Bali bomb survivors recall day of loss

BALI - Heads bowed and weeping, survivors of last year's bomb attacks on Bali island and hundreds of grieving relatives have paid tribute to the 202 people killed.

Voices from a choir of Australian and Indonesian school children drifted over the families at a Christian service today on a limestone escarpment overlooking Kuta Beach, where Muslim militants blew up two nightclubs on this day a year ago.

About 800 survivors and relatives attended the memorial service, the majority from Australia, which lost 88 citizens in the worst act of terror since the September 11, 2001, strikes on the United States. In all, 22 countries lost people.

Australian military chaplain Richard Thompson gently urged families to try to accept their suffering.

"If we live as victims the terrorists have beaten us and we are in danger then of spending our future living in anger and frustration. Such a life lived in anger and frustration does not honour the memory of our loved ones," Thompson said.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and senior leaders from Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, were also present.

Chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed to fight terrorism and said Indonesia would never rest until it had caught all those behind the bombings. About 40 people have been captured and 20 sentenced, including three people sentenced to death.

"These diabolical men and their brand of evil simply has no place in our society. They belong in our darkest dungeons, locked away deep beneath our children's playgrounds. History will condemn them forever," said Yudhoyono, ending his remarks with a verse from the Koran to light applause.

Indonesia has warned that Muslim militants were planning more attacks in the country and had built two bombs but insisted the mainly Hindu enclave of Bali was safe for the mourners.

Police with automatic rifles and sniffer dogs patrolled the area.

Indonesia has blamed the bombings on Jemaah Islamiah, the Southeast Asian militant group with links to al Qaeda. Security experts say it is only a matter of time before Jemaah Islamiah strikes again in Indonesia or elsewhere in the region.

In the sombre atmosphere of the Garuda Wisnu Cultural Park, about 20 minutes drive from Kuta and bordered by towering limestone blocks, Howard spoke of the "terrible hatred" of the perpetrators and the need to fight terrorism.

Giant copper and bronze statues of the Hindu God Vishnu and the Garuda bird, a symbol of freedom, provided the backdrop as Australian military chaplains presided over the open-air service. It included elements of Islam and Hinduism.

A simple wooden cross stood behind the alter.

Some Australian football players who lost friends in the attacks had the number 88 - the number of Australian victims - sewn into jerseys. Some relatives clutched photos of loved ones.

The service ended when prominent musician John Williamson sang "Waltzing Matilda", a much-loved Australian song written in the late 19th Century.

Other events will run during the day, finishing with a small Balinese ceremony at the bomb site at 11:08 p.m. (4:08 p.m. British time), the exact time that many holidays on the lush island paradise were brought to an end one year ago.

For many, the emotion of returning has been raw.

"I will never find closure because these criminals killed a lot of people, hurt my body and my family," said Perth roofing contractor Peter Hughes, arm coverings on to protect burn scars.

Many victims have been drawn to the site where the Sari Club was once a beacon to good times but is now a shrine, only to start sobbing, or to paste photos of dead loved ones on a board that stretches the length of the empty lot.

Dozens of wreathes have been laid. Across the road, the names of the 202 dead have been recorded on a memorial.

Indonesia is not making October 12 a day of remembrance, saying such events have been held. President Megawati Sukarnoputri did not come for the ceremonies.

Indonesia lost 38 people, most of them Balinese, while 23 Britons, nine Swedes and seven Americans died. The blasts also shattered the tourist industry in one of Asia's travel gems.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Bali bomb blast