Mourning in miner settlement in Ukraine

Ukraine is the country with the highest death rate among miners. This was once more time proved this July. Only a week ago, as a result of an explosion in an Ukrainian mine, 35 miners died.

Yesterday, at 11:45 (local time), a tragedy took place in the Yubileinaya mine, in the city of Pervomaisk, Dnepropetrovsk Region. In the 570th mine, a mixture of marsh gas and air blew up. At that moment, 423 miners were working in the mine, while 45 of them were in the epicentre. At 22:00, all the miners were brought out of the mine. There was no fire caused by the explosion. Six peoples died, while four were hospitalized and their state is unstable. In total, 12 people were hospitalized.

Since the beginning of this year, 116 miners have died in Ukraine, while within the last year, 300 have died.

On July 16, an expert commission that investigated the reasons of the previous explosion discovered that the reason was “incorrect activities of the functionaries responsible for the prevention of accidents.” Therefore, the technical director and mine controller were declared guilty. However, Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister Oleg Dubina, the head of the investigation commission, refused to sign the report of the investigation, saying he was not satisfied with the results of the investigation.

Today, more than likely, one more commission will be created, which is in fact a funeral commission. And how many commissions of this kind will be created in total?

The reasons for all troubles are known, first of all, old equipment. Second, Ukrainian mines are very deep. Moreover, Ukraine does not have the money to remodel the industry. The methods used in the industry are old, while the IMF, which is said to support Ukrainian industry, only demands the closure of such mines. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people are jobless. Man power becomes cheaper. People are ready to work merely to earn their daily bread.

Alexandr Gorobets PRAVDA.Ru Ukraine

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/07/22/44499.html