhou Province has been temporarily relieved of his post and asked to make a self-criticism because three coal mine accidents in his county have claimed 48 lives since last August.

Guizhou has made up its mind to shut down some 300 small township- run coal mines which lack necessary safety facilities, according to a provincial work conference on coal mine safety on Wednesday.

Official statistics show that 486 coal mine accidents took place in Guizhou so far this year, killing 768 people. Officials attributed most of the tragedies to illegal operation in defiance of safety standards and government regulations.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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