China pledges to clear industrial safety record
( 2002-07-10 15:07 ) (9 )

Chinese provinces struck by some of the country's deadliest mining accidents have vowed to root out local officials responsible for such tragedies and step up safety supervision.

The northeastern province of Heilongjiang, where two coal mine accidents have killed 159 people in four weeks, issued a circular saying local officials would be held accountable for workplace accidents.

"Local officials and heads of these institutions would be held responsible for any accidents and cheating in reporting accidents," the circular said.

Police arrested the owner of a gold mine where some 40 workers were killed by a June 22 explosion in the northern province of Shanxi.

The pledges to improve China's work safety record follow one of the nation's worst periods for mining accidents in which more than 240 have died since June.

Heilongjiang circular also ordered all privately run coal mines to shut for safety tests.

China had already launched a campaign to eliminate small and unsafe mines and has shut down at least 12,000 mines since last May.

Loopholes in management and supervision had led to continued accidents despite the launch of two nationwide campaigns on improving safety standards in March and June.

53,302 people had been killed in work related accidents in first six months of 2002 compared to 117,000 in the first 11 months of last year. Those figures include road accidents.

China's mining industry claimed more than 7,000 lives last year, about 5,500 of them in coal mines, according to official statistics.

Last November, a spokesman from the State Administration of Work Safety said some local officials and inadequate monitoring had hampered efforts to improve safety in the mining industry.