‘A rollercoaster that never ends’ — new hope for Pike River mine victims’ families although others do not welcome plan

A Geraldine couple who lost their son in the Pike River coalmine disaster want his remains left where they are, despite the Government announcing yesterday it will fund a plan to re-enter and explore the mine's main tunnel.

Rod and Christine Holling said they do not know what will be achieved by the attempted retrieval and would prefer to leave the remains of their son, Richard, in the mine.

The 41-year-old always wanted his ashes scattered over the Paparoa Ranges and his parents say though he is under them, not on top, he is still surrounded by the beauty of the West Coast he loved.

"I don't know if there is anything to recover," Mr Holling said.

The mine has been subject to explosions, fires and a flood.

"We could be proved totally wrong, then we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

"It will be up to [Richard's] wife what to do as next of kin, not us," he said.

He hoped for the other affected families' sakes that something will be found.

"We know where Richard is and that has given us closure and that's the reason for our preference," he said.

Though they are sure of what they want for their own son, the couple said they would never stand in the way of other families who needed to find closure in a different way.

Holling thinks a lot of people have been disappointed no-one has been prosecuted over the 29 deaths and puts down any silence over prior knowledge of safety issues to greed.

His main fear now is something may go wrong during the recovery.

And his hope is that it "never ever happens again to anyone else under any circumstances".

Mrs Holling said whatever the result of the re-entry is will not change the outcome.

She will never get her son back, "no matter what".

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

One shot at recovery is all Bernie Monk ever wanted.

The usually resolute spokesman for bereaved Pike River coalmine families struggled to contain his emotions yesterday after long-awaited news the Government would fund a $7.2 million tunnel re-entry.

After nearly three years of pleading for help, families of 29 men killed were told in Greymouth that Cabinet had given the project the green light.

"We mightn't get the results in a few months time but at least we've had a shot and that's all I asked is one go at going down the mine, and we're going to get it," Monk said.

No rescuers have ventured further than 300 metres into the mine's 2.3 kilometre tunnel since the November 2010 disaster.

Monk said it was an intense relief to have the Government's backing after so many blows.

"There's been a lot of tears shed over these meetings. People don't realise in New Zealand the tears that have been lost by a lot of the families. To see the smiles on their faces brings a tear to my eyes really."

There was a remote possibility some men's bodies could be found in the far end of the tunnel, perishing while fleeing the blast.

Tunnel recovery was an essential step in determining whether a body recovery bid into the mine's main working area could occur, he said.

Pike widow Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton Osborne was killed in the explosion, said families had expected Cabinet's approval because so much work had been done on the tunnel re-entry plan.

"It's actually quite exciting now to know that it's actually been given the tick to go ahead."

While the plan did not include re-entering the main body of the mine, where most, if not all of the men's bodies remained, it did not rule it out either.

"At this stage, it's just re-entering the drift but we've got to take it as a positive and something to smile about, finally," Osborne said.

"I'm trying to not get too excited because we've been kicked in the guts a few times but fingers crossed this time and see how it goes."

However, re-entering the mine's main area for body recovery remained important for many families, she said.

"None of us have had closure yet and for the majority of families, closure is what we need to finally put it to rest and put it behind us."

Rowdy Durbridge, father of Daniel Herk, 36, who was killed in the blast, said the news of the Government's support had come three years too late "but now at least we're starting today".

"No-one is doing cartwheels but it's one of the most positive meetings we've had."

Monk, whose son Michael, 23, died in the underground West Coast coalmine, had worked tirelessly to push for a re-entry into the mine's tunnel after efforts stalled about two years ago.

In July 2011, Mines Rescue Trust finished building a temporary seal along the tunnel and erected double steel doors at the mine's entrance to control gases.

At the time, they walked 300m along the tunnel and pinned a poignant note to the dead miners telling them they would return to get them out.

Last November, three international mining experts came to the West Coast to help families to develop a re-entry plan.

At that time, Monk collared Prime Minister John Key at a meeting and told him he would not rest until at least the tunnel had been re-entered.

"I told him we would be still talking about it in 10 years and that we weren't going to go away."

It was a turning point, with Key agreeing with Monk to push for experts from all sides to meet and work on a re-entry plan, pledging $10 million towards it as long as it was a safe, technically feasible and financially credible plan.

The mine's former receiver, John Fisk, of PWC, said yesterday the tunnel re-entry was put on hold once it began negotiating the mine's sale to Solid Energy.

"That was part of the negotiations that Solid Energy would be going to take over the tunnel re-entry plans."

It signed a conditional sale and purchase agreement with the state-owned enterprise in March last year.

Solid Energy's project manager for the tunnel re-entry, Mark Pizey, said work would start on re-entering the tunnel within the next two months and would take about six months to complete.

However, it was weather dependent because the mine's remote location meant any materials needed would be brought in by helicopter.

He said trials were held in Australia two months ago to test the tunnel sealant, a concrete-like product called Rocsil, that would be used at Pike River.

New Zealand's chief mines inspector, Tony Forster, said the high hazards unit approved the plan. A lot of work had gone into ensuring the re-entry would be safe and avoided exposing people to unnecessary risk.

"We believe this is the safest plan that is possible to put together. Nothing is absolutely completely safe but this is as safe as it's going to get because this will be a fresh air re-entry of this tunnel. It's a practicable plan, it's a reasonable plan and I believe it's a safe plan."

The father of New Zealand mine blast victim Malcolm Campbell says his family are preparing for the “long haul” after a new possibility emerged that the bodies of the tragic miners could be recovered.

Malcolm, 25, from St Andrews, and Pete Rodger, 40, from Perth, died when a series of underground explosions ripped through the Pike River coal mine in November 2010.

Mr Campbell, who took part in a tele-conference with the New Zealand authorities on Monday night, told The Courier the plan to go back into the drift had been approved and engineers were confident they would get as far as the rockfall.

But he said this could take from six months to a year and it will be treated as a crime scene pending further potential criminal prosecutions against the mine’s owners and management.

He added: “It’s a dilemma for the family because we said our farewells to Malcolm and accepted that he’d be staying in there.

“But the experts don’t want the boys to be left in there because it’s a hellhole. It’s been a rollercoaster that never ends for my wife and I, and here it is again. But all we’ve ever asked is that they try their best.”

ENTRY PLAN A WIN FOR FAMILIES

Good news at last.

The Government announced yesterday it would stump up with the $7.2 million needed for Solid Energy's plan to re-enter Pike River coalmine's tunnel.

It will start within the next two months and will take about six months to complete.

By then, the third anniversary will have passed of the explosion that killed 29 men in the underground West Coast coalmine on November 19, 2010.

It is hard not to concur with family sentiments that the Government should have opened its coffers sooner.

The devastating series of blasts not only took 29 lives but also exploded New Zealand's international reputation as a developed mining country.

But even the 10-week royal commission into the disaster was unable to find what definitely caused the fatal blast because nobody had ventured further than 300 metres into the mine to work that out.

The Government's belated offer is largely thanks to the determination of one grieving father - Bernie Monk of Paroa.

The father-of-three lost his son Michael, 23, in the blast and has dedicated his life to getting him and his 28 colleagues out of the mine.

Other families agree he has galvanised their efforts.

Monk's determination has resulted in him being sent hate mail by people critical of his desire to see the men laid to rest in dignity and where their families choose.

He admits he has begged the Government for years to step in to help but wants to focus on the positives of yesterday's announcement.

Money has always been a problem at Pike.

When the mine first exploded that disastrous day in 2010, its owner, Pike River Coal, was in a precarious financial situation.

Receivers took over within weeks of the blasts but unstable gas levels prevented rescue attempts.

In the blasts' aftermath, Prime Minister John Key indicated the Government would fund efforts to get the men out but slowly his words faded.

Instead, the receivers paid for Mines Rescue Trust personnel to re-enter the tunnel in June 2011, when they built a temporary seal 170m along the tunnel and erec-ted double steel doors at its entrance.

At the time, they walked 300m along the tunnel, the furthest rescuers had reached to date.

While work continued on a plan to reclaim the tunnel, which was almost identical to that approved this week, negotiations to sell the mine to Solid Energy stalled that work early last year.

After the sale, the state-owned enterprise swiftly made it clear to Pike families that body recovery was virtually impossible because it was too dangerous.

Within months, its financial downfall made it even less likely it could afford to re-enter Pike's tunnel.

Last November, Monk organised three international mining experts to come to New Zealand to help Pike families develop a re-entry plan.

It proved a vital turning point.

He had a stern word with Prime Minister John Key about that time, which seemed to do the trick.

Soon afterwards, Key pledged $10m to fund a safe re-entry plan and backed Monk's call for experts from both sides to join forces to work on it.

An enormous amount of work had gone on behind the scenes by Solid Energy, government officials and international mining experts to reach the point where a plan could be handed to the Government for funding.

Some families believe their loved ones' bodies will be found in the tunnel.

Ultimately, the mine tunnel may hold secrets that will solve one of the most tragic mysteries this country has experienced.

PIKE RIVER TIMELINE

May 23, 2011: Families meet police, Pike River receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Mines Rescue in Christchurch to discuss a mission to recover the bodies. A feasibility study is to be done.

June 22, 2011: Prime Minister John Key hints during a visit to Australia that the sale of the mine will be conditional on an agreement to recover the bodies.

September 22, 2011: Pike River families meet Key in Greymouth to be told that a licence would be withheld when the mine was sold unless a plan had been agreed to recover the bodies.

July 18, 2012: Solid Energy acquires the assets of Pike River Coal for $7.5 million.

October 9, 2012: Key meets Bernie Monk in Greymouth and agrees to reconsider providing Government help to the recovery of the bodies.

November 5, 2012: Key apologises to Pike River families upon the release of the findings of the Royal Commission into the disaster.

December 14, 2012: Key apologises to the Pike River families during a meeting in Greymouth.

February 27, 2013: Solid Energy and the Pike River families table a report of mining and safety experts to a working group on the recovery of the bodies in Christchurch.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/west-coast/9124570/Couple-want-son-to-stay-in-mine

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/scotland/a-rollercoaster-that-never-ends-new-hope-for-pike-river-mine-victims-families-1.127254

'Deportees,' 28 anonymous Mexican farmworkers killed in 1948 plane crash, finally named at memorial

A fiery plane crash here decades ago that killed 32 people, most of them unidentified Mexican farmworkers, inspired a protest song by Woody Guthrie that has been performed by Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, among others. Yet here in the heart of the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural counties in the country, the story of that crash had been largely forgotten.

But two years of painstaking detective work by a writer who is a descendant of farmworkers has answered the question posed in Mr. Guthrie’s song, “Deportee.” The victims were honored this week by more than 600 people gathered here at Holy Cross Cemetery for an elaborate memorial service and the unveiling of a large headstone that lists each victim.

On Jan. 28, 1948, a plane chartered by federal immigration officials left Oakland, Calif., carrying two pilots, a flight attendant, an immigration guard and 28 Mexican farmworkers. Some were in the United States legally as part of the federal Braceros guest-worker program; others had crossed the border without documents. All 28 were being returned to Mexico.

Eighty miles southwest of Fresno, road workers reported hearing what sounded like an explosion, only to look up and see the left wing shear off the Douglas DC-3 passing high above them. Nearly a dozen bodies were seen falling from a hole in the fuselage before the plane burst into flames and plummeted into a wooded canyon.

Everyone aboard was killed. The bodies of the four crew members were shipped to family members, but the remains of the 28 Mexicans were buried in a mass grave here, at the edge of the cemetery.

Although acres of headstones bear Spanish surnames, those crash victims remained unidentified. Near the mass grave, a diminutive stone read only: “28 Mexican Citizens Who Died In An Airplane Accident Near Coalinga California On Jan. 28, 1948 R.I.P.”

The anonymity inspired Woody Guthrie's poem "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)":

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They were just deportees."

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees."

In the case of “Deportee,” that person was Tim Z. Hernandez, 39, a writer and a son and grandson of Mexican farmworkers. In 2010, Mr. Hernandez came across several newspaper articles about the crash at a Fresno library while he was doing research for a novel.

“When I saw the newspaper stories, Woody Guthrie’s lyrics became real to me,” he said. “I thought, someone somewhere must have those names.”

Together with Carlos Rascon, the cemeteries director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, Mr. Hernandez dug through records at the Fresno County recorder’s office and coverage of the crash from a local Spanish-language newspaper. Where he could, Mr. Hernandez filled in information and double-checked name spellings by talking with surviving family members.

At the ceremony on Monday, farm workers stood side by side with folk music fans as a mariachi band played, the bishop of Fresno prayed, incense burned and more than a dozen Aztec dancers performed.

Caritina Paredes Murillo was 11 when news of her father’s death in a plane wreck reached her family in Guanajuato State in central Mexico. For days, everyone in her house wept. But after 65 years, her memories of her father feel more like impressions now: the way he left for long stretches to work, and the sound of his voice singing ballads to her mother when he returned home.

“In my heart I feel happy and sad at the same time,” said Ms. Paredes, 77, who traveled from Mexico to attend the ceremony. “It feels like they were all buried for the first time today.”

During the first of two renditions of “Deportee” on Monday, musicians read the victims’ names as the crowd chanted in Spanish, “descansa en paz,” rest in peace.

Berenice Guzman, a history teacher at Dinuba High School in nearby Dinuba, Calif., had never heard of the plane wreck, or the Woody Guthrie song, until this year. Captivated, she told her students the story. They organized a bake sale to help raise $14,000 for the headstone and memorial service.

“They connected right away because many of their parents are farm workers from Mexico,” Ms. Guzman said at the ceremony. “This is an agricultural community. For many of us here, the people in that crash could have been family.”

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/us/california-memorial-names-crashs-forgotten-victims.html?_r=0

Cebu ferry disaster: 57 bodies claimed

A total of 57 bodies of fatalities in the sinking of MV St. Thomas Aquinas have already been released to their families while 47 bodies remained unidentified as of yesterday, a funeral parlor staff said.

Bong Ebo of the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes said the 57 bodies that have been identified were already released to the claimants after proper documentation while the process of identifying 47 bodies continues nearly three weeks after the sinking of MV St. Thomas Aquinas.

The police earlier said they will have to conduct DNA testing to identify some of the fatalities, a process that could take up to a year.

Based on Cebu Coast Guard records, 29 persons remained missing. These include 23 passengers and six crew of the ship.

A total of 733 people (629 passengers and 104 crew) were rescued, while 108 persons (102 passengers and six crew) were confirmed dead.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://www.tempo.com.ph/2013/09/57-bodies-claimed/

Traumatic past haunts Bosnian Croat village

A marble monument dominates the small hill overlooking Krizancevo Selo, a Croat village near the town of Vitez in central Bosnia.

The memorial bears the names of more than 100 villagers – both soldiers and civilians – killed during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, some of them victims of crimes that have yet to be prosecuted.

Not far away from the site, the trenches which separated the warring sides – the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the Bosnian government army – are still visible, a reminder of just how close the village was to the front line.

About four kilometres away from Krizancevo Selo lies the Bosniak village of Ahmici, where on April 16, 1993, over 100 people including women, children and elderly people, were killed by HVO soldiers. Houses in the village were torched and the local mosque was destroyed.

Eight months later, the Bosnian government army attacked the village of Krizancevo Selo.

Drago Plavcic, a grey-haired man in his seventies, recounts the events of that day.

“When the front line was broken through on December 22, 1993, around 30 people in this village were killed. Their corpses were right here,” Plavcic said, pointing to a meadow near the memorial. “It was the bloodiest day for the village. The sad thing is that no one has yet been held responsible for this crime.”

Plavcic’s house was among those destroyed in the assault.

“I couldn’t extinguish the fire, I couldn’t do anything. Everything I owned disappeared before my eyes that day,” Plavcic said.

According to Plavcic, 30 villagers were taken away as captives by the HVO. After a month, he said, their bodies were exchanged for those of Bosnian government soldiers killed while fighting the HVO in the area around Vitez.

“They [villagers] were beaten and I don’t know what else. They were killed two days before the exchange. They arrived here in bags and we placed them in the school so that they could be identified,” Plavcic said.

Plavcic lost three children during the war in Bosnia, and their names are among those inscribed on the Krizancevo Selo memorial.

One of his sons, Blaz, died aged 22 while serving in the HVO near Mostar in late 1992, while another, Marinko, also an HVO soldier, was killed in Vitez in 1993, aged 32. Plavcic’s daughter Ivanka, 21, died in a grenade attack on Krizancevo Selo in 1993.

Plavcic says he has forgiven both those who attacked the village and those who caused his children’s deaths.

“My house was set on fire by somebody’s hand, but I forgive him that. I also forgive those who killed my children. Jesus forgave, and I forgive, too,” he said.

Before the war, the wider Vitez municipality was inhabited by an almost equal percentage of Croats and Bosniaks. From January 1993, when hostilities began between the Bosnian government army and the HVO, local Bosniaks and Croats turned against each other.

The Bosniak-Croat conflict ended with a peace agreement signed in Washington in March 1994, while the wider Bosnian war ended only with the Dayton agreement signed in December 1995.

Since then, many people have returned to the Vitez municipality, including the surviving villagers of Krizancevo Selo. Most have repaired their homes or build new ones and found work in nearby Vitez, today a predominantly Croat town.

Relations between Bosniaks and Croats in the area remain difficult, though. Their children may attend the same schools, but they go in through separate entrances. Some sports clubs and cultural associations are divided by ethnicity, and two volunteer firefighter units are on call – one Croat and one Bosniak.

Plavcic recounted how much better relations were before the war.

“I still often mention [Yugoslav leader Josip] Tito and Yugoslavia. It was such a great country, far better than what we have now…. But I wouldn’t leave my home. I won’t do that. Bosnia belongs to all of us,” he said.

Standing in front of the memorial above Krizancevo Selo, where the names of his three children are written one after the other, Plavcic talks with sadness about the crimes committed in neighbouring Ahmici.

“When I heard what happened in Ahmici, I thought about it every day. Some of my friends were killed there. We went to school together, we played football together – we were all like brothers. It was very hard for me,” he said.

The Ahmici killings resulted in seven former HVO members being sentenced either at the Hague tribunal or at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to a total of 100 years in prison.

No one has been prosecuted for the deaths of dozens of villagers in Krizancevo Selo, although the special department for war crimes of the Prosecutor’s Office in Bosnia is currently investigating a number of suspects.

Every year, on April 16 and December 22 – the anniversaries of the killings in Ahmici and Krizancevo Selo, respectively – families of the dead and government representatives attend memorial ceremonies in the two villages.

In April 2010, Croatian president Ivo Josipovic, together with Muslim and Catholic clerics, visited both sites and paid his respects to the victims, saying that such crimes must never happen again.

The residents of Ahmici and Krizancevo Selo have never held a joint commemoration.

Pavic says that although he has forgiven those who killed his children and destroyed his property, he has not yet gathered the strength to visit Ahmici.

“Whoever has the strength, willpower and love to pay respect to the victims in both villages is a good person and must be respected,” he said.

Aida Mia Alic is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://groundreport.com/traumatic-past-haunts-bosnian-croat-village/

Historians research Japanese Pearl Harbor dead

Historians hope to solve one of the remaining mysteries of the Pearl Harbor attack and discover what happened to 29 Japanese airmen and four sailors missing in action.

Most are believed to have been lost at sea around Hawaii and in Pearl Harbor. But four aircrew members may still lie buried in unmarked graves in Ewa Beach and in the hills above Aiea.

"For a long time, we didn't even know the names (of the Japanese losses)," said Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. "And I can be honest with you, at a given point in our earlier history, we didn't care, because of the nature of the attack."

Now, Japan is one of the United States' strongest allies and many Americans who survived the bombing have since reconciled with the Japanese attackers.

Martinez says there's a proposal to display the names in an exhibit at the USS Arizona Memorial visitor's center. He said this "will bring total closure to the casualty list that actually exists right here on our grounds."

Martinez said the study will include how some of the enemy Japanese forces were initially buried at Oahu cemeteries and later repatriated.

"I'm just wondering, when those aviators were buried there, what was the feeling in the city about that?" he said

Fifty-four Japanese aviators are believed to have died in or near Hawaii during the Sunday morning attack. A 55th fatality was returned to the carrier Akagi.

Nine sailors who served on five midget submarines are also believed to have died.

Pearl Harbor historian David Aiken said 25 airmen and three submariners were buried at Oahu Cemetery in Nuuanu, Wahiawa cemetery and the Schofield Barracks post cemetery. After the war, the bodies were disinterred and repatriated to Japan, historians say.

Aiken said that leaves 29 airmen unrecovered on or near Hawaii.

Of the nine submariners, the bodies of only three have been found. Two bodies are likely aboard a midget sub found south of Oahu in 2002 by the Hawaii Undersea Research Lab.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://www.kansas.com/2013/09/03/2979890/historians-research-japanese-pearl.html