34 Dead: Mine "bloodbath" shocks post-apartheid South Africa
"Police chief Riah Phiyega confirmed 34 dead and 78 injured after officers moved in against 3,000 striking drill operators armed with machetes and sticks and massed on a rocky outcrop at the mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. Phiyega, a former banking executive who was only appointed to lead the police force in June, said officers had acted in self-defense against charging, armed assailants at Lonmin's Marikana platinum plant. "The police members had to employ force to protect themselves from the charging group," she told a news conference, noting that two policemen had been hacked to death by a mob at the mine on Tuesday. However, the South African Institute of Race relations likened the incident to the 1960 Sharpeville township massacre near Johannesburg, when apartheid police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters, killing more than 50." - Reuters

A policeman gestures in front of some of the dead miners after they were shot outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg, August 16, 2012. South African police opened fire on thousands of striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, leaving several bloodied corpses lying on the ground. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko









European Pressphoto Agency :Striking South African miners, armed with machetes and sticks, chant slogans on Thursday, near the Marikana mine in South Africa.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters South African women protested on Friday against the killing of miners by the police.
A woman protester AP
Protesters
Pictures credits: Reuters, AP
