South African police opened fire on striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on Thursday, killing at least a dozen men in scenes that evoked comparisons with apartheid-era brutality. No fewer than 35 miners were said to have been killed in the shooting incident. President Jacob Zuma said he was "shocked and dismayed" at what appeared to be one of the bloodiest police operations since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 in Africa's biggest economy. "I have instructed law enforcement agencies to do everything possible to bring the situation under control and to bring the perpetrators of violence to book," he said in a statement. Police have refused to confirm the death toll from the operation to disperse 3,000 protesting drill operators who had massed on a rocky outcrop near the mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.  |
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