South Africa observed on Sunday the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, which had marked a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle.
On March 21, 1960, black South Africans had gathered outside a police station to protest racial discrimination. Police opened fire into the crowd of unarmed protesters killing 69 and wounding 180. Many of the protesters were shot in the back as they tried to flee the scene.
No police were ever convicted of the killings. The incident brought about international condemnation. Six years after the tragedy, the United Nations declared the day the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. At the end of the apartheid in 1994, the new government proclaimed the day South Africa’s Human Rights Day and made it a national holiday.
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