17 August 2012, Johannesburg: Global civil society network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is deeply saddened at the killing of over 30 protesting miners by police on 16 August in Marikana, North West Province, South Africa.
"While details of the incident are still coming to light, we urge South Africa's government to immediately institute an independent inquiry into the circumstances of the deaths," says Katsuji Imata, Acting Secretary General of CIVICUS. "Law enforcement agencies engaged in crowd control are bound by strict legal requirements and are expected to abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use Force and Firearms. An inquiry must reveal to the public the extent to which legal requirements were followed by police officers and whether there was disproportionate lethal force."
In the lead up to the incident on 16 August, which occurred outside the Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, workers belonging to rival unions had been involved in a week-long violent standoff triggered by a demand for better wages in which ten people, including two police officers, were killed. Police were asked to restore peace after thousands of striking mineworkers gathered together in support of their demands.
