The last four missing miners in Saturday's coal mine blast in Shanxi
Province have been confirmed dead, according to a Tuesday China
Central Television (CCTV) report.
The deadly blast took place on Saturday afternoon in the Xishui
Colliery near Shuozhou, a city in the key coal-producing province
of Shanxi, burying 49 workers. The explosion also caused the wall
of a neighboring mine to collapse, trapping another 20.
The government has begun investigating and taking care of the
families of the victims.
The Xishui mine was riddled with problems such as outdated
technology, haphazard management and illegal use of explosives, the
Xinhua News Agency quoted Zhao Tiechui, head of the government's
investigation team, as saying.
An inspector sent by the local mine safety administration to the
colliery was also found to be "seriously negligent," according to
Zhao, who is also director of the State Administration of Coal Mine
Safety.
"It provided the mine owners with the opportunity to defy
government supervision and operate without authorization," he was
quoted as saying.
The Xishui Colliery was ordered to suspend production last
November because of safety problems but the order was
disregarded.
Technical details of the cause of the tragedy, which Zhao
described as "an extremely big gas explosion," have yet to be
determined, according to Xinhua.
Local police in Shuozhou detained four people for investigation
on Saturday, shortly after the blast.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate has also ordered local
procurators to investigate any official negligence that may have
contributed to the accident, the Beijing News reported Tuesday.
"We are very concerned about the incident, and will send our men
to oversee (the judicial investigation) if necessary," the
newspaper quoted an official from the Supreme Procuratorate as
saying.
In a strongly worded "urgent notice" released on Monday, the
Shanxi provincial government ordered close scrutiny of coal mine
safety throughout the province.
It also warned officials against colluding with illegal mine
operators by accepting bribes, and offered a reward of up to 50,000
yuan (US$6,000) to those tipping off the government about cases of
illegal mining.
"The provincial government is resorting to different approaches
to try to prevent the occurrence of accidents," an official of the
Shuozhou Coal Mine Safety Administration told China Daily
Tuesday.
China's coal mines, among the most lethal in the world, have
experienced a string of disasters since late last year. A gas
explosion killed 148 in Henan
Province on October 20; a blast in a coal mine in Shaanxi
Province killed 166 on November 28; and the worst mining
accident in half a century killed 214 people on February 14 in Liaoning
Province.
Premier Wen Jiabao promised at the National People's Congress
earlier this month that the central government will spend 3 billion
yuan (US$360 million) upgrading safety at coal mines to "truly make
coal mining safer."
(China Daily March 23, 2005)