"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 of 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, which occurred outside the Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, workers belonging to rival unions had been involved in a week-long violent stand-off 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.
