Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Bozhko of Kazakhstan

Minister of Emergency Vladimir Bozhko has told at a telephone conference in the Government.
Emergency Minister of Kazakhstan Vladimir Bozhko has made it public at today's Governmental session.
57 minutes ago ABAI, Kazakhstan (AFP) - Twenty-three miners missing after an explosion in a Kazakh mine owned by ArcelorMittal are presumed dead, Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Bozhko said Sunday, raising the death toll to 30.
expected, Kazakhstan Today news agency reported.
Bozhko said the special government commission investigating the explosion had concluded that safety violations and a lack of risk prevention measures caused the blast and blamed the company's management.
Bozhko said that the gang was a part of the so called Jamaat of Central Asian Mujahedin established by gunmen of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who joined Al Qaeda.
Kazakh Emergencies Minister Vladimir Bozhko has already left for the site of the explosion.
Bozhko has also been placed in charge of a government commission set up to investigate the causes of the blast.
A special government commission led by Emergencies Minister Vladimir Bozhko is working at the site of the explosion.
KAZAKH MINISTER REPORTS ON FATAL MINE EXPLOSION13 JanuaryAt a press conference in the town of Abai in Karaganda Oblast, Kazakh Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Bozhko said on January 13 that the January 11 methane explosion at a local coal mine will result in the suspension of mining operations there for many months.
Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Bozhko said 'we want to see what lessons have been drawn from the blast at the Lenin mine,' another Mittal-owned mine in which a gas explosion in 2006 killed 41 miners.
Bozhko said the security problem involved both imported organisations and Kazakstan residents, and suggested that the tendency for different Sunni Muslim groups to worship separately was a source or symptom of radicalism.
KNB deputy chief Bozhko said the Kurdish National Congress, heir to the PKK, was active in the country.
The owner has been informed that if it doesn't take measures to provide for safety (at the mine) then we'll consider revoking the natural resource development license," Emergencies Minister Vladimir Bozhko said in a statement addressed to ArcelorMittal's Kazakh subsidiary, ArcelorMittal Temirtau.
Bozhko said it is necessary to amend the current law on natural resources to require the full removal of gas before coal mining begins.
775 million tenge was raised for the flood victims as part of the Help your Neighbour programme but the minister Vladimir Bozhko said more money will be needed for the emergency situations ministry to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future.
Bozhko said the rescue services need another 176 fire-stations and new equipment and noted that the Caspian territory is a potentially unsafe place.
Bozhko has explained that concrete facts of participation in terrorist or extremist activities are the chief criteria.
Bozhko met with Deputy Secretary General of the NATO Claudio Bisogniero, Assistant Secretary General for Operations Martin Hovard and Special Representative for the Central Asia and Caucasus Robert Simmons.
Vladimir Bozhko is believed to have a number of meetings in the EU structures within the visit to Brussels.
Minister Vladimir Bozhko said earlier that the trapped men would be able to survive up to five hours if emergency respiration equipment worked as expected.
Twenty-three miners missing after an explosion in a Kazakh mine owned by ArcelorMittal are presumed dead, Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Bozhko said Sunday, raising the death toll to 30.
Bozhko said the affected mine shaft would be flooded on Sunday.
Referring to Mittal's expected arrival, Bozhko said "we want to see what lessons have been drawn from the blast at the Lenin mine," another Mittal-owned mine in which a gas explosion in 2006 killed 41 miners.
Bozhko said the affected shaft would be flooded and that the entire mine could be shut down.
Bozhko said all those extradited were Uyghur members of a group called the Eastern Turkestan Liberation Party, which he described as an Uyghur separatist organization.