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PNG police report into Manus violence dismissed as a coverup

Radio New Zealand International - February 28, 2014

The Australian based Refugee Action Coalition says a preliminary Papua New Guinea police report into last week's violence at the asylum seeker detention camp on Manus Island is a self-serving cover-up to exonerate the police.

The investigation found the incident nearly two weeks ago that left 23-year-old Reza Berati dead and dozens of others injured happened inside the camp and that G4S guards were responsible for the attacks.

It also says police only fired warning shots into the air, and that nobody was shot during efforts to quell the violence. But the coalition's spokesperson, Ian Rintoul, says this is an outright lie.

"We know that there were gunshots, that the police were carrying guns, that eyewitnesses actually said that police had fired those guns and that there's at least one man with a serious gunshot wound who's in Port Moresby hospital. Reports from the hospital indicate that the bullet comes from the high-velocity weapons that the PNG police carry."

Ian Rintoul says that while it's good that the report backs up witness accounts of what happened, the report lacks any credibility.

<http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/237586/png-police-report-into-manus-violence-dismissed-as-a-coverup>

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