Premier Wen Jiabao said during his New Year visit to northwest China's Shaanxi Province that production safety must be improved this year to avoid major mining accidents. 

Wen arrived in the Tongchuan Mining Bureau on New Year's Day to visit family members of miners who had died in the Chenjiashan Coal Mine gas explosion on November 28. In the evening, he called a meeting of local leading officials and experts to discuss the improvement of safety.

Early Sunday morning, the premier went to the mourning hall for the 166 dead miners, laid a wreath and stood in silent tribute.

"This accident has taught us a lesson paid for in blood," said Wen, after shaking hands with some of the bereaved. "We must pay great attention to production safety and not let such things happen again. We must hold ourselves responsible to the miners, the people and the children."

During his visit to the family of Niu Tieqi, who had been deputy chief engineer of the mine, he listened to relatives recalling their memories of him.

Wen asked accompanying local officials to "do whatever you can" to guarantee the basic livelihoods of victims' families and to help survivors with medical expenses.

After meeting with rescuers and firefighters, who saved 127 lives in the accident, the premier took a miners' vehicle and went down a shaft of Xiashijie Mine. He extended New Year's greetings to the miners working there, talked and ate lunch with them.

"Coal is the mainstay of China's energy supply," said Wen during his two-hour trip underground. "Miners deserve attention, respect and care from the whole of society."

He said that, as mining is a high-risk industry, safety must be guaranteed so that "all miners can return home safe and sound."

As he was about to leave the mining area, Wen urged the local officials to find the cause of the accident and hold those responsible accountable.

There were 3,413 coal mining accidents in China in the first 11 months of 2004, claiming the lives of 5,286 miners.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2005)