Shanxi Governor Resigns, Others Suspended Following Collapse of Coal-Area Waste Dump

摘要

Several local government officials have been suspended and the provincial governor has resigned in the wake of a mine waste collapse that killed at least 250 people earlier in September and left potentially hundreds more buried, state media reported. The Xinhua news agency said Sept. 15 that Meng Xuenong, a former mayor of Beijing disgraced in the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic and cover-up, resigned as governor of central Shanxi Province, the country's top coal-producing area. Meng has become the highest-profile government official to fall to accountability for the deadly Sept. 8 collapse of a retaining wall around the waste dump of an abandoned coal mine. When the wall gave way, the ensuing debris triggered a landslide that buried a village of 1,300 people below, Xinhua reported. More than 250 residents have been confirmed dead. In addition to the governor's resignation, the deputy governor was fired and several local officials have been placed on leave, Shanxi government offices confirmed. Meanwhile, 13 of the mining company's managers have been arrested, though the charges have not yet been made public.