Transcript
An altercation between asylum seekers and naval personnel at a football field sparked the Good Friday attack in which shots fired by members of the PNG defence force hit structures in the detention centre.
The Kurdish asylum seeker Benham Satah says guards fled the detention centre when the shots rang out.
"There was nobody and they just left us alone. It was just us and we were thinking that we are really going to die. The moment that there was no officer and no staff inside, I was preparing myself for death."
The PNG police force says the soldiers assaulted policemen deployed at the centre, immigration officers and service providers as well as damaging vehicles.
It says a senior PNG Immigration officer and an asylum seeker were injured, but the Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani says three refugees were hurt by rocks.
The police commander on Manus Island, senior inspector David Yapu, says the naval officers had been drinking.
"Those that were involved in the incident were drunk. Their conduct is unethical and unacceptable and it really tarnished the reputation of a disciplined organisation."
The member of parliament for Manus Island Ronnie Knight says while the naval officers were drunk their reaction was predictable.
"They were probably in their clubs having their recreational afternoon area and when something like this happens then they came out drunk. It happens, this is Papua New Guinea. I'm not saying anybody deserved it but you know that if you assault a uniformed officer in a naval base anywhere in the world there's going to be repercussions."
Benham Satah, who witnessed the murder of detainee Reza Barati when a mob stormed the detention centre in 2014, says nobody at the detention centre is safe.
"It is not safe even for the citizens of Australia, the staff who work here. There is no safety and guarantee for anybody. After witnessing the murder of my room mate and testifying in court and being through lots of threats, personally I never feel safe here."
David Yapu says the police, the defence force, Australian and PNG immigration officials as well as service providers had a meeting following the Good Friday attack and that normalcy will return to the detention centre.
But more than 600 detainees have signed a letter to the Australian government requesting they be moved to safety.
"We who have been detained on Manus Island for about four years against our will are requesting to be moved to some safe place. We've been under military attack by machine guns and are worried about our safety in the centre. Everyone is terrified. Our lives are in danger. Please remove us to some safe place."
Meanwhile, the vice president of the United States of America, Mike Pence, is due in Australia this week to discuss the resettlement of some of the Manus Island refugees.
No plans have been announced for refugees not taken in by the US, and Ronnie Knight says they could be left on Manus Island.
"They latest stupid, crazy, idiotic plan for them to move all the people at Lombrum to the East Lorengau Transit Centre and have them reside there and assimilate into the community will not work. You're looking at insurrection, you're looking at a situation that will probably be worse than Bougainville and you're looking at a lot of dead asylum seekers and local people."
The governments of Australia and PNG say the Manus Island detention centre will close when the company providing services there pulls out at the end of October.
