WORLD IN BRIEF : SOUTH AFRICA : Violence Erupts on Date of ’60 Massacre
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Sporadic violence erupted as tens of thousands of blacks stayed away from work on Sharpeville Day, the anniversary of a massacre that escalated the apartheid conflict. Police fired shotguns, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse marchers in black townships near Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, injuring 11 people. Four people were arrested. The 1960 police shootings killed 69 people in Sharpeville, a township south of Johannesburg. The killings drew international attention to South Africa’s racial conflict and prompted the African National Congress to take up arms against the white-led government.
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