Eyewitness Accounts of Manus Island Attacks
Spread the News on Facebook
Reported by Ruth Skilbeck
In a Guardian article today- Scott Morrison
Immigration Minister has revoked earlier statements he made this week about
what happened during the Manus Island detention camps attacks on asylum
seekers, by security forces, that resulted in the confirmed murder of a 23 year
old man, and severe injuries to 77 others, following unrest amongst asylum
seekers when previous assurances they had been given about their relocations
were contradicted by new orders from management, taking away the little hope
they had, reportedly telling the asylum seekers that there were no plans to
move them, and no information on what would happen to them or where they might
go from the camps, leading to an outburst of despair, which was followed by
attacks by local security forces.
One thing that has emerged in the reporting
of this contradiction and contradictory reports by the Minister, is that as the
Guardian reports today, he does not seem to have any idea of what is actually
going on there. Yet on Facebook, there has been a stream of eyewitness reports
from the actual day of the unrest/riots on February 16, to reports on what has happened subsequently, which shows that social media, is
now a channel of latest news and information on what is happening, in the
detention camps, which is not being reported, on the ground, by Australian
media.
First of all on Monday, Scott Morrison
issued statements to say asylum seekers had broken out and escaped, and that
those were caught were the ones who were injured, and killed. However
yesterday, he released an admission that this was inaccurate, and the attacks
on the asylum seekers had been made in the detention camp, after all the detention
camp Australian ex-pat staff had been removed to safety. The Minister has now admitted
that was when local security forces attacked and killed asylum seekers in the
camps.
As there is so little actual reporting of
the event in the mainstream media, from those who were there, The Daily Fugue
is posting here the reports that have been circulating on facebook, posted on the page of Wendy Bacon, Walkey award winning investigative journalist and
Director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, and Professor at
the University of Technology Sydney. The sources of the eyewitness reports are
not identified on Facebook, and neither are they dated or attributed to a media
outlet, but the details in these first raw eyewitness reports, have now been
confirmed in the statements of Scott Morrison yesterday in the Australia media,
reported on the ABC, and in the Guardian, so it seems safe to assume that these
may now be considered to be of public interest as documents in that context, as
the news they relay has been proved to be accurate in its main detail. Readers
may draw their own views from these. The reports are pasted in The Daily Fugue,
below in descending order of date:
First hand accounts posted via Wendy Bacon,
22.2 2014
More first hand accounts from Monday night on Manus:
Email 1 sent at 3am
"The PNG police have just entered the compound on Manus
Island with machine guns. A client called me and I heard machine gun shots.
People are going to die tonight. There's nothing on the media because they
cleared the ex pats out of the centre. It's just the PNG police and locals
beating up our refugees. I called a refugee activist but there's not much I can
do. I'll probably lose my job for leaking info."
Second Email
Locals breached the fence in mike. Clients ran to fox. Locals
(civilian,
g4s, IRT) turned off the power and raided compounds, attacked
all clients,
pulled them out of bed. So many injuries. 3 people shot but
still alive.
Lots of broken legs, arms. Stab wounds. Bashing to heads, etc
with rocks.
The clients in fox hid under the containers and then were
dragged out and
beaten. They brought all the injured to the bibby and we treated
them on
the wharf. Tsa were all there helping and supporting.
The following are direct statements from asylum seeker clients
on manus
island given last night whilst being treated for injuries on the
wharf of
the Australian accommodation centre boat the bibby:
Iranian client, he said "I did nothing, I wasn't involved
in the protests,
I was in my room, being good, trying to sleep. They came in my
room, 6
local g4s, they dragged me out of my bed and beat me, they had
huge rocks in their hands and they hit my head and my body with them. I was in
the first room, why was I in the first room, they got me because I was in the
first room, I had no chance" .
An iraqi client said "I was in the mess all day helping
clean up after last
night, I was helping to hand out good to the other clients, I
wasn't doing
anything bad. The power went out and they were all there beating
us with
metal bars, sticks and rocks. We didn't see them coming"
A Sudanese client said "we were in fox, the clients from
mike came in to
fox to run away from the local g4s, all of the gates were
locked, we
couldn't get out. The other g4s left us. We tried to hide under
the
containers, but they dragged us out and beat us. We couldn't get
away. The IRT in their riot gear were attacking us. There were so many".
A Lebanese client said "they had machine guns, all I could
hear was the
fire of their gun, it was like fireworks. There were bullets
everywhere.
People got shot. We couldn't escape. We came here to get away
from danger, we wanted safety, how could this happen? I got attacked by 10
local g4s and civilians. They were hitting me with big rocks, they hit my head."
18.2.2014:
The latest press release from the Refugee Action Coalition.
According to ABC , at least some asylum seekers have been told that they could
be on Manus indefinitely even if their claims are processed. REMEMBER THAT
THESE PEOPLE SOUGHT OUR PROTECTION
POLICE AND LOCALS RUN AMOK ON MANUS ISLAND: SCORES INJURED;
FEARS FOR LIVES OF ASYLUM SEEKERS
Scores of asylum seekers have been injured, some seriously as
gangs of armed PNG police and locals go from compound to compound attacking any
asylum seekers they can find.
Asylum seekers were left defenceless when all staff and G4S
guards were evacuated from the detention centre. Tension with groups of locals
had been building throughout the day. G4S had already withdrawn from Mike
compound late Monday afternoon.
The attacks started late Monday night after the power was cut to
the detention centre. PNG police and locals then had the run of the detention
centre.
Locals are armed with machetes, pipes, sticks and stones – have
bashed and cut asylum seekers. One asylum seeker has been thrown from the
second floor of a building; others have suffered machete cuts. There is one
report that a man has been left with his eye hanging from its socket after a
bashing.
Asylum seekers fled from their compounds into the dark in a
desperate attempt to flee from their attackers. A call from Mustafa in Mike
compound around 11pm said that there were only five or six people left in his
compound and they were now fleeing to try and find safety.
People had fled all the other compounds. Mustafa said that he
was covered in his own blood from cuts to the head, hand and arms. He estimated
at least 50 people in Mike compound alone had been injured.
One of the last of the staff to be taken out of the detention
centre around midnight Monday night said it will be a miracle if no-one is
killed.
Gunshots can be heard in the background of calls coming from the
detention centre.
“The blood spilled inside the Manus detention centre is on the
Immigration Minister’s hands. Manus Island has always been a
disaster waiting to happen,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee
Action Coalition.
“Scott Morrison deliberately played down the seriousness of the
situation and the danger that asylum seekers faced. It seems
clear now that the injured asylum seekers were deliberately treated inside the
detention centre to hide the scale and seriousness of the injuries suffered on
Sunday night.
“It must be clear now that asylum seekers cannot live safely on
Manus Island.
They should never have been taken there. Asylum
seekers must be brought to Australia.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
Guardian article: Scott Morrison Contradicts First Account of Manus Island Unrest. (23.2.2014)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/23/scott-morrison-contradicts-account-manus-island-unrest?CMP=ema_632.
No comments:
Post a Comment