Chilling footage has emerged of “war zone”-like scenes during last week’s unrest at the Manus Island detention centre, showing dozens of asylum seekers – most unconscious or semiconscious and many with serious injuries – receiving treatment from frantic staff tending to them by torchlight.

The video, obtained by Guardian Australia, was filmed at the makeshift hospital created on a concrete wharf next to the floating accommodation block used by Australian detention centre staff. It is the first footage to be seen from the disturbance that left one man, Reza Barati, dead, one shot, and dozens wounded, 13 seriously.

The footage, shot in the early hours of Tuesday, after G4S personnel “lost control” of their local riot squads and Papua New Guinea police were observed in violent altercations with asylum seekers, shows the injured brought in on a ute, one after another. The events occur in near darkness, with only a soft green light, torches and headlamps from the vehicles illuminating the makeshift hospital.

Some asylum seekers being treated at the scene can be heard groaning in pain. At one point a staff member shouts out the words “gunshot wound” and a body is rushed through.

No asylum seekers can be seen at any point resisting staff, and one witness told Guardian Australia that at least one patient was observed with a plastic handcuff on one hand during the night.

“It was like a war zone,” a witness to the filmed events told Guardian Australia. “People were covered in blood – so many people came in half an hour.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/01/manus-island-a-war-zone-on-night-of-unrest-video-footage-reveals

Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed he knew a week ago his initial statements about a fatal brawl at the immigration detention facility on Manus Island were likely to have been wrong but has refused to say why he waited to correct the record until Saturday night.

Instead he has advised that his own conduct will be subject to an internal review, which will also take in the role of his officers, the private company charged with security at the detention centre, G4S, and Papua New Guinea authorities

Under attack in Parliament over comments last Tuesday morning, which appeared to lay the blame for the violence at the detention centre on rampaging asylum seekers for pushing through the perimeter fence, Mr Morrison revealed he was told later that day that he had been given unreliable information. He said his initial claim that the death and much of the violence had taken place outside the centre was not correct.

As the day progressed he was advised there were alternative versions of what happened, putting in doubt many details. Yet it took five days for the evidence to mount to the point that he deemed it necessary to ''correct the record''.

There will be less disagreement over his strength. Wrongly directed, however, strength is the very opposite of virtue. Or put another way, a degree of wimpishness might be preferable to cruel certitude when taking absolute control over the lives and safety of thousands of vulnerable people.

That Morrison is a formidable advocate is not in question.

It is just that his strength does rather seem to have overwhelmed all else, including the government's legal and moral responsibilities to those it is ''supporting''.

Unpacked, Abbott's argument is that what many view as Morrison's zealotry is attenuated by the man's fundamental decency. Maybe, but where's the evidence? Why did the minister so readily impute negative motives and apportion fault to asylum seekers in the immediate aftermath of last week's alleged riots?

Why did he initially appear so confident of the role of the private contractors running the Manus Island facility, and the PNG police for that matter, after the violence that left so many injured, one dead and the rest frightened for their lives?

How quickly vultures in politics gather around. Just a whiff of injury and in they come, hoping for a carcass on which they can feed.

So it was with Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's reporting on the recent riot at Manus Island and the death of a detainee. Morrison initially reported that the detainee who lost his life was outside the centre at the time of his injury.

An Australian employee of the G4S security firm on Manus Island says PNG police stood back and allowed locals to break into the compound last month, did nothing to stop them beating detainees, and in some cases participated in the violence and intimidation.

His claim, made on condition of anonymity,contradicted a leaked PNG police internal incident report into unrest at the detention centre on February 17 that describes the deadly violence as a confrontation solely between G4S security guards and asylum seekers.

Some expat G4S staff have since left the island suffering from serious post-traumatic stress.

A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says there are three investigations underway into the Manus Island incident, including a full independent inquiry headed by former senior public servant Robert Cornall.

"These investigations seek to establish the events on Manus Island that evening and we will await the outcome of these reviews," the spokesman said. 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-04/g4s-employee-contradicts-png-police-report-into-manus-riot/5295740

It should be obvious by now that the Liberal (CONservative) regime could not organise a chook raffle in a pub. It is my firm belief that the "confusion" about the Manus Island affair has been deliberately muddled by the government, not so much to appear as "incompetent" do-goodies, but to avoid being the "responsible" party to the kerfuffle. 

It is my firm belief, that the government would have a "rapporteur", a "snitch", a "grass", a spy dedicated to tell the government THE TRUTH of what happened... Or a couple of those just in case one was pissed or asleep...

So, we get a lot of contradicting reports, because the government DOES NOT WANT US TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED... If the government had no clue about what happened there, god help us with the rest of Operation Sovereign Murders... er... Borders... 

The contractor charged with the provision of physical and mental health care to asylum seekers on Manus Island has issued staff with a two-page guide on dealing with questions about the detainees' fears for their personal safety, living conditions and human rights.

The document is clearly designed to help soothe concerns the asylum seekers are expressing in the aftermath of the bloody attacks last month that left one man dead and many others seriously injured.

Health workers have been told to urge the asylum seekers not to give up hope.

The ABC has also been given a letter written by an asylum seeker, which was smuggled out of the centre. It claims those in detention are now living in fear of their lives.

There are five inquiries under way into the events that unfolded in the detention centre on February 17.

At some point there will be an official explanation and a conclusion and perhaps even some recommendations. 

But inquiries aside, as time goes on, more and more is being learnt about the terrifying events of that night. 

We know that it resulted in the death of one man and that many more were badly beaten and badly wounded.

Earlier this week an Australian G4S security guard described to the ABC the details of what was a terrifying night as asylum seekers were hunted down room by room and bashed by enraged local contract staff armed with machetes, sticks and metal bars.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-06/manus-staff-issued-guide-on-handling-asylum-seeker-questions/5303696