[ Home ]

Violence by Government

1819 August U.K., Manchester: "Peterloo Massacre" - demonstrators seeking parliamentary reform were charged down by cavalry

1920 November Ireland, Dublin, Crohe Park football ground: British troops shot 12 spectators

1960 March 21st. South Africa, Sharpeville: During a protest police opened fire at demonstrators and bystanders: Sixty-nine people were killed, including eight women and ten children, 180 people were wounded, thirty-one were women and nineteen were children. According to the evidence of medical practitioners it is clear that the police continued firing after the people began to flee: for, while thirty shots had entered the wounded or killed from the front of their bodies no less than 155 bullets had entered the bodies of the injured and killed from their backs. All this happened in forty seconds, during which time 705 rounds were fired from revolvers and sten guns. In 1966, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed March 21, the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

1972 January 30th. Northern Ireland, Londonderry: "Bloody Sunday" - During an illegal civil rights march British paratroopers opened fire at unarmed Irish Catholic demonstrators and bystanders; 13 people did, 14 others were wounded; an independent investigation of one of Britain's oldest newspapers concluded that, although the IRA did fire guns, the paratroopers' response was out of all proportions and reckless in the extreme. The event marked a crucial turning point in the conflict with a queue of new volunteers; the following terrorist war brought assassinations, bombings, arm shipments from Libya, and millions of dollars and support from the Irish community in the US. Over the next 25 years more than 3,000 people died.

1976 June 21st. South Africa, Soweto: extreme violent response of police forces toward demonstrations. Prime Minister Vorster ordered the restoration of public order, which led to more than 100 people killed and 1,000 wounded by police actions.