[Broadcast on 14 February 2006]
With the sound of a large explosion on the evening of November 27 last year, tragedy struck at the Qitaihe DongFeng coal mine of the Longmei Group in Heilongjiang province, and 171 miners trapped at the coal face were killed. For the families of these men, a period of interminable sorrow had begun. The first time I read the first official account of the compensation awarded after this accident, I thought how difficult it is for family members left behind by such accident, how they are forced to take on another kind of trouble and pressure at this very painful time when they have just lost their loved ones. I don't know how many times I picked up the telephone with the intention of calling the relatives of the accident victims, to find out whether the compensation that they had received was reasonable or not, and how they were managing after the accident. Many times I wavered, then put the telephone down, overcome with painful thoughts. That was because once the families of the accident told me what I suspected had happened to them, when this trampling on the souls of men was verified, I would not be able to carry on with the conversation. After Chinese New Year, I looked through the official records of the accident again. Before finishing reading the report, I finally dialed the numbers of several of the victims' relatives and thus connected with them.
Starting today, I am broadcasting the telephone conversations that I had with several family members of the accident victims. From these conversations we will discover what the post accident care group and the Qitaihe unit of the Longmei Group did in the first 24 hours after this accident occurred: They offered the relatives of 20 victims of the accident what they on their own determined would be the standard insurance payment of 200,000 yuan.
Please listen to the following conversation with the 43-year-old wife of one of the miners and his 20-year-old daughter. (Translator's Note: The beginning of the conversation has been cut.)
Miner's wife: Later I moved out. I am now back living with my family.
Han Dongfang: You are living with your family?
Miner's wife: Yes. What can I do? I still have children living at home.
Han: How many children do you have?
Miner's wife: Two girls. The eldest is 20 and the younger one is 18.
Han: Are any of you working?
Miner's wife: No one has a job. They didn't give us one. They gave us 200,000 yuan in compensation and if we signed the agreement early (immediately), they added 10,000 yuan.
Han: How much did they give to the old ones? (Translator's note: the parents of the victims)
Miner's wife: The old ones received 38,000 yuan. We had a total of 19 years on the job, and that added up to 240,000 yuan, together with 10,000 yuan, that was 250,000 yuan in all. I gave the old woman (Note: his mother) 38,000 yuan, so that leaves 210,000 yuan.
Han: What did they originally use to calculate the amount of compensation to be paid?
Miner's wife: I don't know what they based it on in the beginning. I was in hospital at the time. I have not been well. My heart is not good. So when he was caught in the accident, I was in hospital and I don't know how it was handled. My daughter signed it.
Han: How long had your husband worked in the mine?
Miner's wife: He wasn't an officer in the mine. At any rate, he worked there 19 years.
Han: Did he always work below, down in the mine?
Miner's wife: That's right. He was always down the pit on one of the lines.
Han: What kind of work did he do?
Miner's wife: He was the one "opening the eyes". He set the explosives.
Han: He was drilling the holes?
Miner's wife: That's right.
Han: Did you sign any agreement on the compensation in the beginning?
Miner's wife: Yes, we signed it.
Han: What did the agreement say?
Miner's wife: I don't know what the agreement said. Anyway, it is government policy. It said 200,000 yuan and that we should get an extra 10,000 yuan.
Han: Why did you get an additional 10,000 yuan?
Miner's wife: We had to sign the agreement quickly. For every day that we delayed, they would deduct 3,000 yuan. If you agreed after the first discussion, then they would give you an additional 10,000 yuan. All total it was 200,000 yuan. If you came back to discuss it two or three times, then there would be no extra 10,000. If you signed the agreement early, then they gave you 10,000 yuan. That was the way it was. You had to sign the agreement early.
Han: So in the beginning they said, if you sign the agreement early, you will get an additional 10,000 yuan?
Miner's wife: That's right. You had to sign the agreement early to get an additional 10,000 yuan.
Han: Had you talked to anyone in the mining company, a negotiation on the payment, before signing the agreement?
Miner's wife: No, we hadn't.
Han: Had you yourself raised any demands?
Miner's wife: They wouldn't agree to the demands that we raised.
Han: What did you ask for?
Miner's wife: We have two children and I had hoped that they would find them work. They said that they couldn't do it. I said that I health problems and could they guarantee us a minimum payment. They said that they couldn't. They said there was no state law to that effect. If you are going to sign it, then hurry up and sign it, then we will give you another 10,000 yuan. If you didn't sign it, then you would lose 3,000 yuan. And after the next round of talks on the agreement, you would lose another 3,000 yuan.
Han: Which department did the one who pushed you to sign the agreement come from?
Miner's wife: He said he was from the state. I don't know who he was!
Han: Didn't he say which department he came from? Whether he was from the government, or from the mining company?
Miner's wife: He was not from the mine. Who knows whether he was from the Mining Affairs Department or from the central government. I don't know!
Han: You don't even know where the man was from?
Miner's wife: I don't know. We don't know exactly where he came from. They were looking for the families of the victims, so that they could complete the paperwork. They found us and we did what they asked!
Han: Didn't anyone in your family try to get some legal advice? For example, a lawyer could give you some information as to what rights you had based on the law.
Miner's wife: No, nothing!
Han: You have no idea what your rights are according to the law?
Miner's wife: We don't know anything. Someone said that his wages were 1,000 yuan a month. He worked there for 19 years and so altogether he gets compensation of 240,000 yuan, with 38,000 for the parents thrown in. They said to sign the agreement and with agreement they chopped it. My elder daughter signed it.
Han: Under the compensation agreement, who is the party authorized to pay out the compensation?
Miner's wife: I don't know that either.
Han: Can you find your copy of the agreement that you signed?
Miner's wife: I just rolled it up and where did I put it?
Han: Could you find that agreement now and read it to me?
Miner's daughter: This is the "Agreement on the handling of the accidental death on the job" of my father. Party A is the mining company and Party B is the deceased employee. It says which year my father started working at the mine and that an accident occurred which resulted in his death at 11 am on November 27, 2005. According to the regulations on compensation standards for the relatives of the employees who were killed on the job in Accident 1127 at Dongfeng Coal mine, both parties, Party A and Party B, negotiating on an equal basis, have agreed, and reached the decision that a lump sum payment will be used to satisfy the terms of the agreement for the deceased in this accident.
Both parties will respect this agreement: Party A will give Party B a lump sum payment for the funeral and burial of the deceased, a lump sum assistance payment for a work-related death, and pension payments for family members, in all a total of 205,356.56 yuan. Included in the above total are funeral and burial assistance payments of 856.5 yuan a month for six months for a total of 5,135 yuan; a lump sum payment for death on the job, 856.50 yuan a month for 48 months or 41,112 yuan; pension payment for the deceased's family of 18,900.56 yuan, 40 percent of which is to go to the 43 year-old wife for the next 20 years; for the 16 year old daughter, who accounts for 30 percent of the payment, and which is limited to the next two years only. And then there is my grandmother Xu Guizhen, 69 years old, awarded for the next seven years and accounting for 30 percent. After the cremation of the body of the deceased employee killed on the job, Party A will give Party B a lump sum payment and Party B will give Party A a receipt as proof. Party A will act according to this agreement first item in every item of the compensation standards for work-related death, and after paying the entire compensation package in a lump sum payment to Party B, the compensation award between Party A and Party B for this matter will have been concluded. From today onwards, Party A and B will not be able to make any demands whatsoever using any reasons whatsoever as regards this work-related death. This agreement is effective as of the date on which both parties have signed it. Party A and Party B will each have their own copy." And then they have signed their names.
Han: What was the date of the signing of the agreement?
Miner's daughter: They didn't write it down.
Han: At the bottom, isn't there a date when the money will be transferred to you?
Miner's daughter: They didn't write out the day, month and year. Party B, that is us who signed it. Party A, they fixed their chop, that is the Dongfeng Coal Mine.
Han: You signed for your family?
Miner's daughter: I signed on behalf of my mother for our side.
Han: What day did you sign?
Miner's daughter: I think that is was December 1 or 2.
Han: This agreement says that it was done by equal agreement negotiations? Did you have equal agreement negotiations?
Miner's daughter: There were no negotiations. They just said that. Your father is (to receive) altogether this much money. If you want to cremate the body a day early, then you can get an extra 10,000 yuan. My father should be a little more than 230,000 yuan and if we cremate him a day earlier, then that is 240,000 yuan. We agreed and signed it. They didn't agreed to any of the requests that we made.
Please come back next Thursday at the same time, for the next part of our conversation with the daughter of the miner and with another miner's wife.