The Papua New Guinean police has called for the extradition of two Australians implicated in the murder of asylum seeker Reza Berati at Australia’s Manus Island detention centre. But there is no sign that the two will return to face justice.
The call comes as the trial of the two Papua New Guineans charged with his wilful murder is listed to begin in Lorengau, the largest town on Manus Island.
Evidence from several witnesses and the Australian government report, by Robert Cornall, into the event shows many more than just the two men charged were involved in the assault that killed the 23-year-old Iranian.
Statements made to the police name at least two more G4S guards who reportedly kicked Berati in the head as he lay prone and bleeding at the top of a staircase. But local men Joshua Kaluvia and Louie Efi, both 29, remain the only two charged, and appear likely to be the only two ever called to answer for the crime.
Architecture graduate Reza Berati fled the impoverished city of Lumar in 2013 to escape Iran’s persecution of Kurds. He arrived, by boat, at Christmas Island on July 24, 2013, five days after the change of policy that meant he could never be resettled in Australia. He had been on Manus Island for six months when he was killed on February 17 last year.
The violence in the Australian-funded immigration detention centre was, according to a parliamentary inquiry, “eminently foreseeable” and Australia had “failed in its duty … to protect Reza Berati”.
The inquiry found that tensions had been building in the centre for weeks, particularly between asylum seekers and local guards. The frustration of asylum seekers at the slowness of refugee processing had been exacerbated by a meeting at which they were told they would be held in detention for “a very long time” and would never settle in Australia.
Police responded to protests and rock-throwing by asylum seekers with gunfire. They and other local men stormed the compound, pushing down fences and attacking asylum seekers.
In three days of violence between February 16 and 18, one asylum seeker’s throat was slashed, another lost an eye and another was shot by police. About 60 asylum seekers were injured. And Reza Berati was murdered.
On the night of February 17, as the violence reached its peak, witnesses saw Reza Berati running up a flight of stairs, pursued by several guards. At the top of the stairs, a man not in uniform — identified in several witness statements as Joshua Kaluvia — stood carrying a large piece of timber with nails sticking out of its end.
He allegedly struck Reza Berati in the head with the timber, shouting, “Fuck you, motherfucker.” Berati did not fall. Kaluvia allegedly struck Berati again, knocking him to the ground.
A witness statement provided to police said: “Reza Berati was bleeding very heavily from the injury on head. I saw Reza Berati was still alive at that time when he was lying on the wire floor. The G4S guards who were chasing him from behind reached him and kicked him [Berati] on his head with their boots. I saw about a total of 13 G4S local officers and two expatriate officers kicked Reza Berati in his head with their boots. He was putting up his hands trying to block the blows from the boots.
“I then saw this man who was a G4S guard (local) with one eye. He held on to a stone which was about 30cm wide and 50cm in height. Saw him lifted the stone up with both hands above his head and threw it very hard on Reza Berati’s head while he was still lying on the wire floor. I think at that time when he threw the stone Reza died.”
The Cornall report names Louie Efi, who has only one eye, as dropping the rock onto Berati’s head.
Other witnesses gave identical accounts: that Berati was chased up the stairs, hit twice with the piece of wood before being kicked by several guards, local and expatriate, as he lay prone and bleeding on the ground. Finally, a large rock was dropped or thrown onto his head.
A witness told the September 21 Guardian, “It was locals and it was expats, they attacked him as he was going up the stairs. They hit him and they kicked him with their boots. And they dropped a rock on his head. We watched all of this, we saw him die.”
The man told the Guardian he will not give evidence in this week’s trial, for fear of reprisals from other guards and local people. He says he has been told he will be killed if he testifies.
The Cornall report details the allegations against Kaluvia and Efi. But the report also says others were involved in the attack on Berati.
Cornall heard evidence from one witness: “When he fall down, more than 10 officer passed him and all of them, they kicked him in his head. I can recognise all of them, it was including PNG locals, PNG guards and Australian expats.”
The police investigation found, “two expatriate security guards … also assisted in beating the bleeding deceased whilst he was lying on the balcony floor”.
The two Australians left Manus Island the next day.
In calling for their extradition, Manus provincial police commander Alex Ndrasal told SBS World News on September 21: “The previous management probably didn't cooperate very well with the police to speed it up and that is the reason why we cannot bring them back immediately.”
But G4S says it has not had a request from police regarding the expats and supports “the full and proper application of PNG law … and continues to cooperate fully with the PNG police investigation”.
Efi told the Guardian he would bring witnesses before the court to testify to his innocence. “We don’t trust what is happening to us, we don’t trust we will get a fair trial. This is a big political case. We did not commit this crime,” he said.
Kaluvia said: “We are being set up. They want to convict us so that nobody else, no Australians or New Zealanders, who are responsible, have to face justice. We have to take the blame for them because we are PNG. They think we don’t matter.”
Manus Island provincial governor Charlie Benjamin stressed that the courts alone must judge the guilt or innocence of Kaluvia and Efi. But he questioned why no action has been taken to investigate or prosecute anybody else, despite the evidence that several people were involved in the fatal attack on Berati.
“Everybody should be treated equally before the law, and the incident should be fully and fairly investigated. It should not just be the two locals who are held responsible. This violence, it was not just these two. These two were not the only people responsible.”
Benjamin said the double standards of justice — one law for expats, one for locals — was a continuing sore point for the people of Manus, who had otherwise been accommodating of the imposition of the detention centre on their land.
Manus MP Ronnie Knight also said the limited prosecution highlights a legal double standard: “One law for the locals, and no laws for the expats. The locals don’t matter, and the expats get off, they can do what they like.”
PNG has accused Australia of repeatedly breaching its sovereignty by removing suspects in cases on Manus Island before police can interview them. Allegations of rape and of drink driving have been stalled due to the absence of the Australians allegedly involved.
One asylum seeker told the Guardian that he still has nightmares reliving his friend’s murder, and he was devastated that not all of those who killed him would ever be brought to justice.
“Reza was my best friend in the world. He and I were in Indonesia together, we went to Australia together, we were on the same boat. He was my best friend, we were always roommates because we are both Kurdish.
“They killed him in front of me. He was very generous, words can’t describe his personality. You can’t find one person in this place who has any problems with him, who will say a bad thing about him.
“But your government killed him.”
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