A Mine-Full Of Methane

The village of Citluk is twelve kilomtres away from Soko Banja. It is muddy and depressive, situated at the bottom of foggy mountains where the "sun shines only at sunset". On Sunday, January 18, there were far too many luxury passenger vehicles with Belgrade number plates in the village. The faces of its inhabitants and two flags at half mast, the Yugoslav three-colour and the miners' green-and-black, told their own story: the reason for this strange gathering was a disaster rather than a celebration. The funeral of 29 miners killed the day before in the Soko coal mine was about to begin.

THE SPEECH: The funeral was attended by about three thousand people, including miners who came from all parts of Yugoslavia. The funeral service was conducted by the Timok archbishop Justin. Even the First Family attended, but for Mum and Dad. Serbian president Milan Milutinovic was there, and so where federal foreign minister Zivadin Jovanovic, Serbian interior minister Vlajko Stoiljkovic, SPS secretary general Gorica Gajevic, Nikola Sainovic, Svetozar Krtsic, Ljubisa Ristic, police chief Vlastimir Djordjevic and many others. The state television knew better than to note the presence of opposition leaders, who - in all honesty - didn't show much interest in appearing on television this time round. Ranking SPS and JUL officials, Gorica Gajevic, and Ljubisa Ristic were in such a hurry to make their presence felt in Citluk that they somehow forgot to attend the commemorative session prior to the funeral and express their deep sympathy to the families of the deceased.

THE FACTS: As the results of the investigation are being awaited, questions on safety in the Soko coal mine are mounting. Very few miners are prepared to talk, and those who are insist that their names be kept secret. Statements made by government officials that the coal mine has "the most sophisticated equipment" and "working conditions matching the highest world standards" are devoid of all truth, the miners say. They doubt if the "most sophisticated" equipment for detecting methane has been tested at all. Two years ago, a combination of British, French, Polish and Yugoslav coal-mining equipment was installed in the Soko coal mine. The equipment, consisting of various sensors, was placed in the so-called blind pits, where the mine is extracted.

Safety measures were tightened after two accidents in 1974 and 1975, which resulted in the death of twenty miners. The mine was secured with a detoxification pipeline which helped dispose of excessive methane. Unofficial sources say the pipeline is no longer there. After the two disasters, an internal standard, tighter than those applied in other countries, was introduced: The methane-measuring sensors were set to detect one percent of methane instead of the usual 1.5 percent. That, however, led to an annual production fall of about 20 thousand tons of coal, which prompted the managing directors to bend rules and start applying inexcusable tricks. They advised, encouraged and eventually instructed the miners to place the methane sensors near ventilation shafts where fresh air comes in, so that they detected less methane than there actually was or, in some cases, no methane at all. Some sensors were simply covered with coats, with much the same effect: no methane was detected, power supply was not cut off, production went on uninterrupted - and neither the miners nor the switchboard operators knew what the real methane level was. Rumours have it that the entire first shift killed in the Soko disaster had dug tons of coal with methane sensors placed next to the ventilation shafts, which could have caused the tragedy bearing in mind that extracting a ton of coal sets off seven cubic metres of methane.

In any case, it seems that the sensors detected nothing on that fatal Friday, as rescue teams hurried to the pit only when smoke appeared on the surface.

THE REGULATIONS: "Rigging methane sensors has been going on for a long time, but it became a daily routine a year ago", said one of the survivors, and added: "Safety measures are virtually non-existent because most miners do not have rescue kits, much less gas masks which turn the poisonous carbon-monoxide into breathable carbon dioxide when something goes wrong. Perhaps some of them would have survived if they had had rescue kits with them. I heard that the clothes on many of them were burnt, which means they weren't given special safety clothes made of cotton which, unlike synthetic-made clothes, don't burn".

After the tragedy, many people remembered last year's incident when the Soko coal mine technical director Svetislav Andjelkovic was demoted and eventually sacked. Andjlekovic dared raise the touchy issues regarding the disappearance of coal from depots, its sale to private enterprisers, staff and housing policy and - safety measures. The insubordinate Andjlekovic was removed for sticking to safety regulations by the book, his former colleagues say that he often instructed entire shifts not to work when excess methane was detected the shift before. Ten disabled miners went on a hunger strike when he was sacked, but the whole affair was soon covered up. Those who went on strike were given poorer jobs, while Andjelkovic and his family were harassed and humiliated in the most typical Stalinist fashion, for "dissidents" in small, insular settlements always remain isolated in their cause. It is not surprising that Andjelkovic refused to talk to the weekly Vreme, although it was quite obvious that he had a lot to say. He uttered that he has taken the matter to court and that his fate is being decided upon.

THE FUTURE: The Nis city mayor Zoran Zivkovic remembers last year's strike. After the funeral, he told the press that the miners had tried to warn the managing directors of the difficult working conditions, but the directors did little or nothing to improve them.

"The situation is very much the same in other mines throughout Yugoslavia, because of the negligent and ignorant behaviour of the authorities. The tragedy in the Aleksinac coal mine claimed 90 lives, after which this mine rich with coal was shut down. Safety in coal mines costs a great deal and it should by all means be calculated in the price of coal, that is the only way to keep extracting it", Zivkovic said.

The Soko coal mine has been shut down too, it will be reopened after the consequences of the disaster are dealt with. The decision is in the hands of the Serbian coal mining inspector Miroljub Stefanovic, who heads a special team made of mining experts, ministers and power industry officials.