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Why the Merauke Five feel betrayed by Australia
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Tom Allard Herald Correspondent in Merauke - June 3, 2009
 ASK five Australians in the Papuan town of Merauke to name the worst thing about being detained for almost nine months and the responses vary.
Karen Burke joined the planned three-day trip at the last minute and fears she will never see her ailing father, 83, again.
Keith Mortimer believes he will not survive another stint in an Indonesian jail. "I am absolutely petrified."
William Scott-Bloxam heard that his son Konrad had died in a surfing accident in Australia. He could not attend the funeral.
Hubert Hofer nominates the moment when, after being told they would be free to go home in March, prosecutors launched an appeal and the Attorney-General slapped a travel ban on them.
But Vera Scott-Bloxam perhaps best sums up the peculiar and prolonged agony of the so-called Merauke Five: "We have no idea what's happening. We have no idea where the next blow is coming from. The mental anguish is leaving us all in a very bad state."
The five, under city detention in the town of some 50,000 people in the country's far south-east, spoke to the Herald at their ramshackle home.
Next door lives a family of indigenous Papuans, some of the many - from senior officials to taxi drivers - who have extended their kindness. "They brought us food every single day when we were in jail," Mr Hofer said.
"People we don't know, even the authorities, say: 'Are you still here? Why are you still here?"
It is a question the Merauke Five wish the Australian Government would ask more often.
"We came here with honest intentions to visit our next-door neighbour and explore its potential tourism opportunities," Mr Scott-Bloxam said.
"We spoke to air traffic control before we came in. We hid nothing. We have always co-operated with the authorities.
"I made a mistake in not checking the information I was given. But we are not drug dealers, we are not criminals. We didn't come to steal. We didn't come to smuggle."
When he was Opposition foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd issued a press release demanding the Howard government do more to help the Gold Coast beautician Schapelle Corby after 4 kilograms of marijuana was found in her possession. As Prime Minister his only remark on the Merauke Five came last week: consular assistance is being afforded to them.
But Mr Mortimer said they needed more than care packages and a kind word from the odd embassy visitor. A stern protest to Indonesia from Mr Rudd would help, but "they have been spineless".
The five - aged 51 to 63 - flew to Merauke from Horn Island in Mr Scott-Bloxam's light plane, a journey of less than an hour. A flight plan had been forwarded, but special clearance for the sensitive province of Papua had not been organised. Mr Scott-Bloxam said he tried twice to find out from the Indonesian embassy in Canberra about the requirements before flying out.
The five thought they would be allowed to go home as planned after three days once they paid the fine - almost $US4000 ($5000). But they were charged with immigration violations and sentenced to two to three years in prison.
They were acquitted on appeal. But prosecutors launched another appeal to the country's highest appellate court, where the matter still lies.
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