Nine dead, 60 injured in Bolivia mining clash

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Oct 6 (Reuters) At least nine people died and 60 were wounded as miners fighting for control of tin mines, including one of the world's biggest, battled each other with dynamite in western Bolivia.

Presidential spokesman Alex Contreras said eight deaths came during violent clashes between independent and state-employed miners in Huanuni, in the mineral-rich Oruro region. Media reports said a ninth miner died later in a hospital and that 60 were wounded.

The violence was ignited when independent miners tried to seize complete control of several state-owned tin mines, including Huanuni, one of the world's largest. The independent workers had been sharing work at the mine with state workers.

State-owned TV7 showed images of people in bloodstained clothes being treated by nurses in an ill-equipped hospital.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and one of the most socially and politically unstable.

The army arrived in the late afternoon and cordoned off the mining town of Huanuni, in the high Andean plateau 175 miles southeast of La Paz, in an effort to quell the violence.

In the 1980s, Bolivia shut down dozens of mines and laid off 35,000 miners amid an economic crisis and low international prices for minerals.

With prices for minerals rising in the 1990s, the fired miners started exploiting idle mines and eventually formed powerful independent cooperatives now fighting for more control over Bolivia's plentiful mining resources.

Representatives of the center-right opposition National Unity party called for the resignation of Interior Minister Alicia Munoz for not having sent the armed forces earlier to deter the bloodshed.

Mining Minister Walter Villaroel will travel to the area with other high-ranking officials and human rights activists to try to persuade both sides they can work together at Huanuni, officials said.

Leaders of the state-controlled mining company, COMIBOL, demanded Villaroel step down for not having done enough to prevent the protests.

The deaths came amid rising social tensions in Bolivia. The leftist government of President Evo Morales has negotiated an end to recent protests and road blockages over Indian rights, natural resources and land, and coca-leaf farming.

Late last month, state-paid miners blocked highways demanding more jobs in the Huanuni mine, halting the flow of vehicles through one of Bolivia's main trade routes for several days.

Miners helped push Morales to a sweeping victory in the December 2005 election.

The Morales government has pledged to revitalize the mining industry but has yet to announce its mining modernization plan.

Reuters DKS VP0740