Source: Internal Transfield Services document All that changed when they voiced their opposition to changes to the detention centre policy covering phone and internet access, insisting the changes made it almost impossible to talk to family members in the Middle East. In a graphic account subsequently posted on Facebook, the Iranian who witnessed Barati's murder said he had been taken to Chauka, fed bread and water for three days and made to sleep on the muddy ground. "We were crying and asking what is our fault?" he wrote on the post. "They said: 'Because you always object to all of our rules'." During their ordeal, the men claim they were cable-tied to chairs and beaten about the body to avoid noticeable bruises. They also assert they were threatened with rape and murder if they did not retract their statements to police on what they saw at the centre on February 17. Their case was taken up Benjamin Pynt, the director of human rights advocacy for Perth-based Humanitarian Research Partners, who forwarded their complaints to Australian Federal Police and the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. But they seemed to go nowhere.

Asylum seekers behind wire on Manus Island last year. Credit:Kate Geraghty It was the asylum seekers' word against those running the centre and their allegations of inhumane treatment were dismissed as baseless by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who said through a spokesperson that he been advised that "two men became abusive and aggressive and were moved in accordance with operational policy within the centre". Now, Mr Pynt's calls for an independent examination of what took place have been strengthened with the leaking of dozens of pages of internal documents that describe the circumstances of the two men's transfer to Chauka. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison. They shed light on the sad, bleak and surreal world inside one of the world's most remote and controversial immigration detention centres.

It is a crowded parallel universe, where common sense ideas for making life more interesting and bearable, such as allowing detainees to cook for themselves or grow vegetables, are seen as potential dangers and forbidden. A recent glimpse of sleeping arrangements inside the Oscar compound. Daily "sitreps" (situation reports) begin with an executive summary of major or critical incidents that took place in the preceding 24-hour period and a "mood indicator" indicating the tension level in the preceding weeks. It looks like a bushfire alert graphic you might find on the weather pages, except that the temperature gauge relates to levels of anxiety, with anything under 10 denoting calm; between 11 and 12, "unsettled"; between 13 and 14, "agitated"; between 15 and 16, "aggressive" and anything between 17 and 20 "volatile". A footnote explains that each mood indicator is calculated by "analysing inputs from baseline support monitor engage plans, baseline behavioural management plans, adverse incidents, missed meals and known intelligence reports".

A typical report notes the number of "transferees" who missed all meals in the 24-hour period in each compound, the number of assaults or acts of self-harm, and the number of people on high or moderate "Whiskey Watch". Whiskey Watch? According to another footnote, "Whiskey Watch is monitoring of a transferee by BMT [the Behavioural management Team]." It explains that Whiskey Watch observations can be "ongoing" (minimum three-hourly checks in); "moderate" (minimum half-hourly checks) and "high" (requiring the detainee to be kept within arms' length or line of sight, depending on the circumstances). While many are being observed for aggressive or "non-compliant" behaviour, others are being monitored because they have undertaken real or threatened acts of self-harm. Then there are those among the all-male population who simply appear to have lost it: "Found in toilet naked and semi-conscious," was one description. "Noose discovered in room. Mood appears very low," says another. The contents of the documents come as no surprise to Dr Peter Young, who until July was director of mental health for International Health and Medical Services (IHMS), the private contractor that provides medical care to detention centres on the Australian mainland, Christmas Island, Nauru and Manus Island.

"What we are talking about here is a total institution where there is no independent scrutiny of what goes on and we know that, within those types of institutions, abusive practices inevitably arise," Dr Young told Fairfax Media. The incident that prompted the transfer of the two asylum seekers to Chauka is described in the report covering July 14 and 15, with the two men described as "community leaders" within the centre who "behaved in an anti-social manner" during a meeting to discuss new rules covering phone and internet access, prompting the decision to "remove both transferees to the Chauka compound". Under the heading "Assessment and Outlook", the same report noted that the meeting was "certain" to have unsettled some of the transferees, with the word "certain" given emphasis by the use of bold type. "The subsequent removal of two transferees to Chauka compound for anti-social behaviour is likely to have unsettled the friends of the transferees removed," it added. After Fairfax Media reported the Facebook entry and that Pynt had lodged a complaint with the Australian Federal Police and the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, another report, dated August 18, said the men's claims were unsupported and "deliberately misleading to create negative public opinion". But the initial explanation for their transfer to Chauka for "anti-social behaviour" was upgraded. Now it was stated that they had spent "several days" in Chauka for "inciting mass unrest". Having gone public with their claims of torture, the pair previously portrayed as "community leaders" were now described as having an "extensive history" of intimidation and threats and of making false claims about their treatment.

More than 1000 asylum are detained at the centre, but fewer than 80 have been given refugee status interim assessments (41 of them positive). Despite Tony Abbott predicting earlier this year that resettlement in PNG would begin in May, the Papua New Guinea government is yet to approve a refugee policy that might deliver on the formal agreement between the Australian and PNG government that is underpinned by Australian funding. Loading It was the lack of certainty about their future – indeed the certainty that they would be in detention for a long time with no prospect of resettlement in Australia or a third country – that was a catalyst for the unrest that preceded the violence in February. In a numbing environment of low or no expectations of resettlement in a country that might offer some opportunity for what might be considered a normal life, those who remain resilient are the exceptions, and attempts to seek out some form of stimulation are viewed as unnatural, and even suspicious.