Desperate measures lift veil on life in Manus

 Manus protesters barricade themselves in, fearing the PNG police mobile squad attack as they vow to continue their struggle. They fear the centre may be stormed by the armed police squads involved in last year’s deadly unrest

As protests on Manus Island enter their sixth day, asylum seekers in detention have said they fear Papua New Guinea’s notorious mobile police squad will be sent in to forcibly put down the resistance.

In Delta compound, the epicentre of the protests, asylum seekers have barricaded themselves behind the high wire fence out of fear that the mobile police – the Australian-funded squad at the centre of last year’s deadly riots – will be sent in to arrest protesters.

One asylum seeker told Guardian Australia by phone: “The guards, they stand at the front fence, they have shields and body armour and weapons, and they tell us: ‘We are going to come in, and we are going to fuck you’.”

“We are all frightened, because we all remember what happened last year, when they attacked us and killed Reza.”

But he said the detainees were determined to continue their protest. 

“We’ve been running our whole lives, we are not going to run any more. We have been held here for 18 months, our conditions are terrible, but we are not criminals, we have not done anything wrong,” he said.

“We are not safe in here, we are not safe in PNG, but we have to be free. We say we are prepared to die. Give us freedom or give us death.”

Another detainee in Delta said by voice message: “This is my last message. There are a lot of police and guards around Delta, and they want to attack to us. Bye.”

Some detainees have signed a letter offering their organs for donation in the event that they should die.

There is no running water in Delta compound, and for security reasons, the detainees have had no food for more than 48 hours.

Video obtained by Guardian Australia showed detainees burrowing under the compound fence to get to bottles of water left there.

The protests, which began in Mike compound but quickly spread across the centre, have been boisterous and tense, but so far peaceful.

Detainees who are not hunger-striking have stood at the gates to compounds chanting: “What do you want? Freedom.” 

Police dressed in riot gear have stood in formation at the front gates.

Accommodation and toilet blocks inside the compounds have been daubed with painted slogans such as “freedom”, “where is UN”, and “where is human rights”. Other banners read: “No riot, no fighting. Peacefully freedom.”

However, up to 200 detainees who have been refusing food and water have slipped into unconsciousness. They have been taken for medical treatment on the island.

One man in Foxtrot compound said the centre’s medical services were overwhelmed by the number of men requiring urgent medical attention.

The staff mess tent has been turned into an overflow medical centre to deal with the number of patients. The man said: “They lay sick clients on the ground because there is no stretcher, they put some of the sick clients on the kitchen floor. There are 10 unconscious clients lying on the ground now waiting for the ambulance.”

At least four detainees, regarded as ringleaders in the protest, have been forcibly removed from the detention centre compounds and taken to the secret isolation unit, Chauka, to be held in solitary confinement.

Several sources on the island said the paramilitary mobile police squad was being mobilised to go into the Manus centre again and breach the barricades.

The squad has a notorious reputation on Manus. 

Its members have been accused of killing two people in the past year: One man was found beaten and unconscious in a police cell, and a 17-year-old boy was run over and killed by an allegedly drunk officer driving his police vehicle.

The squad’s operations at the detention centre, and their ubiquitous 4WD Land Cruisers, are entirely funded by Australia.

A Senate committee report last month into the riots in February last year which killed Reza Barati and injured 70 other asylum seekers found mobile squad members “forcefully entered the centre … and put down the protests with extreme and excessive force”.

“Evidence to the committee indicates that the mobile squad did not simply fire warning shots into the air, but rather fired dangerously into the centre, possibly directly at transferees,” it said.

The report found: “Australia was effectively financing the PNG police mobile squad deployed at the centre, both prior to and during the events in which its members assaulted transferees.”

But the Australian Government failed to act on early warnings about the squad’s behaviour. The report said: “The department (of immigration and border protection) clearly failed to respond to the strong concerns raised by G4S (then the security contractor).”

PNG’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rimbink Pato said on Monday morning the protests were being carefully managed by the Australian and PNG governments, and by service providers.

He said the number of detainees involved in protests was “relatively few”, and that he hoped the protests could be ended “through dialogue”.

“Despite claims by agitator groups in Australia …there has been no attempt by security personnel to bring about an end to the protest through physical confrontation,” Pato said.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said on Monday that a number of detainees had “regrettably engaged in aggressive behaviour over the weekend”.

“The failure of this group to cease their disturbing actions is irresponsible – rather than protesting peacefully, they have chosen a disruptive path.”

Dutton said those in detention were not being refused food and water, saying “the actions of some transferees are actively preventing the delivery of food, water and medical services to others who are not participating in the protest”.

He said water has not been cut off, and that water supply “continues to meet the needs of the centre”.

But a sign posted by Transfield in the detention centre, and published by Guardian Australia, says some of the equipment to supply water “has broken down”.

“For transferees, this means you cannot have showers. For staff, this means no showers and no washing of clothes. These restrictions are effective immediately.”

Dutton said some refugee advocates had made factually incorrect statements about the protest, and may be seeking to aggravate the tense situation on Manus.

But much of the reporting of events on Manus has come from asylum seekers themselves.

Despite government attempts to cut off means of communication – confiscating phones and shutting down the internet – men inside Manus have found ways to communicate with the outside world.

On Friday, Dutton said Manus Island staff, and refugee advocates in Australia, were encouraging protests and “coaching” asylum seekers to self harm.

“I’m very concerned that somehow, people are conveying a message that through non-compliant behaviour, by refusal to take food or water, that somehow that behaviour will change the outcome for those individual cases in terms of their desire to be settled in Australia,” he said.

But staff working with detainees on Manus Island have furiously rejected the claim. 

One staff member on the island wrote to Guardian Australia:

• “This is simply untrue and a direct attempt by Mr Dutton to deflect his responsibility to look after vulnerable people in his care. I feel qualified to make statements about the vulnerability of the asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru as I have worked with these people, witnessed the degradation they are subjected to on a daily basis and listened to their stories of torture and other injustices.
• “All of the workers do our best to encourage, support and care for them. We have sung from the government’s hymn book and tried to promote resettlement … but not once, Mr Dutton, have I or other workers supported attempts at self harm, encouraged demonstrations or unrest. It appears that we are your current scapegoats.”  theguardian.com