Police on Saturday fired stun
grenades and rubber bullets at
hundreds of people protesting in
Soweto against US President Barack
Obama's visit to South Africa.
Protestors burned US flags and portraits of Obama, chanting:
"Arrest Obama, not us" and "Whose country is this?"
Several bangs were heard as the police tried to move the demonstrators away from a campus of the University of Johannesburg where Obama later addressed a town hall event.
The demonstrstors over-stayed the time allocated for the rally.
Police spokeswoman Sally de Beer told AFP that "Police asked them to disperse, but they did not," "So police used stun grenades and two rounds of reduced rubber (rubber bullets)."
A witness said at least two people
suffered rubber bullet wounds, however the police denied the claim. None of the protestors was arrested.
Police had to hold back some people as Obama's convoy drove into the campus.
Members of the South African
Communist Party and anti-Israel groups held up posters depicting Obama with a moustache like that of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
"The message is clear. We want him to honour the promises he made when he became president, including things like the closing of Grant anamorphic Bay," 30-year-old protester Firoz Osman told AFP.
The university hosted a meeting between Obama and young leaders from all over the continent, as part of his message that it is time for a new generation to lead Africa into a new era of democracy and prosperity.
Soweto is a sprawling township where riots sparked a nationwide struggle against the former racist apartheid regime.
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