Mining deaths are not destiny

I am absolutely appalled by the most tragic coal mining accident in Turkish history,
I am absolutely appalled by the most tragic coal mining accident in
Turkish history, which occurred this week in Soma, a small town in
western Anatolia.
The number of miners who lost their lives in this “work-crime” had reached 284
by yesterday morning. The previous death record was 263 in Kozlu, on the coast
of the Black Sea, in 1992. 
Unfortunately the number of victims may increase by dozens, since we do not
know how many miners are still trapped in the depths of the mine. The private
company that operates the mine is simply unable to tell us how many miners were
in the shafts when an explosion caused a vast fire in the mine. This is absolutely
scandalous, but this is not a unique scandal in this tragedy. 
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that “these kinds of accidents are
in the nature of this work.” He was even more explicit four years ago, when 30
miners lost their lives in Zonguldak, saying: “The people of this region are familiar
with these kinds of accidents. … This is the destiny of this profession” (Sabah,
May 19, 2010). Miners' accidental deaths are certainly not destiny. Most of them
are the consequence of the erroneous policies of successive governments. But the
current government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is particularly
responsible for this work-crime, since it has ruled Turkey for more than 10 years
and has done nothing to improve working conditions in the mines or reinforce
safety regulations or emergency measures in the case of an accident. 
I was absolutely shocked when I learned that safety rooms, where miners can
take refuge in an accident, are not a legal requirement in Turkish mines. Needless
to say, the Soma mine did not possess such facilities. I hoped naively that a
number of miners could have found refuge in such safety rooms and that they
could have been rescued, as was the case some years ago in Chile, where scores
of miners were saved a month after the accident, thanks to a safety room.
This tragic accident has reminded us of how Turkey lacks strict safety regulations
in its mines, how the AKP government has neglected this problem. Let me start by
underlining that Turkey has not signed the International Labour Organization (ILO)
Safety and Health in Mines Convention that was adopted in 1995 and entered into
force in 1998. The AKP was not in power at that time, but it has had enough time5/19/2014 Today's Zaman, your gateway toTurkish daily news
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to adopt the ILO convention. On the contrary, the AKP government partly
deregulated the sector when a number of coal mines belonging to the public
Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKİ) were privatized.
If the ILO convention had been adopted and its rules properly enforced, the
Soma accident might not have happened, and if it were unavoidable in any case,
the number of victims might have not been so high. Allow me to mention a few
stipulations from the ILO convention. According to Article 7, mine employers are
obliged “to provide, from every underground workplace, two exits, each of which
is connected to separate means of egress to the surface.” The same article also
stipulates that employers must “take measures and precautions appropriate to the
nature of a mine operation to prevent, detect and combat the start and spread of
fires and explosions.” And according to Article 10, employers must ensure that “a
system is established so that the names of all persons who are underground can be
accurately known at any time, as well as their probable location.” If this
convention had been adopted, we could at least know the number and names of
the miners who are still in the shafts. 
Given the pitiful state of mining in Turkey, we should not be surprised to discover
that Turkey has a record number of miners getting killed in mine accidents.

A report from think tank the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey
(TEPAV), published in 2010, revealed that Turkey has the highest number of
deaths in mining accidents per 1 million tons of coal extracted. Following the
Soma tragedy, we will certainly have broken a new record. 
We must categorically reject the claim that death is the fate of miners. The AKP
government must admit its responsibility and sign the ILO convention with
urgency. This signing is much more urgent than the “witch hunt” that Prime
Minister Erdoğan promised recently with such arrogance towards Turkey