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China Mine Blast Toll Jumps To 161
Qitaihe, China (AFP) Nov 30, 2005 The death toll from an explosion at a coal mine in northeastern China jumped Wednesday to 161, state media said, as the government blamed managers for the huge explosion. Rescuers found another 10 bodies on Wednesday afternoon at the Dongfeng coal mine, near Qitaihe city in Heilongjiang province, not far from the Russian border, the Xinhua news agency said. Another two bodies were found earlier Wednesday in a generator room, and 10 miners were still unaccounted for after the Sunday night explosion at the state-run mine, the report said. As rescue efforts wound down, the government's work safety watchdog turned its focus to the cause of the blast and quickly backed up assertions from victims's relatives that the mine's management disregarded warning signs. The ministry-level State Administration of Work Safety said on its website Wednesday that the mine chiefs held a meeting five days before the blast to discuss a dangerous build-up of coal dust in the pit. The head of the administration, Li Yizhong, has personally interrogated and lambasted the mine's bosses, demanding to know why they did not take quick action after the danger signs were detected, the website said. "Your (operations) are no better than a small privately operated mine pit," the website quoted Li as telling mine chiefs Ma Jinsheng and Jiang Xingzong. Failure to end production after discovering safety problems "fully shows that the mine was not up to standards in inspecting for hidden dangers," Li said. Grieving relatives in Qitaihe also continued to express their anger on Tuesday over the management's blatant disregard for safety procedures. "The other day, one of the older workers came and told us that when they noticed the danger, they went to look for mine officials, but they couldn't find them because they had all gone to dinner," Yuan Shurong, the mother of a dead miner, told AFP. "Of course, we are angry." A woman surnamed Ge, who was waiting outside the mine on Monday night to hear news of two of her relatives, had also talked about the lax safety standards. "They all knew there were safety problems but they wouldn't do anything about it," she said. Ge said miners had in the past threatened to strike unless the poor safety standards were improved but the management had rejected their demands. State-run mining conglomerate Heilongjiang Longmei Group, one of the biggest coal producers in China with an output of 27 million tonnes of coal in the first half of this year, owns the Dongfeng mine. Just over 6,000 people died in China's coal mines last year, according to government figures. State press said the figure represented 80 percent of global fatalities in the industry. Independent critics, including the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin, say the number of coal mining deaths in China each year could be as high as Fatalities often go unreported as mines seek to avoid costly shutdowns, the critics say. The crisis has worsened in recent years as demand for coal has escalated to help fuel the nation's breakneck economic growth. China relies on coal for two-thirds of its energy needs and the government said early this month it intended to increase domestic coal production from 2.1 billion tons to 2.4 billion tons over the next five years. The Dongfeng mine explosion is the third reported coal mine disaster this year to have claimed more than 100 lives. On February 14, 214 miners were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in the northeast province of Liaoning, while the flooding of an illegal coal mine in the southern province of Guangdong killed 123. There have been four other reported coal mine disasters over the past decade to have killed more than 100 people. Meanwhile, state media reported three miners had been trapped for more than three days at another state-run mine in the central province of Hunan, this time after a flooding. Huang Fangming, an official with the provincial coal mine supervision bureau, said the chances of the three being found alive were slim, according to Xinhua. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express China News from SinoDaily.com
China Wants To Expand Sino-US Military Relations
Beijing (AFP) Jan 10, 2006China is ready to expand its military relations with the United States, Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan said on Tuesday. |
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