* Protesters armed and determined to die – police chief
* Brutal images shock post-apartheid South Africa
* President Zuma cuts short Mozambique trip
* World platinum prices spike, Lonmin shares slump
By Jon Herskovitz
MARIKANA, South Africa, Aug 17 (Reuters) – The police
killing of 34 striking platinum miners in the bloodiest security
operation since the end of white rule cut to the quick of South
Africa’s psyche on Friday, with searching questions asked of its
post-apartheid soul.
Newspaper headlines screamed “Bloodbath”, “Killing Field”
and “Mine Slaughter”, with graphic photographs of heavily armed
white and black police officers walking casually past the
bloodied corpses of black men lying crumpled in the dust.
The images, along with Reuters television footage of a
phalanx of officers opening up with automatic weapons on a small
group of men in blankets and t-shirts, rekindled uncomfortable
memories of South Africa’s racist past.
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.
Continued…
