Turkish police repressed a protest in city of mine accident

Turkish police have harshly repressed several thousand people who sought to demonstrate Friday in Soma, the town where this week have killed about 300 workers at a coal mine.

Inhabitants of this city, located about 235 kilometers southwest of Istanbul and groups from elsewhere sang slogans against the government as they tried to approach a monument erected in honor of precisely the miners, when riot police intervened using guns water and tear gas. These days have experienced similar clashes in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, the third-largest city, about 95 miles from Soma.

People blamed the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to allow work to be conducted in the mines without adequate security and in very poor condition. The incident occurred last Tuesday when an explosion caused a fire inside the mine and left hundreds of workers trapped.

The opposition has claimed that Erdogan’s party, with a majority in parliament, had rejected a few days before the tragedy a request to investigate several accidents in the mines in this area. In 2010, a report by the Chamber of Architects and Engineers had warned of serious deficiencies in the mines of Soma, which could endanger the safety of workers.

Turkey is not a signatory to the Convention on the Safety and Health in Mines of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and ranks third in the world in worse accidents by population, according to a 2012 report of the ILO itself.

Tensions in Soma peaked fpoint when Erdogan visited the area on Wednesday and a crowd berated him and demanded his resignation. Published by local media images appear to show the prime minister hitting a man and photographs have also appeared in which one of his advisers kicking a protester who was being reduced by the security forces.

The government has defended its work and a member of the party in power has ensured that there have been 11 inspections at the mine since 2009. “If we find those responsible, there will be no tolerance, whether they are public or private sector “, said Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.

Representatives of the company that runs the mine, Soma Holding, also evaded any responsibility Friday but admitted at a press conference that still do not know the exact cause of the incident and acknowledged that the only refuge chamber in the mine had been closed when production ceased in that area. Still, the company director, Alp Gurkan, insisted that there was no negligence because the law does not require to have these chambers.

Of the 787 miners who were inside the mine at the time of the fire, has confirmed the death of at least 284, 122 were hospitalized and 18 would still be inside the mine, according to official figures. Rescuers have been unable to take any miner alive since Wednesday.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=44149

Posted by Shakira Subhani on May 18 2014. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.