The Age editorial sums up the Manus Island incident and report: Papua New Guineas Attorney-General, its Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration and senior police have known for weeks, if not considerably longer, the identity of the man suspected of killing an Iranian asylum seeker on Manus Island. They also know the identities of other PNG nationals, including police officers, and expatriates who are suspected of being involved in criminal assaults at the detention centre in February. Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Immigration Minister Scott Morrison also know these identities, as do senior officials in receipt of the unredacted version of the 107-page Cornall report into those events. Witness statements have been compiled, asylum seekers have been formally interviewed, and medical staff at the centre have provided their versions of events. Yet nearly four months has transpired since the violence, and not one person has been charged. Robert Cornall says the PNG police investigation is well advanced. If that is true, and we have no reason to doubt Mr Cornalls word on this, then a reasonable person would expect some action might result soon, and that the full force of PNGs justice system would bear down on those responsible for such gross violence. That would be the normal course of events. But the slow pace so far gives us no confidence. After all, there is nothing normal or reasonable about Australias perverted policy on asylum seekers, which focuses on banishment, not refuge, just as there was nothing normal or reasonable about the way PNG police and others attacked asylum seekers in the Manus Island detention centre. The prospect of justice prevailing for Iranian Reza Barati, who was killed after being brutally bashed, repeatedly kicked and then had a heavy rock dropped on his head, and for the many other asylum seekers who were recklessly assaulted, is still only a hope. Mr Cornalls report depicts a centre beset by tensions and a mood of simmering violence, fuelled by the failure of Australias Immigration Department or PNGs equivalent to tell asylum seekers when their refugee applications might be determined or how they would be resettled. Tensions were exacerbated by some asylum seekers intimidating conduct, which included pointedly racist taunts and occasional assaults directed against PNG nationals employed at the centre. That this provocative behaviour was not defused is the fault of both the Australian and PNG governments. Both bear responsibility for events on Manus Island, although the PNG police demonstrated an appalling lack of professionalism and absence of restraint when they stormed the compounds fences and bashed asylum seekers when protests erupted. Properly trained police and security personnel do not resort to personal violence. None of this would have occurred, though, if successive governments had not pursued this cruel policy of shipping asylum seekers offshore. This so-called deterrence policy was conceived in a moral vacuum, it was shambolically executed, and its monitoring has been poor. It has bred chaos, confusion and tragedy. The Abbott government is as liable as its predecessors for this. It detected the need to upgrade security and conditions at Manus Island, but failed to do so swiftly. Despite repeated warnings about the likelihood of violence, it continued to send asylum seekers there. The subsequent protests were not surprising. But the perpetration of violence on detainees being held on our behalf is despicable and it should cause serious introspection by the government, as well as a more complete examination of every aspect of this hopelessly wrong-headed policy. We hope justice will prevail for Mr Barati and others. But Australias noble ideals of justice, liberty and equity are eroded every day these offshore detention centres exist. theage.au/comment/the-age-editorial/we-failed-to-keep-watch-on-manus-island-20140527-392gp.html
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 00:05:00 +0000
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