Penalties were given to 13 local government officials from Baita Township and Shahe City, north China's Hebei Province, who were found responsible for a fatal iron mine blaze that killed 70 people last November.

Seven of them, including Zhang Fengquan, secretary of Baita Township Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Jiang Jiufang, the township government chief, as well as Liu Zilin, the Party secretary and also head of the Work Safety Bureau of Shahe City, were ousted from their posts of leadership in the Party and the government, said information from the relevant department of Hebei Province.

Li Yuanzhi, the Party secretary and chief of the Land and Resources Bureau of Shahe City, and Lu Xianmin, a member of the Party committee of the Land and Resources Bureau and also deputy head of the bureau, were stripped of their leadership posts inside the Party. A suggestion was submitted calling for ousting the two from their administrative posts, according to the sources.

Shi Qingfang, who was in charge of law enforcement inspection with the Land and Resources Bureau of Shahe City, was placed on probation within the Party for one year and was stripped of his administrative post. Zheng Pingjun, the safety supervisor with the economic development commission of Shahe Township, was expelled from the Party, with his contract of employment being terminated as well.

Both Zhang Xuezhi, deputy secretary of the Party Group of Personnel and Labor Bureau of Shahe and also leader of the disciplinary inspection group, and Hou Ju'an, head of the labor supervision brigade of the Personnel and Labor Bureau of Shahe, were recorded with making major mistakes.

A major fire, caused by the self-ignition of electric cables in one mine, spread quickly to the four other connected mines, trapping 116 miners.

Most of the 70 miners died of suffocation.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2005)