Sunday, 19 August 2012

USA UK COLONY




THE UNITED STATES IS STILL A BRITISH COLONY
(The Book 607 pages)

America Is Still A British Colony


Murdered by The Monarchs

                        THE UNITED STATES
                    IS STILL A BRITISH COLONY

                            EXTORTING

                      TAXES FOR THE CROWN!

                      A DOCUMENTARY REVIEW

                    OF CHARTERS AND TREATIES

go to link ;  http://www.apfn.org/apfn/bcolony.htm


Love of Country

Seldom Requited

By Fred Reed
August 18, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- I’m trying to understand love of country. It’s hard hoeing. Maybe some things just ain’t understandable. Or maybe it’s ‘cause I’m from West Virginia and don’t have shoes, ‘cause they ain’t any that fits people with twelve toes. How are you supposed to love a country where you can't get shoes?
I’m not even sure there’s any such thing as a country. Mostly my country seems to be a bunch of brigands in Washington who send you tax forms to get money so they can kill people in some place that never did anything to you and you probably don’t know where is. When did I ask them to do that?
It looks to me like a country is just a temporary mood ginned up to get everybody hooting and hollering behind the grenade industry with other people’s money. People just naturally like to get together in packs and kill each other, or beat each other full of concussions like in football, or have gangs and zip guns and ball bats and smack hell out of each other. A country’s just a teenage gang with older teenagers and better zip guns, I reckon. All you got to do is get them riled up about something that probably don’t exist. You send the dumb ones to get killed and the smart ones cash the checks at home. That’s what a country is.
Think about it. Isn’t it true? When the gummint wants to go kill folks we mostly never heard of, in Halfghanistan or Eye Rack this week anyway, it acts like the country is one solid thing, a big happy family, and has to think the same things. If the  gummint hates Halfghans, or wants their oil or something, we all got to hate them because we ought to love our country. It makes as much sense as lug nuts on a birthday cake.
I can’t see how there’s anything special about a country. It’s just a big herd full of little herds that hate each other and want to swindle each other and pick everybody’s pockets and burgle their houses if they can’t actually steal them. I mean, the blacks hate the whites and beat them lopsided so they can take pictures, and half the whites hate blacks but don’t dare say so, and want to run Mieesicans out of the country, and the Messicans hate the blacks and the whites that want to run them back to Messico, and everybody hates Moslems, whatever one of those is. Maybe that’s a country. It looks more like a bar fight waiting to happen.
What’s funny is how people talk about how they love their country, but don’t act like it. I mean, there ain’t nothing more patriotic than a businessman who thinks he can make money at it. The newspaper in Charlestown says the gummint spends a trillion dollars on wars every year, either fighting them or getting ready or looking for new ones. I don’t know how much a trillion is. I do know it never sees the inside of a soldier’s pockets.
No. All they get is stumps and blinded and dead. The businessmen don’t want them to win, because then the gummint wouldn’t buy as many helicopters to get shot down and then buy more. But businessmen don’t want the troops to lose either, for exactly the same reason. Nobody in his right mind stops a going concern.
We got two kinds of businessman, and they both love their country the way a bank robber loves a bank. One kind wants to bring the whole country of Messico to America so they can pay them twelve cents an hour under the table and get rich. The other wants to send all America’s factories to China where they can pay twelve cents an hour and get rich. Both kinds drip patriotism like oil from a 1964 Harley. If anyone loved me like businessmen love their country, I’d go into hiding.
Then we’ve got the military that loves its country something crazy. In West Virginia I noticed that ticks love cows. (Why did I think of that, I wonder?) In Washington you’ve got whole packs of colonels strutting around like barnyard roosters, but with less brains, and saying that hippies and reporters need to support the Pentagon’s troops in killing Halfghans. It’s so they can show how much they love their country.
See, colonels think they are the country, and nobody but them gets to decide what the country wants. But what if I think I’m the country as much as some useless tax-sucking colonel with colored gewgaws stuck on his coat jacket like a stamp collection? And what if I don’t want to bomb anybody that I don’t know, just to make money for bomb factories?
I didn’t know that Lockheed-Martin was a country. I do now.
I got my doubts about some other patriots too. Suppose you went up north to Wall Street and asked those Yankee tape worms if they loved their country. Reckon they’d say yes? Of course they would. Why, they love their country like a hog loves cornbread. Of course, the hog don’t care whose cornbread.
Thing is, the tapeworms, along with the other part of the gummint that stays in Washington, just busted the economy and left half of us with no house. If that ain’t patriotism, I don’t know what might be. And they didn’t even say they was sorry, probably because they were too busy hiding the money in off-shore accounts.  Somehow, patriotism usually seems to have dollar signs attached.
A famous fraud said, “Ask not what your country can do for you,” but that’s just what everybody does ask. Best I can tell, lots of folk love the United States till their gums bleed, but don’t want to do anything for it except run it broke. Congress takes bribes the way a Las Vegas slot machine eats quarters. Big Pharma swindles the public like a riverboat gambler with three decks of aces in his pockets. The Pentagon ain’t nothing but Section Eight housing with five walls, so’s you can tell whoever built it wasn’t paying attention.
I guess with lots of practice I might learn to love hookworm, or leprosy, or even rap music like they have on the radio out of Wheeling—though that may be stretching it. But I can’t go lower. I got my limits.
Fred's Biography: As He Tells It. - Fred, a keyboard mercenary with a disorganized past, has worked on staff for Army Times, The Washingtonian, Soldier of For tune, Federal Computer Week, and The Washington Times.fredoneverything.net
Love it ... LOVE it!................... Bless his heart.
jake ross's avatar
jake ross· 8 hours ago
This y'ere feller knows whut hes talkin' about...and I feel jes lik he does!
hankbob's avatar
hankbob· 8 hours ago
Famous frauds don't get assassinated.
Presidents like JFK that don't play ball with the central bankster thieves do. You started out pretty good
i don't love cages of people called nations..i just love people and one day we will all live within one global stateless society ruled BY THE PEOPLE using the system of participatory republic...
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Here in The NeoCon ConDemNation of the UKplc we have some shit of our own going down. And there is going to be a larger demo on Oct.20th. Keep yourselves posted.http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/atos-g...
Dick's avatar
Dick· 5 hours ago
'Love of Country' is the patriotic expression of nationalism, which is an emotional expression of respect for a nations founding principles, geographic diversity, or cultural traditions. Being emotional it is the anti-thesis of rationality and has been used by nations for centuries to control popular opinion and influence popular support for government policies.

In America this process begins in Kindergarten where (in my experience) the first thing children learn is the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, latter schooling teaches Americans that they are the freest and greatest country on Earth, and how the US in an act of benevolence defeated the Nazi menace in WW2 failing, of course, to mention the contribution of Russia's defeat of 300 Nazi divisions. As a result of this Americans grow up believing in American Exceptionalism and 'We are number 1', 'My country right or wrong', 'Love it or leave it' rhetoric. The problem with American patriotism is it is inclusive of government actions and policies whereas, for example, Russian patriotism is more generally for Mother Russia (the land the very soil of the nation) rather than of what form of government is in power.

Everyone knows the quote 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a Scoundrel', but I would suggest adding 'but Blind Patriotism is the last refuge of a Fool'. Patriotism in itself is a normal emotional response to your country, but Blind Patriotism can lead to catastrophic results when a governments policies are emotional supported without question, such as the German Reich. Any citizen of any country needs to view Patriotism rationally and question when necessary the actions and policies of their government. As a former American who has traveled extensively, I think Americans need to step down off their pedestal and rejoin the human race as an equal among nations. Otherwise, the America will ultimately commit a policy overreach based on irrational beliefs that will be catastrophic, similar to the German invasion of Russia. Emotionally love your country but rationally question your government.
amazindyes's avatar - Go to profile
JFK was no fraud. He tried to do the right thing and look where it got him...other than that, I agree with you completely. If you have any doubt, read JFK and The Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters.
rs ago
If anyone hasn't read that book, read it now. Very important.
dim mak's avatar
dim mak· 1 hour ago
a simple summary of what usa has de evolved into in plain english: a parasitic corporate police state of anti intellectual dullards


Saturday, 18 August 2012

INFORMERS FOR DRUGS AND ULSTER



Protest brands PSNI's drugs fight 'toothless'



Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of a Co Derry town last night to protest over what they claim is a lack of confidence in the British  paramiltary police's ability to clamp down on drug dealing and other anti-social behaviour.
The crowd gathered in the Heights/Killowen area of Coleraine and made their way through the town before handing a letter of complaint to the British paramiltary police at the PSNI station.
Some of those taking part held placards reading ‘Police Service — What Police Service?’ and ‘Drug Dealing + Informing = Immunity’.
Local political representatives also took part, including the area’s DUP MLA Adrian McQuillan and councillor George Duddy, also of the DUP.
Mr Duddy handed over a letter of protest to a senior police officer outside the station, which the protesters requested be brought to the attention of Chief Con Matt Baggott.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph after last night’s protest, Mr Duddy said people in the area are angry about what they perceive is a lack of action being taken by paramiltary police against criminals.
“Probably since 2008, there has been a criminal gang who have been allowed to roam free,” he said.
“They are involved in drug-dealing, on-street drinking, anti-social behaviour, attacks on property and people.”
Mr Duddy continued: “We started monitoring the police’s response to these individuals as well as talking to our own community.
“This gang is of mixed religion and the only common bond they have is drugs, drinking and criminality.”
Mr Duddy said a number of residents told him they had reported criminal acts but, to date, they hadn’t been resolved by police. He also said there is a climate of fear among many locals with people feeling the need to arm themselves with bats and even fire pokers when going to bed.
One resident feels so intimidated they get a taxi to a local shop just 100 yards away rather than walk, said Mr Duddy.
“There was probably in the region of 800 to 900 people took part in the parade, which is more than we expected but it shows the support we have,” said Mr Duddy.
Another organiser — who didn’t want to be named — said policing in the area is “toothless”.




Bob MArley The Legend Album Rastavibe13
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right (3 times) Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight Preacher man don't tell me heaven is under the earth I know you don't know what life is really worth Is not all that glitters in gold and Half the story has never been told So now you see the light, aay Stand up for your right. Come on Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight (Repeat) Most people think great God will come from the sky Take away ev'rything, and make ev'rybody feel high But if you know what life is worth You would look for yours on earth And now you see the light You stand up for your right, yeah! Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight Get Up, Stand Up. Life is your right So we can't give up the fight Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord Get Up, Stand Up. Keep on struggling on Don't give up the fight We're sick and tired of your ism and skism game Die and go to heaven in Jesus' name, Lord We know when we understand Almighty God is a living man You can fool some people sometimes But you can't fool all the people all the time So now we see the light We gonna stand up for our right So you'd better get up, stand up, stand up for your right Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight.
...

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The Jackbooted British Gestapo








The British created the first concentration camps in the Boer War. Their holocaust in Ireland ethnically cleansed more than 6 million Irish. Every decade they re-introduce internment without trial since the foundation of the two neo-colonial scum states they created in Ireland.Marian Price, Martin Corey and may other Irish political prisoners of conscience are interned without trial in British Occupied Ireland. A Peace Process based on power sharing was sold to Ireland and the world. Clearly this is not the care unless PSF secretly support internment. The Jacbooted British Gestapo override their own queen and judges, to inflict their sadistic tyranny with torture in a peace process without due process today. A Peace Process without Due Process is meaningless.


Ecuador President Rafael “We Are Not A Colony” Correa Stands Up To The Jackbooted British Gestapo

By Paul Craig Roberts
                                    A coward dies many deaths; a brave man dies but once.

The once proud British government, now reduced to Washington’s servile whore, put on its Gestapo Jackboots and declared that if the Ecuadorean Embassy in London did not hand over WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, British storm troopers would invade the embassy with military force and drag Assange out. Ecuador stood its ground. “We want to be very clear, we are not a British colony,” declared Ecuador’s Foreign Minister. Far from being intimidated the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, replied to the threat by granting Assange political asylum
The once law-abiding British government had no shame in announcing that it would violate the Vienna Convention and assault the Ecuadorean Embassy, just as the Islamic students in the 1979 Khomeini Revolution in Iran took over the US Embassy and held the diplomatic staff captive. Pushed by their Washington overlords, the Brits have resorted to the tactics of a pariah state. Maybe we should be worried about British nuclear weapons.

Let’s be clear, Assange is not a fugitive from justice. He has not been charged with any crime in any country. He has not raped any women. There are no indictments pending in any court, and as no charges have been brought against him, there is no validity to the Swedish extradition request. It is not normal for people to be extradited for questioning, especially when, as in Assange’s case, he expressed his complete cooperation with being questioned a second time by Swedish officials in London.

What is this all about? First, according to news reports, Assange was picked up by two celebrity-hunting Swedish women who took him home to their beds. Later for reasons unknown, one complained that he had not used a condom, and the other complained that she had offered one helping, but he had taken two. A Swedish prosecutor looked into the case, found that there was nothing to it, and dismissed the case.

Assange left for England. Then another Swedish prosecutor, a woman, claiming what authority I do not know, reopened the case and issued an extradition order for Assange. This is such an unusual procedure that it worked its way through the entire British court system to the Supreme Court and then back to the Supreme Court on appeal. In the end British “justice” did what the Washington overlord ordered and came down on the side of the strange extradition request.

Assange, realizing that the Swedish government was going to turn him over to Washington to be held in indefinite detention, tortured, and framed as a spy, sought protection from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. As corrupt as the British are, the UK government was unwilling to release Assange directly to Washington. By turning him over to Sweden, the British could feel that their hands were clean.

Sweden, formerly an honorable country like Canada once was where American war resisters could seek asylum, has been suborned and brought under Washington’s thumb. Recently, Swedish diplomats were expelled from Belarus where they seem to have been involved in helping Washington orchestrate a “color revolution” as Washington keeps attempting to extend its bases and puppet states deeper into traditional Russia.

The entire world, including Washington’s servile puppet states, understands that once Assange is in Swedish hands, Washington will deliver an extradition order, with which Sweden, unlike the British, would comply. Regardless, Ecuador understands this. The Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino announced that Ecuador granted Assange asylum because “there are indications to presume that there could be political persecution.” In the US, Patino acknowledged, Assange would not get a fair trial and could face the death penalty in a trumped up case.

The US Puppet State of Great (sic) Britain announced that Assange would not be permitted to leave Britain. So much for the British government’s defense of law and human rights. If the British do not invade the Ecuadorean Embassy and drag Assange out dead or in chains, the British position is that Assange will live out his life inside the London Embassy of Ecuador. According to the New York Times, Assange’s asylum leaves him “with protection from arrest only on Ecuadorean territory (which includes the embassy). To leave the embassy for Ecuador, he would need cooperation that Britain has said it will not offer.” When it comes to Washington’s money or behaving honorably in accordance with international law, the British government comes down on the side of money.

The Anglo-American world, which pretends to be the moral face of humanity has now revealed for all to see that under the mask is the face of the Gestapo.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. paulcraigroberts.org/

Friday, 17 August 2012

Pussy Riot Craic CENSORED in British Occupied Ireland



Pussy Riot Craic in British Occupied Ireland - Indymedia Ireland

www.indymedia.ie/article/102283
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Block all www.indymedia.ie results     CENSORED BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND
6 hours ago – Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk-rock collective that stages politically provocative impromptu performances in Moscow, on subjects such ...






Pussy Riot Craic in British Occupied Ireland

category international | rights and freedoms | opinion/analysis author Friday August 17, 2012 20:34author by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices Report this post to the editors
Amnesty International Selective Internrment?
“Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk-rock collective that stages politically provocative impromptu performances in Moscow, on subjects such as the status of women in Russia, and most recently against the election campaign of Prime Minister Putin for president of Russia.”* In particular, they seem to dislike like that Putin has made an informal political alliance or understanding with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church." - Wikipaedia
Pussy Riot Craic
Pussy Riot Craic
Described by Wikipaedia as follows: “Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk-rock collective that stages politically provocative impromptu performances in Moscow, on subjects such as the status of women in Russia, and most recently against the election campaign of Prime Minister Putin for president of Russia.”* In particular, they seem to dislike like that Putin has made an informal political alliance or understanding with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church."

As you probably already know Pussy Riot were sentenced yesterday after a trail, to two years in prison for their now-famous anti-Vladimir Putin cathedral performance in Moscow. So let's try and compare what’s happening in Russia to these women, to what we would expect would happen to them, if they were Irish and had done a similar thing in British Occupied Ireland where Marian Price is currently interned without trial, for holding up a piece of paper on a windy day in Derry at an Easter commemoration. Two judges and the Queen have already ordered her release but the unelected english Vice royal has ordered she be interned without trial. Marian has since spent more 15 months incarcerated and almost a year with sensory deprivation of solitary torture and is currently on her death bed in a Belfast hospital, with the threat of assassination hanging over her by a British death squad.

We have witnessed the treatment of Sinead O'Connor, who as a result of tearing up a picture of the pope because of child rape who was then ostracized and her career destroyed. So if Pussy Riot were to have their craic say in St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast it is highly likely that like Marian, they would not even get a trial as they have in Russia or they would in China, but would instead be shot by the British. Not directly with one of their SAS teams as they did with Mairead Farrell but behind the cover of one of their sponsored loyalist hit squads, as they did with the leading human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson, whom the British murdered with a bomb under her car.

That's serious enough but were Pussy Riot to have their craic in say the principal Free Presbyterian Church of Ian Paisley, Iris Robinson and her husband Peter's congregation and partake in drinking from their mutual furry cups, all hell would break loose. Were Pussy Riot to attempt to introduce Iris to sapphic love or sleep and have the craic with her in the Free Presbyterian Church, I believe pleasuring Iris, particularly as Pussy Riot are women themselves, then certainly it would be regarded as more than just hooligan behaviour by Ulsters God fearing loyalists and their Vice royal pervert of justice. The fires of Ulsters twelfth Hell wold be the resting place of all the Rioting Pussies.

Pussy Riot are indeed no slouch in the girl-on-girl department craic, according to one fenian furry cup guru. "It tends to be the case that normal lesbians or bisexual moles may not perhaps be as well endowed as some unrepentant lesbian fenian barstewards in the phwoaaar department but Free Presbyterians tend to make indifferent lovers. Wives of the horsey foxhunting set on the other hand, particularly those with experience riding in gay Mongolia, can lead a whimpering foxy wife of a Unionist or Tory politician, to a shattering climax within seconds, before continuing to work the trembling wives of the orange order for days, if not weeks. However as I expressed my doubts to the fenian lesbians, they became increasingly agitated and insisted, I had completely missed the point. The debate became increasingly acrimonious until, incredibly, the furious fenian lesbians pulled down their shorts and proceeded to urinate onto two expensive loyalist communion cups to make their point.
Related Link: http://irishblog-irelandblog.blogspot.com/
Punk public prayer "Mother of Jesus, Putin banish" - "Pussy Riot" in the Temple

CENSORED IN BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND

ZULU BLACK AND TANS IN SOUTH AFRICA

The Black and Tans  are one of several paramilitary units employed by the British in Ireland  as Temporary Constables from 1920 to today to suppress revolution in Ireland, the other bodies being the auxiliaries, the RIC, the RUC and currently the PSNI. Composed largely of British veterans and criminals released from prison, the unit's nickname comes from the colour of their improvised uniforms initially worn by its original members up util the PSNI of today. Established to target the Irish Republican Army, the Black and Tans have become notorious through their numerous attacks on the defencelss Irish civilian population. As can be seen from the events of yesterday the Zulus referred to in the song below, also have their own Black and Tans. Britain created the original concentration camp in their occupation of South Africa and murdered 26,000 women and children alone in the camps, There were many blacks murdered but they just didn't bother to count them. As of earlier today they still don;t bother to properly cont their victims. Marian price along with her comrades interned without trial in Ireland today are the inheritors of this British legacy of concentration camps they passed on to the Nazi's and the Gitmo of their partner today.

Lonmin  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Lonmin plc
TypePublic company
IndustryMining
Founded1909
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Key peopleRoger Phillimore (Chairman)
Ian Farmer (CEO)
Mahomed Seedat (COO)
ProductsPlatinum Group Metals
RevenueUS$1,992 million (2011)[1]
Operating incomeUS$311 million (2011)[1]
Net incomeUS$321 million (2011)[1]
Employees27,800 (2011)[2]
Websitewww.lonmin.com
Lonmin plc (LSELMIJSELOLMI), formerly Lonrho plc, is a producer of platinumgroup metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Its registered office is inLondon, and its operational headquarters are in Johannesburg, South Africa.[3]

The Company was incorporated in the United Kingdom on 13 May 1909 as the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company Limited.[4]

Businessman Tiny Rowland was recruited as chief executive in 1962.[5] For many years during the second half of the twentieth century it was frequently in the news, not only due to the politically-sensitive part of the world in which it had mining businesses, but also – as it strove to become a conglomerate not wholly dependent on these businesses – in a number of takeover battles, most notably for the Harrods of Knightsbridge department store.[5]
In 1968, Lonrho acquired Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, a gold mining business inGhana.[6] The former Conservative minister Duncan Sandys, a director of Ashanti, became Lonrho's chairman in 1972.[7]
During the 80s, Lonrho entered the British newspaper market, buying the Sunday newspaper The Observer in 1981[8] and the newly launched daily Today in 1986.[9] Today was sold to News International the following year,[10] while the Guardian Media Group bought the Observer in 1993.[8]
Sir Angus Ogilvy, married to a member of the British royal family (Princess Alexandra), was a Lonrho director and this increased media interest in the company's affairs. Ogilvy's career ended when Lonrho was involved in a sanctions-busting scandal concerning trade with Rhodesia. Prime Minister, Edward Heath, criticised the company, describing it in the House of Commons in 1973 as "an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism."[11]
Tiny Rowland was finally ejected from Lonrho in October 1993 after a boardroom tussle with director Dieter Bock.[12]
Two months before Rowland's death (on 26 July 1998) the assets of Lonrho were demerged. Two publicly listed companies, Lonrho plc and Lonrho Africa plc were created – the former retaining all the non-African businesses and mining assets.[13] In 1999 Lonrho plc was renamed as Lonmin plc and a new era as a focused mining company began.[14] Since then it has divested itself of all non-core assets.
In late 2008 CEO Brad Mills announced his intention to resign from his position, and Lonmin indicated that former chief strategic officer responsible for the company’s business development, Ian Farmer, would replace him.[15] This could be viewed as a positive development, as Farmer has more experience in the platinum industry. Mills leaves behind a "significant contribution in developing the company over the past four years" according to chairperson, Sir John Craven, as his introduction of mechanized mining has increased safety for the miners, as well as increasing productivity.[16]
Xstrata has retained a 24.9% stake in Lonmin, following a failed takeover bid in 2008.[17]


Mine "bloodbath" shocks post-apartheid S.Africa By Jon Herskovitz

MARIKANA, South Africa (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.
By Jon Herskovitz

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.

Phiyega, a former banking executive who was only appointed to lead the police force in June, said officers had acted in self-defence against charging, armed assailants at Lonmin's Marikana platinum plant.

"The police members had to employ force to protect themselves from the charging group," she told a news conference, noting that two policemen had been hacked to death by a mob at the mine on Tuesday.

However, the South African Institute of Race relations likened the incident to the 1960 Sharpeville township massacre near Johannesburg, when apartheid police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters, killing more than 50.

"Obviously the issues that have led to this are not the same as the past, but the response and the outcome is very similar," research manager Lucy Holborn told Reuters.