Leading officials of Lushan County, in central China's Henan Province, have been temporarily relieved of their posts following the preliminary investigation into a coal mine blast that killed 33 miners and injured six.

The officials include Huang Yongmin, deputy head of Lushan County; Wang Changhai, vice director of the city's justice bureau; and Pei Zhide, deputy warden of Lushan Prison. According to the China News Service, the mine was co-owned by the prison and justice bureau. The officials are under investigation for mismanagement resulting in the illegal transfer of resources.

Additional penalties will be administered following further investigation, according to a decision issued Monday by the Pingdingshan City Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

The local public security bureau has already detained Cheng Jiancheng, the private owner of the mine, and Li Wei, a subcontractor.

The blast occurred at the Xinsheng Coal Mine in Lushan County, Pingdingshan City, on November 11. The State Council and Henan provincial government sent teams to Pingdingshan to investigate the incident.

The initial investigation showed that the mine had been officially shut down and was being operated without a license. The government of Lushan County is being held responsible for poor management and lack of supervision.

Pingdingshan, a major coal mining area, is adjacent to the Xinmi coal mining district where 148 miners lost their lives on October 20 in one of the worst mining accidents in years.

The mining fatality rate in China in 2003 was 4.0 people per million tons of coal. The rates in Russia and South Africa were 0.34 and 0.13 per million tons, while the average fatality rate in developed countries was 0.4.
 
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn November 23, 2004)