Sharpeville - massacre or self defence

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Do these sources prove that the South African Police force was justified and acting in self defence at Sharpeville?

The events that happened at Sharpeville are, and probably will always be, undecided. We know that the South African Police shot the crowd, but we aren't sure whether it was justified and acting in self defence.

Source C and H both back up this statement. Source C claims that the blacks attacked the police with weapons first including firearms and stoning. The statement was from the South African Embassy so they were backing up governemnt. Although they should be reliable and it was written at the time, they were not there at the scene.

Source H also claims that the crowd were violent as "a crowd of several hundred Africans this afternoon began stoning the police armoured cars". But it also says that it was "after the shooting in the morning, in which one African was killed and another seriously wounded" which means it was after the incident so not actually relating to the incident. However the extract does mention that there was stoning which cross references with Source C. This isn't a very reliable source as it was written for The Times, a British newspaper which would T have mostly been read by white people, not blacks so it is more in favour of whites. The killings also do not match up with all the other sources however this wouldn't make it unreliable as it isn't possible to be certain about the number of dead and wounded.

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Source I says that the police didn't shoot down people but were rifle butted and kicked and booted. This source isn't very reliable as it was by a white reporter which might mean that he was more for the whites. The reporter claims to have been there - 'i saw a police man taking his riflebutt..' but this was in 1990 which is 30 years after the incident.

Source B disagrees with this statement as it clearly shows that the people were running away and that no one was carrying any weapons which shows that the police force ...

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