When you contrast it with the wall to wall coverage given to the Australian ‘beer mat Mum’ who ran into some brief, although no doubt very unsettling, trouble with the law in Thailand, it is extraordinary that the experiences of the five Australians who have been detained in Merauke, West Papua for nearly nine months has got so little public attention.
Tom Allard has written a good piece in The Age which gives some idea of the drawn out trauma this group is going through. Their saga also highlights just how oversensitive Indonesia is about anything to do with West Papua, particularly if Australians are involved. The news yesterday that 39 refugees from West Papua have finally received permanent visas – nearly three and a half years after they first arrived – is very welcome, but it might be another factor that makes it that little bit harder for the five people in Merauke.
The piece also shows how traumatic it can be to be detained, even out in the community, with no control over your future or how long you will be there. I suspect the sort of fevered tabloid attention which the beer mat Mum got would not actually help these five Australians now stuck in West Papua, but it is ridiculous that their situation is still unresolved.
UPDATE: Acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean responds.
UPDATE (10/6): (almost) Free at last
One Comment
One reason that the beer mat story got so much coverage is a lot of Australians go to Thailand and few go to Indonesia.