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Director, employees on trial over 2014 Turkey colliery fire that killed 301

SOMA MINE DISASTER On May 13, 2014, a fire at Soma mine resulted in the deaths of 301 miners from carbon monoxide poisoning and injured about 162 others

Photo by Reuters

EMMA SINCLAIR-WEBB The government’s role in the Soma disaster needs to be investigated and corrected if Turkey is going to be able to reverse its “terrible” record of preventable mine accidents

24th April 2015

By: Ilan Solomons

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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The start of the trial last week relating to the biggest recorded mine disaster in Turkey is the first step towards justice for the victims, but ensuring full accountability for the disaster will require an investigation into the State’s failure to protect workers’ right to life, says international human rights advocacy organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The criminal case is against the director of the Soma Eynez mining company and 44 company employees, as well as the mine engineers for the fire on May 13, 2014, at the company’s coal mine in western Turkey that resulted in the deaths of 301 miners from carbon monoxide poisoning and injury to about 162 others.

HRW says it interviewed a number of survivors of the disaster and families of miners who died, many of whom expressed concern about the lack of effective government oversight for safety problems and work conditions at the mine.

“The Soma trial of mine company employees offers victims a chance to get some measure of justice, but the trial does not address the responsibility of State agents who failed in their duty to protect mineworkers’ lives,” states HRW Turkey senior researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb.

She says that the government’s role in the Soma disaster needs to be investigated and corrected if Turkey is going to be able to reverse its “terrible” record of preventable mine accidents.

HRW avers that the criminal investigation into the mine disaster revealed “compelling evidence” of dangerous working conditions and inadequate infrastructure.

“Prosecutors found that the mine company had been informed of [the danger] but apparently ignored clear warning signs of dangerous gas (firedamp) levels and rising heat in the mine, all of which contributed to the deaths.”

Soma miners and relatives of miners who died in the accident described to HRW the working conditions at the Soma mine in the years prior to the disaster.

They cited a pattern of ineffective inspections; lack of implementation of health and safety standards; and infrastructure, equipment and materials that were inadequate for the large number of mineworkers.

Those interviewed repeatedly noted the mine company’s emphasis on ensuring maximum coal production, apparently at the expense of safety.

“Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo˘gan called the accident fate [and] said it was in the nature of the job, but they will not make any of us see it that way,” said one retired miner whose son died in the disaster.

“It was a massacre. It could have been prevented, and the State is protecting itself,” the grieving miner added.

The trial in the Akhisar Heavy Penal Court includes charges ranging from ‘killing with probable intent’ to ‘criminally negligent manslaughter’ and ‘constructive manslaughter’.

Eight of the defendants are in pretrial detention.

Prosecutors in the Soma case commissioned a detailed expert report on the disaster that provided the basis of the indictment against the company officials.

The expert report also attributes responsibility for the disaster to state inspectors and institutions with monitoring powers responsible for multiple failures in their duty of oversight.

However, HRW notes that the Ministers of Labour and Social Security as well as Energy and Natural Resources withheld permission to pursue a criminal investigation against officials.

The human rights organisation says that these Ministers were able to block an investigation based on a “controversial law” which states that prosecutors need administrative permission to investigate State officials for offences committed in the course of their public duties.

“It is deeply troubling that the government can block prosecutors’ investigations into State officials for criminal wrongdoing by invoking an old law on administrative permission,” states Sinclair-Webb.

She further highlights that the European Court has in the past raised concerns that this law contributes to impunity for crimes by public officials and has urged Turkey to repeal it.

HRW is of the view that the Soma mining disaster has starkly exposed Turkey’s “harsh and illegal working conditions” in mining and other hazardous industries.

Additionally, HRW points out that in August 2014, 18 miners also died in a mine accident in Ermenek, in southern Turkey, and that deaths on construction sites occur frequently in the country.

“The most recent combined official statistics from the statistcs office of the European Union (EU) Eurostat and Turkey’s Social Security Institution in 2011 reveal that the number of deaths in workplace accidents in Turkey was 15.4 per 100 000 workers, . . . compared with 2.6 in the 28 EU countries.”

Mine accidents represent a significant proportion of those deaths in Turkey, states HRW.

The human rights organisation says that Turkey’s laws and regulations pertaining to mining stipulate health and safety standards and hold government Ministries and State institutions respon- sible for regular inspection and oversight.

However, HRW laments that the Soma disaster revealed the “shocking” lack of implementation of laws and standards to protect workers.

“When it comes to mining and other hazardous work, the government duty to uphold health and safety in the workplace is a right-to-life issue. “ Therefore, it is all the more critical for the government to meet its obligation to investigate and hold to account State agents responsible for the Soma disaster. New regulations are not enough,” Sinclair-Webb concludes.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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