Several dead as South Africa police fire on striking miners
Source: Agencies |
August 17, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
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SOUTH African police opened fire yesterday on a crowd of striking workers at a platinum mine, leaving at least a dozen dead and an unknown number of people injured.
Motionless bodies lay on the ground in pools of blood.
Police moved in on striking workers who gathered near the Lonmin Plc mine yesterday afternoon after urging them to give up their weapons and go home to their hostels and shacks. Some did leave, though others carrying weapons began war chants and soon started marching toward the township near the mine, said Molaole Montsho, a journalist with the South African Press Association who was at the scene.
Police opened up with a water cannon first, then used stun grenades and tear gas to try and break up the crowd, Montsho said.
Suddenly, gunfire broke out.
On TV footage, a volley of intense gunfire from among the police ranks could be heard, with dozens of shots fired. The police were armed with automatic rifles and pistols.
Images broadcast by private television e.tv showed the gunfire ending with police officers shouting: "Cease fire!" By that time, bodies were lying in the dust, some pouring blood.
Another image showed some miners, their eyes wide, looking in the distance at heavily armed police officers in riot gear.
It was an astonishing development in a country that has been a model of stability since racist white rule ended with South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994.
Police Captain Dennis Adriao, a spokesman for the officers at the mine, declined to immediately comment. Barnard O. Mokwena, an executive vice president at Lonmin, would say only: "It's a police operation."
Lonmin is the world's third largest platinum producer.
Motionless bodies lay on the ground in pools of blood.
Police moved in on striking workers who gathered near the Lonmin Plc mine yesterday afternoon after urging them to give up their weapons and go home to their hostels and shacks. Some did leave, though others carrying weapons began war chants and soon started marching toward the township near the mine, said Molaole Montsho, a journalist with the South African Press Association who was at the scene.
Police opened up with a water cannon first, then used stun grenades and tear gas to try and break up the crowd, Montsho said.
Suddenly, gunfire broke out.
On TV footage, a volley of intense gunfire from among the police ranks could be heard, with dozens of shots fired. The police were armed with automatic rifles and pistols.
Images broadcast by private television e.tv showed the gunfire ending with police officers shouting: "Cease fire!" By that time, bodies were lying in the dust, some pouring blood.
Another image showed some miners, their eyes wide, looking in the distance at heavily armed police officers in riot gear.
It was an astonishing development in a country that has been a model of stability since racist white rule ended with South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994.
Police Captain Dennis Adriao, a spokesman for the officers at the mine, declined to immediately comment. Barnard O. Mokwena, an executive vice president at Lonmin, would say only: "It's a police operation."
Lonmin is the world's third largest platinum producer.
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