By staff reporter Wang Heyan

From Caijing Magazine

Dozens of local officials and journalists have been detained or arrested for what government investigators say was an all-too-common cover-up of a deadly coal mine accident in Hebei Province last year.

The July 14 blast at the Lijiawa mine in Yuxian County killed 34 miners. One members of a rescue squad also died. Officials linked the disaster to illegal explosives stored at the site.

Local government officials kept the tragedy out of the public eye for 85 days, according to a central government investigation team formed in October by the State Council.

So far, authorities have detained at least 25 local officials from Yuxian County and the city of Zhangjiakou. They include the director of the Zhangjiakou Coal Mine Safety Supervision Bureau, Gao Jicun, and the deputy director of the city government’s publicity department, Chang Yifeng.

A journalist from Beijing-based Network News, Guan Jian, and mine owner Li Chengkui were arrested as well.

Gag Fees

Chang, 48, was accused of accepting a bribe and offering gag fees to reporters in exchange for concealing the incident, Caijing learned. He allegedly pocketed hundreds of thousand yuan.

Chang, who worked for the city’s publicity office for years and oversaw government relations with reporters, was detained by the Communist Party's disciplinary agency in early October.

Investigators determined that paying reporters for silence was part of Chang’s job. He later confessed to paying gag fees to several reporters, including Guan.

Guan’s detention is believed to be connected with Chang’s case. The reporter was seen being taken away by unidentified people December 1, stirring public concern. Fifteen days later, officials said Guan had been arrested by Zhangjiakou police on bribery charges related to the Yuxian accident.

A source told Caijing that Li, the mine owner, paid 38 million yuan to several people for help playing down the disaster. After being detained, Li claimed gag fees in the millions of yuan were paid to reporters.

Others investigated in connection with gag fees included senior officials from Yuxian’s publicity department, three top county government officials, a local work safety chief, village heads and police officers.

A source told Caijing that reporters from dozens of media outlets accepted hush money, including Li Junqi, Hebei bureau chief for the Farmers Daily.

Hiding Evidence

Hu Chunhua, acting governor of Hebei, sounded an alert October 7 when he accused local government officials of collaborating with mine owners to cover up the tragedy.

Central government investigators arrived about three weeks later. The Beijing team members came from six government departments.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted Peng Jianxun, who headed the investigation team, as saying that the mine owners hid bodies and tried to silence witnesses, including relatives of the victims, offering cash and making threats. Peng said several county officials helped miners with the cover-up.

Sources told Caijing that Li had immediately reported the accident to village and county authorities, but that government officials later decided to launch a cover-up.

According to the source, county Deputy Governor Wang Fengzhong went to the site to close and fill the mine. However, a local official said, the actual closure order may have come from several officials, not Wang alone.

Industry Confusion

Yuxian is one of Hebei’s major coal areas. Annual production is about 3 million tons, and tax revenue from coal mining accounts for 40 percent of the county’s revenue. Some 200 of the county’s coal mines are privately owned.

More than 100 workers have died in a number of local coal mine accidents since 2002. Unscrupulous reporters have used the disasters to line their pockets.

“I am quite sure that the reporters who received money in the recent accident are the same people” who collected gag fees after a tragedy in December 2007, for which a death toll was never released, said a retired county official.

Industry insiders blame a disorganized mining industry and distorted regulations for frequent accidents.

Caijing learned that a large number of private coal mines are often forced by regulators to suspend operations for various reasons. Most private mines are allowed to operate for only three or four months out of the year.

Seeking quick returns, mine owners usually expand operations rapidly and accept hazardous risks, imperiling miners. In addition, a source told Caijing that mine owners whose operations are restricted by the government are known to buy explosives illegally.

Government investigators said the July 14 blast was triggered by explosives stored in the mine that Li bought through illegal channels.

From Article in Chinese: http://magazine.caijing.com.cn/2009-02-22/110072408.html