China identifies 110 ‘responsible’ for fatal landslide

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) – Investigators have concluded that a landslide that left 73 people dead and four others missing in southern China last year was an "extraordinarily serious" industrial safety accident.

The state-run China Daily reported Saturday that the State Council team also identified 110 people with varying degrees of responsibility in the Dec. 20 incident at an industrial park in Shenzhen city.

Of them, 53 face the possibility of being detained or arrested, summoned or placed under residential surveillance.

China’s top prosecution body, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, has filed cases against 25 suspects -- including a former director of Shenzhen's urban management bureau, a member of a district-level Party working committee and a district director of Shenzhen’s urban planning, land and resources commission.

A report released by the team Friday said the accident resulted from “improper storage of construction waste” and “lack of a drainage system”.

It concludes that Shenzhen’s government had been negligent in its management and supervisory responsibilities, while the dump site's construction was illegally allowed by the municipal bureaus of planning, construction, water resources and environmental protection.

It recommends that the firm that managed the dump site, Shenzhen Yixianglong, lose its licenses, with its executives being blocked from executive positions in the sector.

Fines and other penalties are also suggested for two companies deemed responsible for the accident, which destroyed 33 buildings and caused direct economic losses of 880 million yuan ($132 million).