Australians trapped in Papua plead for help
Updated
Five Australians already trapped in Papua for six months are now pleading with the Federal Government to help them leave the troubled Indonesian province.
Pilot William Scott-Bloxam, his wife Vera and three passengers of their light aircraft say they are now stranded at an airport lounge in the town of Merauke after a court quashed their jail terms of two to three years for entering Papua without permission.
An appeal against the decision to free them, could see the five detained for an indefinite future.
Presenter: Geoff Thompson
Speakers: Karen Burke, one of five Australians who have been detained in Papua for the past six months; William Scott-Bloxam, pilot
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GEOFF THOMPSON: On September the 12th last year five Australians made an ill-fated decision to fly a light plane from Horn Island in the Torres Strait to the military-dominated Indonesian provinces of Papua.
Interested in the region's tourism prospects, they wrongly thought they could obtain visas on arrival. Instead after receiving verbal approval to land at Merauke's airport in Papua's south, they were promptly detained and accused of being spies.
To media and diplomatic observers it looked like a misguided but honest mistake likely to result in an embarrassing slap on the wrist and a quick deportation.
Six months later the five, aged in their fifties and sixties, have endured prison and a shock trial result which sentenced pilot William Scott-Bloxam to three years' jail and the four passengers to two years each for landing in Papua without visas or permission.
But this week it seemed to all be over when Jayapura's High Court ordered the convictions quashed if the five Australians immediately left Indonesia in the plane they came in. And that's what they tried to do yesterday.
But last night they were stranded and scared - stuck in the no-man's land of a departure lounge at Merauke's airport as news came through that an appeal against their release was being lodged with Indonesia's Supreme Court in Jakarta.
Sixty-year-old Keith Mortimer is one of the passengers.
KEITH MORTIMER: We're not young people. We're relatively healthy. We've got one guy here who's got a heart condition, another one arthritic. I've got an asthmatic here. And so we are holding up and we're keeping our spirits high, as high as we can but we're scared shitless to be quite honest.
GEOFF THOMPSON: The five have been ordered to leave Indonesia in the plane they came in which authorities in Papua will not release. An Australian consular official is on the ground but can do little to stop an appeal process which could keep the five in Papua for many more months.
Fifty-one-year-old Karen Burke was a last minute addition to what she thought was a weekend away. Six months on she's pleading for more assistance from the Australian Government.
KAREN BURKE: We're scared to death to leave. We think if we put a foot out the front door we could be arrested on some other charges. Our position is quite precarious. Please lobby the Government because we think at the moment they are our only hope. We really think the situation is about to go extremely wrong. The Government is probably our only hope here.
