29 May 2014

PNG irked by Canberra's Manus report

1:31 pm on 29 May 2014

The Papua New Guinea police force has dismissed the Australian report into the February violence at Canberra's asylum seeker detention centre on the PNG island of Manus, during which an Iranian man was killed and more than 60 others were injured.

The Police Chief of Operations, Deputy Commissioner Simon Kauba, has labelled the findings as a private report that cannot be depended on to prosecute the case, adding it may be a cover-up, if his team cannot verify some of the claims made in the media.

He says there was a lack of cooperation by the relevant Australian government agencies involved, the service providers at the Manus detention centre, especially the security firm G4S, as well as the asylum seekers.

Deputy Commissioner Kauba has also expressed concern at the manner in which PNG police were not able to interview any of the injured asylum seekers.

He says police only learnt from media reports that some asylum seekers were secretly flown into Port Moresby and put up at a hotel where doctors visited and treated them.

Deputy Commissioner Kauba says he has so far established that PNG police did not enter the centre either before or during the disturbance and were not involved in the riot, nor were they responsible for inflicting any injuries sustained by the asylum seekers

He says PNG police believe that it was the injuries inflicted by four detention workers, two Papua New Guineans and two expatriates, which directly led to the Iranian man's death.