The State Council’s special investigation team set up three reporting stations yesterday in an attempt to collect more information about the fatal flooding at Daxing Coal Mine in Xingning City of the southern province of Guangdong twelve days ago.

Li Zhilun, head of the team and minister of supervision, said the team will not only investigate the direct cause of the accident, but also determine whether there was dereliction of duty in the management and supervision of the mine.

People are being encouraged to report any information relating to dereliction or breach of duty or corruption involving those connected to the mine. The three reporting stations are located in front of the gates of Xingning’s city government offices, Xingning City Tobacco Company and the government offices of Huanghuai Town.

The accident occurred at 1:30 PM on August 7, when flooding trapped 123 miners underground. At first, there were confused reports of how many miners were underground at the time since management staff initially went missing.

Only four miners escaped, and to date rescuers have recovered three bodies. Two city mayors have been dismissed, eleven mine officials apprehended and two local officials given disciplinary warnings in relation to the disaster.

Violation of safety production rules has been identified as the main cause of the accident.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2005)