Six die in mine accident in Dnipropetrovsk (07/28/02)

Six die in mine accident in Dnipropetrovsk

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Six more miners died in eastern Ukraine and more criminal charges were brought after a methane explosion rocked the Yuvileina Mine in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on July 21.

The deaths came 15 days after a fire killed 35 miners at the Ukraina mine, located 100 kilometers to the east. The director of the Ukraina mine was charged with negligent homicide in that accident.

The latest fatalities occurred after an explosion at 11:45 a.m. at the Yuvileina mine while 423 miners were working below ground. Nineteen workers were hospitalized as a result of the blast, seven of them critically. The local procurator's office announced that it was investigating the accident as "a violation of safety rules in a very dangerous work environment which resulted in death," reported Interfax-Ukraine on July 22.

First Vice Prime Minister Oleh Dubyna visited the mine on July 23 and told reporters after viewing the site of the underground explosion that the accident was the result of improper use of electronic devices and violations of procedures during blasting operations.

The same day, Dnipropetrovsk law enforcement officials arrested the head engineer, a mechanical engineer and the head explosives expert at the mine on charges of causing death through violation of safety rules. The following day, however, a report issued by the mine suggested that faulty wiring, which may have caused a short circuit, could have sparked the methane. In either case there is agreement that it was the first time the mine had experienced a methane build-up in its years of operation.

The additional deaths bring the number of work-related casualties in the coal mining industry to more than 150 this year, Interfax-Ukraine reported. Over the last decade more than 3,400 Ukrainian miners have died while working. Figures reported by the State Committee of Labor Protection show that for each ton of coal extracted in Ukraine, 4.4 workers' lives are sacrificed. The agency has said Ukraine's coal workers labor in the worst geological and temperature conditions on earth.

More than 1,000 of them had been in Kyiv since June 3 in what have become annual summer demonstrations in the nation's capital. They departed on July 22, a day after the latest tragedy, with no certainty that the back salaries they were demanding - which have yet to be disbursed after several promises by the government to do so - would be paid. The Independent Miners' Trade Union, which organized the Kyiv demonstrations, claimed its members are owed 1.8 billion hrv. The government, however, said the figure is closer to 1.1 billion hrv. The numbers include wage arrears of about 70 million hrv for this year alone.

The miners who participated in the Kyiv protests lived on a small island in the Dnipro and survived by fishing the river and begging on the city streets. They spent their days either demonstrating before various government buildings in the downtown area or hunger striking on Independence Square, Kyiv's central plaza.

Twice they blocked city streets to bring attention to their plight, and twice their representative met with Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh. Each time, however, they came away from the meetings not satisfied that their demands would be met.

The Verkhovna Rada passed a non-binding resolution supporting the miner's demands on June 11, which was introduced by Communist faction member Oleksander Bodnarchuk.

The miners returned to their homes in the eastern regions of Ukraine after a final sit-down strike before the Cabinet of Ministers building with a final promise by Mr. Kinakh that wage arrears would begin to be paid within a month.

The Yuvileina mine accident also came just before the presentation of results of a European Commission project in support of coal sector reform, which concludes at the end of July. The four-year project undertaken by TACIS (Technical Assistance for the Commonwealth of Independent States), the EC's aid agency, aimed to transfer European experience and know-how to improve mining conditions in Ukraine.

First, TACIS developed a Coal Consulting Center in the Donbas region at a cost of 1.9 million euros, which was followed by a second phase, costing 1.3 million euros, directed at four areas of mining operations: development of management information systems; safety techniques and ventilation improvements; introduction of roof bolting and anchoring technologies; and improvements in coal quality and mine tailings. A new TACIS program for the coal mining sector is scheduled to begin next year, which will be funded at 2.5 million euros.

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