28 protesters arrested at Russian mine blast site

MOSCOW, May 15, AFP - Twenty-eight people were arrested when Russian authorities cracked down on a protest in a Siberian coal-mining town where at least 66 people died in explosions last weekend, reports said Saturday.

More than 20 people, mostly policemen, were injured after authorities moved in to disperse the protesters in Mezhdurechensk late Friday, regional police chief Alexander Yelin was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

"Only after negotiations were exhausted, only after the governor and the interior minister gave their consent, did the riot police start the special operation to remove violators of public order," Yelin said.

The protesters broke the law by blocking a railroad, Yelin said, adding that a total of 28 people had been arrested and 22 people injured, including 17 police officers and five protesters.

Russia's private Ren-TV television channel showed dozens of riot police with shields approaching the protesters in the night, while some young men threw rocks in response. It also showed a woman with a bloody face.

The liberal Echo of Moscow radio station reported that 200 people, including women and children, had blocked the railroad late Friday to demand better working conditions for coal miners after last weekend's tragedy.

At least 66 people were killed and 24 people remain missing following a pair of methane gas blasts on May 8 in the Raspadskaya coal mine, Russia's largest undergound coal mine, located in Mezhdurechensk.

The tragedy drew attention to complaints from Russia's coal miners that they work in dangerous condition for little pay.

"It is the fault of the authorities that they pushed people onto the rails," Ivan Mokhnachuk, head of Russia's independent coal-miners union, told Echo of Moscow on Saturday.

"When people are kept in the dark, when their questions are not answered, when they are left alone, when every day there are dozens of funerals and the authorities do not want to talk, a situation arises where people are displeased," he added.

State television mentioned nothing about the protests in Mezhdurechensk, which is located in the Kemerovo region of southern Siberia.