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Key suspect for coal mine tragedy nabbed
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-05-26 13:49 Police on Friday arrested the executive in charge
of safety at the north China coal mine where 57 miners have been trapped in a
flooded pit for more than a week.
Meanwhile, rescue officials have
admitted that the chances of finding the men alive are now slim.
Zhang
Shengsheng was in charge of mining and work safety at the Xinjing mine in Zuoyun
County, in north China's Shanxi Province, when it flooded at 8.30 p.m. on May
18, but he disappeared shortly after the accident.
Police arrested him
in Ejin Horo Banner, Ordos, in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, at 3:40 a.m. in
the company of a woman, a source at the rescue headquarters said.
Police are
still looking for Wang Laowu, a labor contractor at the mine.
Nine
management staff, including mine owner Li Fuyuan, had been detained before
Zhang's apprehension, said Bai Yulong, a spokesman for the rescue headquarters.
Three officials of Zhangjiachang Town, where the mine is located,
including Party Secretary Chang Rui and township head Liu Yongxin, have been
suspended from their posts.
Police say local authorities in charge of
work safety had tried to cover up the accident by reporting that only five
miners were trapped.
Mine managers are alleged to have rented taxis to
transfer relatives of the trapped miners to neighboring Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region to prevent them from speaking to the media.
Zhang
Shengsheng and Wang Laowu disappeared after the alleged attempt to cover up
failed.
Rescuers are still battling to save the 57 trapped miners. The
water level beneath the shaft is falling as pumping continues.
An
official from the rescue headquarters told Xinhua on Friday, "As time goes by,
the chances of the miners' survival grow slimmer, but we are trying our best and
sparing no effort to find them."
The accident could have been avoided,
according to miners who managed to escape.
Miners told Xinhua that the mine
showed signs of flooding six days before the accident, but managers ordered them
to keep working.
"On May 18, a team leader had an argument with the
management as he insisted mining should stop because it was too dangerous. A
manager slapped him in the face," said a miner surnamed Yang.
The angry
team leader did not return to work underground and escaped the accident, he
added.
Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety,
has blamed over-production for the accident. The mine had a license to produce
90,000 tons a year, but it produced 130,000 tons from March 2 to May 18.
Local authorities' failure to fulfill its supervision duties have led to
frequent occurrence of coal mine tragedies, said an expert of safety
supervision.
China has established a responsibility system under which
government officials involved are held accountable for coal mine accident
whenever it occurs, and officials concerned are either given disciplinary
penalty, removal from their posts or are prosecuted.
"But some officials
take the risks, hoping to escape by a fluke," said Wu Jianming, an expert with
the State Administration of Work Safety.
China recorded a near 30
percent decline in coal pit deaths in the first five months of the year as
compared with the same period of 2005, thanks to improved law enforcement by
government departments at all levels.
Coal mining, one of the most risky
industries, recorded a 13.1 percent decline in the number of accidents and a
29.8 percent drop in fatalities in the same period, said the State
Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).
More than 3,000 coal mine blasts,
floods and other accidents killed approximately 6,000 workers across China last
year.
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