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Cornelia RauCornelia Rau is an Australian woman who was reported missing in March 2004. In February 2005 it was discovered that Rau had been detained at Baxter Detention Centre, having given authorities the false name of Anna Schmidt. Rau arrived in Australia from Germany aged 18 months. She worked as a Qantas flight attendant during the 1990s, during which time she became involved in an organisation called Kenja Communication. Kenja, labeled a cult by the media, promotes itself as a communication training organisation, using meditation to attain control of mental, spiritual and physical energies. Rau was excommunicated from Kenja in October 1998, following her poor performance in a Melbourne concert performed by Kenja members. Later that year she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In the coming years, she would be diagnosed with schizophrenia. A Sydney Morning Herald article (9/02/05) states that There were inklings early on but Chris Rau (Cornelia's Rau's sister) believes her sisters illness "was mainly triggered when she joined...Kenja." She spent time in psychiatric hospitals to manage her condition, but refused to take medication due to undesirable side effects. The Herald article states that Cornelia always seemed to improve when she was taking her medication. According to the Herald article, 2004 was not the first time her family had lost track of her for months on end. Several times they had reported her as a missing person to local and international police. As the years went on Cornelia was exhausting and always on the move. Before ending up in Manly Hospital in late 2003, she was "living nomadically" out of a backpack, sometimes in youth hostels, sometimes with strangers. She was very defensive and aggressive", Chris Rau told the Manly doctors. "She could hardly communicate or follow a linear thought process, had a fixed stare and had lost the ability to gauge when her behaviour was socially appropriate." Chris Rau warned the Manly Hospital doctors of "consistent lying about nearly everything." On 17 March 2004 she discharged herself from Manly psychiatric hospital, and was not seen again by her family. On 31 March 2004 she was discovered by aboriginies near the remote Queensland town of Coen. She was taken to police due to concerns about her health. She had no identification, and spoke a mixture of English and German, with a German accent. She claimed her name was Anna Schmidt and that she was an illegal immigrant from Munich. According to a Sydney Morning Herald article (on the 12th of February 2005) when reporting to Immigration, Iris Indorato (a tour operator and honorary consul for France and Germany in Cairns, of which overstaying backpackers were among her responsibilities) who had spent two hours in the cells with Rau, said she thought Anna needed urgent medical attention. "I had the impression this was no surprise to the department and that they had already ascertained she needed to be evaluated." On 5 April 2004 she was handed over to the Department of Immigration. Immigration officials checked missing persons registers in Queensland, but not New South Wales. She was taken to Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre where she remained for 6 months. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald (of the 12th of February 2005) writes that for some of this time she was visited by the Sisters Inside, a prison reform group. The Sisters Inside group lost direct contact with Anna when it lost general visiting rights to the prison in July. At that stage her medical condition didn't alarm Debbie Kilroy of the Sisters Inside; 'I could tell she wasn't well but most women are like that in there.' Over the next few months the group recieved long childlike letters of complaint from Anna. It seems her health was spiraling further down. The article continues on stating that on August 10, Anna was taken to see a state forensic psychiatrist after displaying what Queensland's acting Police Minister, Rob Schwarten, described as 'odd behaviour' in prison. Ten days later she was taken to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital's Mental Health Unit to be assessed. Anna was there for six days. Who examined her and the verdict reached are not known. The extremely vague formula Amanda Vanstone (Minister for Immigration) uses is this: "The diagnosis came back that the woman did not exhibit the diagnostic criteria for a mental illness." On 16 August 2004 she was reported missing by her mother, Veronika Rau. In October 2004 she was transported to Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia. According to the Sydney Morning Herald (12/02/05), she was behaving very strangely there: stripping off her clothes and wandering in and out of the family quarters in the Blue One Compound of the centre. She was seen by a doctor and psychologist almost at once. They decided she must assessed by a psychiatrist. But that meant waiting for the next visit from Dr Andrew Frukacz, a Bathurst psychiatrist and keen amateur pilot who flies himself to Baxter. Fruckacz did not examine Anna until November 6. She was extremely unco-operative. Four days later, Baxter mamagement contacted the South Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Service at its headquarters at the Glenside public mental hospital in in Adelaide: Baxter wanted a further psychiatric assessment of Anna. But by November 16 the urgency had gone out of the situation. The health service was told Anna was displaying "behavioural symptoms only" and was now "well managed." In November 2004, New South Wales Police issued a media release asking for public assistance in locating Cornelia Rau. The Herald (12/02/05) writes that, by late November Anna had been moved into the high security management unit, known to the detainees as "isolation", where she spent most of the next fortnight locked in her room. Also in the unit at that time was an overstaying British backpacker, Eric Upton, who told the Herald that Anna had no privacy whatever. Guards could watch her showering. In December Anna and Upton were moved to the secure section of the camp (Red One) where troublemakers are housed. Upton had a chance to speak to her each day but there was not much conversation. "sometimes she would greet you. Sometimes she was incoherent," "but she also did lah-de-dah." Anna wasn't cleaning herself properly, was leaving a mess everywhere and stealing other people's food. One night Upton watched 10 guards carrying plastic restraints assemble to forcibly search her room. "They'd all be laughing. It was like a big joke to them. In response to inquiring whether she was ill, the Herald cites upton as stating; "Absolutely no doubt there was something wrong with her for sure. She should have been in a hospital." The German woman in Red One was now coming to the attention of refugee advocates. Pamela Curr, campaign co-ordinator for Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, heard on November 29 that "a very sick girl needs help". The same stories about a highly disturbed German woman in Baxter were being heard by the Alliance of Health Professionals for Asylum Seekers. The convener of the group, psychiatrist Louise Newman, told the Herald: "No one knew how accurate these stories were. no action was taken at this point but representations were being made to the German consulate." On December 16 the government-appointed Immigration Detention Advisory Group went to Baxter. Before they entered they were briefed by Christian ministers worried by the treatment of the mentally ill in Red One. In that context the advisory group was told about a German woman who was in an obviously very sick state. Father Arno Vermeeren told the group how Anna's screaming was distressing Iranian detainees in Red One. "I said it was inappropriate that she should be there and that it was apparent to the other detainees that she was unwell and shouldn't be there." Nothing changed. Newman's group visited Baxter in the last days of December and learnt more about Anna. "The detainees had seen her totally out of control, screaming incoherently, rolling round on the ground, eating dirt, smearing faeces. Totally disturbed. They also said the guards were taunting in their behaviour. Their culture is not to see this as disease but as bad behaviour-bunging it on." At this time Baxter officials were getting worried. They wrote again to South Australia's Rural and Remote Mental Health Service asking that Anna be taken to Glenside in Adelaide to be assessed. "The lady's behaviour has not improved with the passing of time." The bureaucracies settled down to three weeks of negotiations to see how this would be done. The Germans meanwhile ran a last search of databases to find any trace of Anna Schmidt or Anna Brotmeyer (another name she had given in Cairns) in Germany. The search was requested by Immigration on January 6. A few days later, the Germans asked for Anna's fingerprints. These were provoded. But on January 14, the German Embassy informed Immigration: "There are no indications that Anna Schmidt is a German." In the week befor the article's publication, Vanstone told Parliament that the department's search for Anna's identity had taken it, fruitlessly, to the Queensland Police Service missing persons unit-but only once, back in April-plus "Births, Deaths and Marriages, Centrelink and a whole range of agencies." By the time the department reached the end of the line with the Germans in mid-January, there was absolutely nothing but a very disturbed woman's own claims to suggest she might be illegally in Australia. But she was still held in Baxter. By mid-January finding a lawyer for Anna was now the focus of several groups. Curr rang Anna in Red One. "The reseption was terrible. I felt she was on the other end and I just kept talking...I said we can get you a lawyer to see if they can get you out, but what do you want? She said, 'I want to get out of this place.' Where are you from? 'Dresden.' When I asked if she had any family she started laughing in a hystericalway." Curr also wrote to the Immigration Detention Advisory Group to see if they could arrange legal help for Anna. "Her unpredictable and bizarre behaviour, lack of communication and distress continue to worry fellow detainees. She exhibits psychotic symptoms, screaming and talking to herself at times and screams in terror often for long periods especially when locked in the cell." Nothing happened. On 3 February 2005 the Rau family read a newspaper article on a mysterious German woman being held at Baxter Detention Centre. they contact the New South Wales Police's Missing Persons Unit, who identify the woman as Cornelia Rau. On 4 February 2005 Rau is released from Baxter Detention Centre and taken to Glenside, the psychiatric wing of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. On 14 February 2005 Australian Treaurer Peter Costello appologises to the Rau family, he was the first government minister to say sorry for the incident. Prime Minister John Howard and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone have refused to apologise at this stage, the former for legal reasons, even though the Rau family have ruled out legal action.
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