MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian miners clash with dynamite: 12 dead

At least 12 people were killed and 57 seriously injured in Bolivia during an ongoing battle between different groups of miners for the control of a government owned tin mine in the region of Oruro.

According to reports from the combat area dynamite, guns, knives, sticks and stones are being used in the bloody confrontation between independent miners belonging to a cooperative and others from the Bolivian Mining Corporation which exploits the mineral resources in the Andes village of Huanuni.

In the capital La Paz, a spokesperson for the Bolivian cabinet, Alicia Muñoz, confirmed that at least 12 people were dead and 57 seriously injured according to reports from the Oruro hospital. Bolivia's cabinet chief Juan Ramón Quintana deplored "violence" and said that a "pacification" committee had been flown to the area to end the "fratricidal killings".

The Miners Union chairman Alfredo Aguilar confirmed the seriousness of the situation and said violence erupted when a group of independent miners took by assault the Huanuni mine with dynamite sticks. But there was an immediate reaction from miners belonging to the government owned mine.

Minister Quintana revealed that Army troops that have been stationed in the area for over a year to avoid violence had retreated because they were being "provoked and attacked" by both groups of miners.

Apparently the conflict originated in President Evo Morales decision to allow the independent miners organized in cooperatives, and who strongly support him, to share some of the government owned mines, in spite of the strong resistance from union members.

"We call upon cooperative and unionized miners to immediately put an end to this irrational, senseless attitude that is causing death among Bolivian brothers", said Quintana in an appeal to the residents of the village of Huanuni. "We beg you to remain behind doors until the pacification committee arrives".