One Tossed Stone Blamed for Firing on S. Africa Blacks
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UITENHAGE, South Africa — A police lieutenant said today that he ordered his men to fire on thousands of black marchers after one woman threw a single stone, justifying his action because “I believe my men and I would definitely be overrun and killed” if he had not.
Nineteen people were killed in the confrontation March 21.
Lt. John William Fouche testified at an inquiry into the shooting that Louis le Grange, the white-minority government’s law and order minister, had been incorrect in saying that his 19-man police unit was surrounded and pelted with rocks, sticks and gasoline bombs.
He told the judicial inquiry that just one rock was thrown before he ordered his men to fire into the crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 blacks in the black township of Langa near Uitenhage.
Fouche added, however, that “when the woman threw the first stone, I expected there to be more.”
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