Manus landowners angered by report from Canberra

Transcript

The Manus Island community in Papua New Guinea is angered by a report into the violent riots at the Australian run asylum seeker detention centre in February, saying Canberra is throwing mud at them.

The report, released by Australia's Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, says the fatal violence was carried out by members of the PNG mobile police squad, mostly local security guards with G4S, a local Salvation Army worker and some Manus residents.

One of the principal owners of the land where the detention camp is sited, Porou Papi, told Indira Moala that is a biased view and the community is planning a protest to the Manus provincial government.

Meanwhile the Australia's Refugee Action coalition says asylum seekers at the camp have been involved in more violence with locals.

The coalition's spokesperson, Ian Rintoul, says 15 asylum seekers from a compound within the centre were being escorted to play football at an oval in the centre.

He says that before they got to the oval, they were confronted by ten Manus locals who threatened to kill them with their machetes, forcing them, and their Transfield guard to run back to the safety of the compound.

Mr Rintoul says the incident exposes the danger that remains for asylum seekers at Manus Island.

POROU PAPI: We heard on our national paper, the Australians are blaming our people at home and the Salvation Army who did the killing (of) the Iranian. And the community are very very cross about that news.

INDIRA MOALA: In our last interview you spoke about the local Manus people wanting to look after these asylum seekers as they were being processed and the locals in the community were angered at the reports of them being mistreated. However, many reports seem to paint out in the media, that it's the locals who are the threat to the asylum seekers in this situation. What do you think of this?

PP: I was there when the investigation went on. But the news was released after the investigation and it was released in Australia, not in PNG. You know what I mean? It's just a one-sided news. That's what the locals are cross about.

IM: So the community is angered by the fact that the report seems to blame a lot of the locals for...

PP: - to blame the locals, yeah.

IM: And what are the people saying?

PP: What they're saying is that we were never involved in the fighting with the asylum seekers. The locals were never involved. Only the G4S civils

IM: What about the PNG police mobile squad? It's reported they were involved.

PP: Yeah yeah you see - the police mobile squad were there. They were brought there by the PNG government and the Australian government. And they could have stopped the incident. That's the way I see it. The Australians who were there, they couldn't manage to cool the asylum seekers down. They have to call on the mobile squad. The mobile squad went in there, they couldn't do much. You see, the tension came up.

IM: A lot of the reports were that the local people involved in the riots were the ones that exerted the most violent force.

PP: Yeah, that's what I'm saying, I think the community are trying to protest against that news to the government of Manus. To my point of view, I see that it's not like an asylum seekers camp. Here it's more like a prison camp. We felt sorry for these people. You know, lock them up like they are criminals. That's our concern. The Australians are not processing them and they are throwing mud at the PNG government or to the locals in Manus. The Australians - they are saying that, we've got nothing to do with it. So who does the processing? The agreement was signed between the two countries and all those contractors there are run and managed by the Australians. Everything is managed by the Australians. Now they are throwing mud on our local people.

Meanwhile Australia's Refugee Action coalition says asylum seekers at the camp have been involved in more violence with locals.

The coalition's spokesperson, Ian Rintoul, says 15 asylum seekers from a compound within the centre were being escorted to play football at an oval in the centre.

He says that before they got to the oval, they were confronted by ten Manus locals who threatened to kill them with their machetes, forcing them, and their Transfield guard to run back to the safety of the compound.

Mr Rintoul says the incident exposes the danger that remains for asylum seekers at Manus Island.