Shakhtinsk, Kazakhstan, Sept 26 (AFP/APP):Standing in the vast windswept plains of the Kazakh steppe, miner Vladimir Khaniev stoically recalled the explosion that left him permanently disabled.
“I heard a bang and the blast threw me off my feet and I lost consciousness,” he told AFP.
Over the past 15 years, more than 100 workers have lost their lives in mines in Kazakhstan owned by ArcelorMittal, a Western steel giant controlled by India’s Mittal family.
Khaniev, who worked for 17 years at the company’s Lenin mine in the town of Shakhtinsk, was left unconscious after an explosion tore through a shaft 800 metres (over 2,500 feet) underground last November, killing five of his colleagues.
“On the surface, I look like a healthy guy,” Khaniev said, “but my head hurts all the time. I’m short of breath. I’m always tired. I don’t sleep much.”
In mid-August, another five more people were killed at the mine, sparking a debate about the exploitation of workers in a country scarred by communism and authoritarian rule since the collapse of Soviet Union.
Khaniev now suffers from encephalopathy after inhaling methane gas released by the explosion.
“In this company, we are treated like slaves, and this is the consequence: people are dying and will continue to die,” said the 40-year-old, whose father and grandfather were miners.
Faced with the harrowing toll, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has threatened to ban ArcelorMittal from operating in Kazakhstan.
But in a country teeming with natural resources and where the mining sector accounts for up to 17 percent of GDP, few expect that will happen.
