S. Africa police fire at striking mine workers

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? South African police opened fire Thursday on a crowd of striking workers at a platinum mine, leaving an unknown number of people injured and possibly dead. Motionless bodies lay on the ground in pools of blood.

Police moved in on striking workers who gathered near the Lonmin PLC mine Thursday afternoon. On TV footage, a volley of intense gunfire could be heard, with dozens of shots fired. The police were armed with automatic rifles and pistols. There were unconfirmed reports that the miners also had firearms, as well as machetes and clubs.

Images broadcast by private television broadcaster 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. The shooting recalled images of white police firing at anti-apartheid protesters in the 1960s and 1970s, but in this case it was mostly black police firing at black mine workers.

Police Capt. Dennis Adriao, a spokesman for the officers at the mine, declined to immediately comment. Jeff Wicks, a spokesman for private ambulance company Netcare Ltd. that was standing by at the mine, also declined to 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

In a statement earlier Thursday, Lonmin had said striking workers would be sacked if they did not appear at their shifts Friday.

"The striking (workers) remain armed and away from work," the statement read. "This is illegal."

The unrest at the Lonmin mine began Aug. 10, as some 3,000 workers walked off the job over pay in what management described as an illegal strike. Those who tried to go to work on Saturday were attacked, management and the National Union of Mineworkers said.

On Sunday, the rage became deadly as a crowd killed two security guards by setting their car ablaze, authorities said. By Monday, angry mobs killed two other workers and overpowered police, killing two officers, officials said. Officers opened fire that day, killing three others, police said.

Tuesday and Wednesday, thousands of miners had gathered at a rocky cliff within sight of the mine's smelter. They cheered, sang and marched around with machetes and clubs under the watchful eye of police officers in armored trucks. Some leaders of the miners spoke with the police and largely followed their instructions, breaking up the protest as dusk fell.

Operations appeared to come to a standstill Tuesday as workers stayed away from the mines, where 96 percent of all Lonmin's platinum production comes from. The stoppage has spooked those investing in Lonmin. Stock in Lonmin plunged 7.27 percent in trading Thursday afternoon on the London Stock Exchange.

While the walkout appeared to be about wages, the ensuing violence has been fueled by the struggles between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers and the upstart Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union. Disputes between the two unions escalated into violence earlier this year at another mine.

Both unions have blamed each other for the strife at the mine at Marikana, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.

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Associated Press writer Emoke Bebiak in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/africa-police-fire-striking-mine-workers-150359192--finance.html

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