Secret cremation of dead miner exposed

• Source: Global Times
• [04:42 October 23 2009]
• Comments

By Wen Tao

Shang Chunsheng, a 46-yearold man from Inner Mongolia, was killed in a mine accident at

Fangshan on October 12, the mine owner secretly cremated his body while his family received 400,000 yuan ($58,565) compensation, an undercover reporter from the Beijing News witnessed the cremation.

According to the Beijing News report, around 4 O'clock in the morning of October 12, the illegal mine at Shijiaying, Fangshan district, collapsed, Shang was completely buried.

Four hours later Shang was dug out by his fellow workers. The boss of the mine immediately transported the corpse to an unknown place.

A miner who called himself "Da Jun" said, they could earn 200 yuan ($29.3) a day in those illegal coal mines, and he has worked in this area for 10 years. "This is all too common here.

When you get a call early in the morning, it always means someone is dead," he said.

Shang's widow, Zhang Hua, rushed to Beijing on the same day. On the morning of October 13, three negotiators representing the mine owner showed up.

One of them was the brother of the boss. They told the widow that the boss had run away due to his fears of police action.

Shang's son, Xiao Li, asked for one million yuan, which was turned down by negotiatorsThere then ensued long hours of negotiations. Finally a deal for 400,000 yuan compensation was reached, on the condition that if the mine owner was arrested, the family wouldn't get a penny. Relatives urged the three men to take them to the body.

The latter drove them to some bushes in a suburb of Yixian County, Hebei Province, where they had buried the body.