Last month, The Legal Resource Center (LRC) human rights group reported that several witnesses said police shot and killed protesters who were trying to escape or surrender. The LRC also said it has forensic evidence that suggests a police cover-up of the killings. [MORE]  From [HERE] Lack of notice, poverty and distance kept victims' families away when an inquiry opened in South Africa on Monday to unravel how 46 people were killed in a mine strike in the worst bloodbath since the end of apartheid. Commission chair Judge Ian Farlam asked family members to stand as their loved ones' names were read out to open the Marikana Commission of Inquiry in the Rustenburg Civic Centre northwest of Johannesburg. But no one stood while commissioner Bantubonke Tokota solemnly read down the list, all 46, one-by-one. No wailing, only silence.

Police shot dead 34 of these on August 16, when the group of illegal strikers ran down a hill where they had been gathering, armed with machetes, sticks and metal rods, at London-based Lonmin's platinum mine.

Why don't you see anyone of them here? They're not here. They are in the rural areas," said Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, who represents the families of 20 victims.