Crackdown on South African miners

Sep 15 2012

Police firing tear gas and wielding batons have sent men, women and children running back into their shacks in a crackdown on striking miners at a platinum mine.

The show of force follows a South African government vow to halt illegal protests and disarm strikers who have stopped work at one gold and six platinum mines north-west of Johannesburg.

It was the first police action since officers killed 34 miners August 16 in state violence that shocked the nation.

Police said about 500 officers raided hostels at the Lonmin platinum mine before dawn and confiscated home made machetes, spears, knives and clubs.

Officers first fired tear gas at hundreds of miners who refused to disarm at the granite hill that has become the strikers' headquarters.

Then they moved into the Wonderkop shantytown.

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