Bolivia buries miners killed in dynamite fights

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Hundreds of mourners have buried Bolivian miners killed last week in deadly dynamite battles between rival groups fighting over work at one of the world's largest tin mines, a union official said.

Townspeople laid floral wreaths on several caskets and crowds solemnly walked in procession through the streets of Huanuni, an impoverished town of about 40,000 people southeast of La Paz, Reuters photographs showed.

Violent clashes that broke out in the town between state-employed and independent miners left 17 people dead, said Alfredo Aguilar, a union official for workers at the state-controlled company, COMIBOL.

The government had put the death toll at 16 miners late on Friday.

"All of the caskets have been buried in the cemetery," Aguilar said in a telephone interview.

The bloodbath began when independent miners stormed the state-owned Huanuni mine on Thursday demanding concessions to exploit more ore from the mine, in which both state-employed miners and independent cooperatives work.

More than 60 people were wounded in the fighting before hundreds of police arrived and government and church officials stepped in to mediate.

Leftist President Evo Morales swiftly replaced his mining minister, who was criticized for not anticipating the violence. Local media have said talks over the mine's future between the government and the rival groups would begin on Monday.

"We're going to enter into talks, everything's going to depend on the cooperatives. We've got to reach some kind of agreement or we're going to be living in permanent war," Aguilar said.

Both state-employed miners and independent miners work parts of the vast Huanuni tin mine - the South American country's biggest - and the independent cooperatives have long demanded larger concessions to work the site.

The mining industry, once a pillar of the economy in South America's poorest country, shrivelled during the 1980s as pits closed and workers were let go amid an economic crisis and sagging international prices for minerals.

As prices rebounded in the 1990s, the laid-off miners started working the idle mines themselves and eventually formed powerful independent cooperatives now fighting for more control over Bolivia's rich mineral resources.

- REUTERS