http://labornotes.org/2014/05/hundreds-miners-die-turkish-government-sides-company
In Soma and in surrounding towns and villages, almost everyone lost at least one relative, friend, or neighbor in the mine explosion. Officially, 301 miners died, but locals believe the real number is 500-600.
There are towns where more than 100 miners were buried. There are people who lost up to 11 relatives. There are families that lost both a father and a son.
The government and the company cannot state an exact number of workers who were at the mine at the time of the explosion, 3:15 p.m.; they estimate 780. Normally workers go down to the mine by using their ID cards, but there may also be informal workers who don't use ID cards, so their numbers are harder to guess.
One TV channel asked all municipalities around Soma their registered number of miners' funerals and found 321, but that number is just for towns; it does not include many miners who were buried in their villages and in other parts of the country. A worker in a makeshift morgue in nearby Kirkagac, just one of the morgues for miners, said he registered 346 dead.
People waited outside the mine to check whether rescued miners were alive or dead. Later it came out that the government's rescue team was putting oxygen masks on all miners, dead or alive, to give the impression they had survived.
People are also concerned that there won't be an independent, fair legal investigation. The government has fueled suspicions by building a wall at the entrance of the mine May 18, by not letting journalists and members of parliament (MPs) in to investigate, and by not letting the public prosecutor work independently from the start.
Opposition parties, MPs, lawyers, journalists, and non-governmental organizations are working hard to check the government's list of dead miners and to determine the real number of dead and injured miners by visiting all the villages and towns.
But police and army forces are making it difficult. Only MPs can pass some checkpoints. The company and local officers of the ruling party are threatening people into silence. People are frightened to lose their jobs, because in that region, the only job opportunity is the mines.
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"