The State Council’s special investigation team set
up three reporting stations yesterday in an attempt to collect more
information about the fatal flooding at Daxing Coal Mine in
Xingning City of the southern province of Guangdong
twelve days ago.
Li Zhilun, head of the team and minister of
supervision, said the team will not only investigate the direct
cause of the accident, but also determine whether there was
dereliction of duty in the management and supervision of the
mine.
People are being encouraged to report any
information relating to dereliction or breach of duty or corruption
involving those connected to the mine. The three reporting stations
are located in front of the gates of Xingning’s city government
offices, Xingning City Tobacco Company and the government offices
of Huanghuai Town.
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The accident occurred at 1:30 PM on August 7, when
flooding trapped 123 miners underground. At first, there were
confused reports of how many miners were underground at the time
since management staff initially went missing.
Only four miners escaped, and to date rescuers have
recovered three bodies. Two city mayors have been dismissed, eleven
mine officials apprehended and two local officials given
disciplinary warnings in relation to the disaster.
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Violation of safety production rules has been
identified as the main cause of the accident.
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2005)