[Broadcast on 24 March, 2003]
At the noon of March 22, a massive gas explosion broke out at the Mengnanzhuang Coalmine, which is located in the Yima Township of Xiaoyi City, the Lüliang District of Shanxi Province. On 24 March according to the rescue task force assigned to take care of the accident at the worksite, the death toll was up to 53, while 19 were still missing and 1 was seriously injured at March 24 night. The elder brother of one of those injured miners told CLB that his brother was till in imminent danger.
Han Dongfang [Han]:
Who was injured in your family?
Injured miners brother [brother]:
My brother! Burns of 50% [body surface area].
Han:
50%?
Brother:
Right, and not yet out of danger.
Han:
Can he talk?
Brother:
Yes.
Han:
Did he describe how the blast occurred?
Brother:
Hmm
no, his life is still in danger, he
[we] cant let him talk much.
Han:
Ahh
how many people are in your brothers family?
Brother:
6. A mother, a son
2 kids and a wife.
Han:
How old is your brother?
Brother:
47.
Han:
Then what will happen [to the victim and his family] after the accident?
Brother:
Well, that will depend on how the higher authority deals with it.
Han:
What are the family members going to do?
Brother:
Us
it is good enough if my brother gets well again.
Han:
That is it? Only gets well again?
Brother:
Hmm
Han:
How about compensation?
Brother:
We havent thought about it yet. At the moment, the most important thing is for his life to be out of danger, we will be happy if he is fine.
Han:
Did people from the trade union visit you?
Brother:
No.
Han:
Is there any trade union of the coalmine?
Brother:
No!
Han:
Then did the municipal trade union come?
Brother:
Nope.
Han:
How about the provincial trade union?
Brother:
Neither.
Han:
Didnt the ACFTU send anybody around?
Brother:
No.
The village chief of a local village, Niu Village, Mr Zhao, in Yima Country, described to CLB the poverty-stricken situation of a victims family from his village.
Han:
Was one of the victims from your village?
Village Chief:
[Sigh].
Han:
How old was he?
Village Chief:
41. He has 5 kids, the eldest is 11 years old and the youngest is barely 6 months old. Their livelihood is really hard. Yesterday we spent the whole day at his home
my colleagues and 3 cadres. His family has really a cruel fate, you know, his father is still living with them.
Han:
How old is his father?
Village Chief:
In his 90s.
Han:
In his 90s already?
Village Chief:
Right, he has a brother
still single, in his 60s.
Han:
Is it possible for him to take care of the father?
Village Chief:
Hmm
its difficult
he cant even take care of himself
poverty you know, they are really really poor.
Han:
Can your village
help them somehow?
Village Chief:
Our village is as well poor, really penniless. At the moment we have no income and therefore nothing is left.
At another village 5 kilometers from the fatal coalmine, a villager who had just returned from the coalmine told CLB that one of their villagers was also killed in the accident. He also told CLB that in order to prevent non-local workers families flooding in; the coalmine had cut off all communications.
Villager:
I know about it [the accident], I have been there a moment ago.
Han:
Have you just returned?
Villager:
Yeah!
Han:
Did you meet the families of any victims?
Villager:
Yes, some. But they were not allowed to move close, they had to stay aside or further away [from the pit].
Han:
Even victims families are not allowed to come closer?
Villager:
No
Han:
Did any of your fellow villagers work at that coalmine?
Villager:
Yes.
Han:
Were they killed in the accident?
Villager:
Yes, one. They all went to work in the pit because they were too poor.
Han:
Working in the pit due to poverty?
Villager:
Yes. Some families here [in the village] are like this
hard life. Basically, we would remain farmers if farming were enough for our livelihood. You know the coalmine [company] has blocked the passage of information, it isnt allowing communications.
Han:
No more communications?
Villager:
Right, it is worried that if others get to know about the situation - like the non-local workers families - they would all come to check. People said that they saw some bodies had been found down in the pit, but couldnt be taken up
. That means it [the coalmine company] is afraid that people [victims families] would vent their anger on them.
Han:
Worried about others anger?
Villager:
Yes.
This villager also told CLB how the miners who witnessed the accident were able to discover the causes of the accident.
Villager:
It is a man-made calamity. I went to the coalmine today and heard people saying that the some 20 meters of the electric cable in the pit had been broken for several days and nobody was fixing it. You know when it is out of electricity, the ventilation becomes paralyzed
. The coalmine was a highly gaseous one; the methane indicator was read as 4.2 in the pit. The miners came up from the pit when the electricity stopped, but the mine manager pushed them to go down again.
Han:
Oh
so the miners came up once when the gas density was too thick?
Villager:
[sigh].
Han:
And the mine manager sent them down again?
Villager:
Right.
Han:
How could the miners tell the gas was too dense?
Villager:
It was too hot down there and they couldnt stand it anymore.
Han:
Was the ventilation out of service?
Villager:
Yes, as it had been out of electric supply for more than 2 hours.
Han:
Was it when the miners came up, the mine manager made them go down to work instead of fixing the ventilation?
Villager:
Exactly. He said, Why are you coming up? It isnt time yet - which meant that he pushed them to go back down to the pit.
Han:
Whom did you learn this from?
Villager:
Oh
some guys there [at the coalmine] who were in the same shift with them [the victims].
An officer from the rescue task force at the Mengnanzhuang Coalmine confirmed to CLB that death toll has risen to 53 while 19 had gone missing. He said he had not heard anything about the cause of the accident as relayed by the previous villager. For the time being, to rescue the miners was the rescue teams first priority and no investigation of the accident cause had been carried out.
Rescue Task Force:
53 [were killed].
Han:
How many are still missing?
Rescue Task Force:
19.
Han:
Any hope for them to survive?
Rescue task Force:
Hmm
hard to tell
[We are] still searching.
Han:
Still searching?
Rescue Task Force:
Right.
Han:
One more thing, I am told that right before the explosion, the miners had come up due to the high gas density in the pit, but the mine manager sent them down again. Is this true?
Rescue Task Force:
Oh
we havent heard of it here, no idea about this version of events. Our main task is to rescue.
Han:
The miners said that the ventilation was out of service as it had been out of electric supply for 2 hours, havent you heard about that?
Rescue Task Force:
No, never heard about that.
An officer from the Mining Bureau of the Lüliang District told CLB that the Mengnanzhuang Coalmine was a privately-owned mine with three principal shareholders; the local village committee, the Shanxi Jiaohua Shareholding Co. Ltd. [SJSCL], and one Meng Zhaokang, the general manager of the Shanxi Lüliang Resources Development Companys Xiaoyi Branch [SLRDC]. He said the people in charge of the coalmine had been detained since the blast broke out.
Mining Bureau:
The coalmine was run by the village [Mengnanzhuang]. You might call it a private investment company with a share holding system. One was Meng Zhaokang and the SLRDC, one was SJSCL, and one the Mengnanzhuang village committee. It was first run by the village committee, and then later adopted the share holding system. In fact, Meng Zhaokang was the one bringing them together, as he was the general manager of the SLRDCs Xiaoyi Branch. Since two big accidents happened after the new year, they [the related companies] had to stop production and make improvements. All of the company leaders, mine directors and managers, whoever relevant, have been detained.