Anguish and anger as Soma buries its dead

SOMA, Turkey - Anxiety, grief and outrage reigned in the town of Soma on Thursday as relatives buried their dead and rescue workers continued to search for the bodies of miners trapped underground in the worst mining accident in the history of Turkey.

Distraught families, local well-wishers and young volunteers converged in the early morning at a makeshift morgue of Kirkagac, just 14 kilometres southeast of Soma. Red Crescent workers took pictures of the corpses inside to help families identify the bodies.

"We are washing the bodies for burial and helping people find their relatives," said Naci Ina a medical volunteer at the Red Crescent. "There is a lot, a lot of bodies. I've never seen anything like this in my life. It is a very difficult situation."

Sitting outside among those rapidly losing hope was Selme Yelmez, an old woman in a polka dotted headscarf resting in the shade of a concrete wall. She said she had spent the last 24 hours searching for news of her 25-year-old nephew Ramadan who worked in the mine.

"He must be dead but I have the tiniest hope that he is still alive," she said, directing like many others her anger at the authorities. "The government is guilty. They should do something for the families."

A bereaved man shared her sentiment yelling into the crowd: "They are guilty, guilty."

Most residents in the mining town of Soma, with roughly 100,000 inhabitants, were still reeling with shock over the coal mine accident that took place late Tuesday. The accident left 787 trapped inside. Of these, nearly 300 have been confirmed dead.

Graves were dug up in a rush at the cemetery. Coffins were brought in on the shoulders of men. Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers buried their loves one in a sea of mourners as bulldozers cleared the area around them.

"Everyone in the town was directly affected by this accident," explained one mourner. Coal mining is a major industry in the area of Soma, which is home to a lignite-fired thermal power plant. 

The Soma mine was privatised in 2005 but some, including an MP with Turkey's opposition CHP party, blame the government for failing to investigate mining accidents in the area.  About 40 percent of Turkey's electricity production draws on coal. 

In downtown Soma, dozens of young students in their teens and twenties gathered outside NKP party headquarters to vent their anger while police watched on. Many in the crowd felt the government was downplaying the number of lives lost.

"Liars, liars" and "We are the soldiers of Kemal Ataturk" they chanted in reference to the secular founder of the Turkish Republic.

The government puts the death toll at 282. A Red Crescent official at the cemetery gave a higher figure, putting the toll at 296.

That number is widely expected to rise. Rescue workers have been unable to access sections of the mine due to gas and blazing fires. About 100 workers are believed to be still trapped inside.

Energy Minister Taner Yiniz said 787 people were in the mine at the moment of the explosion. Of these, Turkish officials said 363 have been rescued. That leaves more than 100 miners unaccounted for at the time of publication. 

Prospects of finding any of them alive are slim with no new survivors found in the last hours.