Transcript
RONNY KNIGHT: I believe that two of them were walking along the road towards where they were at night and they were talking to some young girls or something and I think the families got involved and it ended up where one of them got hit in the head with a rock. The unfortunately is what is happening in Manus most of the time, on a daily basis.
BEN ROBINSON DRAWBRIDGE: Do you understand the reasons behind the animosity between the two sides?
RK: Oh definitely. The Manus people are probably the most pleasant people, the most welcoming people in the world. You have people that have been locked up for three years, young men, and all of a sudden you open the gates and let them in the communities. They come out, they're looking for girls, they get involved in home-brew. They are selling all sorts of stuff to the locals to raise money, which includes bedding and linen and cutlery and cigarettes and all sorts of stuff. I don't know where they are getting it from but they are getting it out of their rations or they are getting it from the asylum centre itself. Put it this way, when they started off they were buying home-brew and marijuana from the locals and now they are selling it to them. You can't let people, after three years and just let them have the lay of the land. You have to go through some sort of psychological counselling and some sort of assistance before you can do that. We have a situation now where we have more than, I think it is about three women who have had kids now, and from my information there is about 10 more pregnant. What's going to happen to those children when the father's are repatriated to somewhere else or taken somewhere else?
BRD: Are there any job prospects for refugees who may be forced to settle there?
RK: Manus is a one horse town. You walk through Manus, you blink twice and you miss the town. It's a one street town and the opportunities in Manus, business-wise, are very slender. There's no way that they can settle in Manus. Not all of them are bad. There's a few there that are bad. There is a lot of them that are stir crazy but if these people, if they are treated properly and they are given somewhere to go, they could be a great asset to another country. If there was a brain surgeon there or somebody we needed in our community, we would accept them, but the problem we have now is that we have more than 600, 700 people walking around Manus, pushing themselves into areas where they are not welcome. They don't know the customs. They step over food, which is a no-no. They approach school girls. They have been going around with school girls. In our society if a young boy gets a girl pregnant obviously her brother is going to give him a bashing. I think it is the same in New Zealand, it is the same everywhere else. You expect that to happen. The issue now is the people have come to a stage where they are starting to say 'enough is enough' and they are starting to retaliate. If it was in the Highlands there would be murders by now. It is just a different temperament of people in Manus that is keeping the lid on this thing. But the more light that shines on it, the better. We need UNHCR to step in and find the solution here. I would just like to call on my people if they are listening to this to be restrained. Don't take the law into your own hands.
