Bali

Malindo Air assures customers safety is priority

Apr 18th, 2013
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Malindo Air assures customers safety is priority

KUALA LUMPUR: Malindo Air has issued a statement saying that it operates independently despite being a subsidiary company of PT Lion Group Indonesia which owns 49 per cent of Malindo Air.

 

The Airlines director of flight operations Captain Niazi Saif Ud-Dean in the statement made available to The Mole said the airline operates independently with a totally independent and separate management team from that of Lion Air.

 

“Our Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) is governed and regulated by the stringent standards imposed by the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia,” he added.

 

“Our aircraft are being maintained and serviced regularly by our own team of experienced engineers adhering strictly to the local aviation regulatory requirements.”

 

The statement came following last week’s plane crash of a Lion Air jet off Bali, the resort island in Indonesia, which resulted in the airline’s safety becoming the subject of concern among its customers.

 

All 108 passengers and cabin crew survived the crash after the Boeing 737-800 crashed into shallow waters near the airport.

 

To that, Niazi said that the airlines have always given safety their number-one priority and high safety standards are practiced and maintained throughout the airline’s operations.

 

“Our pilots have gone through rigorous training and possess vast experience flying various types of aircraft including the B737NG’s,” he said.

 

Malindo Air has adopted the Safety Management System (SMS), a safety programme which has been approved by DCA. Niazi called the programme stringent and said it covers SMS documentation, risk assessments and analysis, audit and inspection forums, campaigns, KPI’s, flight operational monitoring and training.

 

“I hope the above information will provide our passengers with an actual idea of the operation and management of Malindo Air.”

 

“We fervently hope that the public will maintain their confidence and trust in our capability and safety standards,” Niazi said.

Source: MOLE

Travelling Aussies too demanding on foreign ministry

Apr 1st, 2013
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SYDNEY: Australian travellers have become so demanding of their foreign ministry when they encounter trouble overseas, officials are struggling to deal with their requests, a new report has found.
Research by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute has found that the expectations of what Australian diplomats can and should do for distressed travellers are not only climbing, but becoming more unrealistic.
"The growing incidence of Australians overseas demanding that government intervene in their cases no matter how trivial, foolhardy or avoidable their predicament, would seem at odds with a national culture that prides itself on resilience and resourcefulness," it said.
Requests received at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade include -- 'Could DFAT feed my dogs while I'm away?' and 'Will the sand in Egypt upset my asthma?'.
The report by the independent think-tank, released late Tuesday, said with more Australians travelling than ever before, foreign ministry officials were increasingly stretched.
"Public expectations of the assistance government can provide when travellers encounter trouble are rapidly rising, fuelled by intense media and political attention given to high-profile cases," it said.
"These rising demands on Australia's consular service are becoming increasingly difficult to meet."
The report said changing traveller demographics -- including more older holidaymakers -- along with cheaper airfares and the high Australian dollar had added to the workload of officials bailing out citizens in distress.
The report called for the government to provide more funding for such services, in particular through a consular levy either on the cost of a passport or on an airline ticket.
It said after the efforts of officials to help bring home Australians affected by disasters such as the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, travellers had come to expect help.
"Anecdotal evidence also points to a growing sense of entitlement among some travellers," it said.
"One couple, for example, about to board a government-chartered evacuation flight from Cairo in 2011, asked consular officials if they would receive frequent flyer points for their free flight."
The report urged the government to do its bit to encourage travellers to assume personal responsibility, saying the type of high-level intervention which has gone on in the past is clearly unsustainable.

Indonesian anti-terror cops accused of fuelling jihad

Mar 31st, 2013
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JAKARTA: The elite police unit on the front line of Indonesia's lauded terrorism clampdown faces fresh allegations of torture and unlawful killings, raising concerns it is fuelling the jihadist cause.
Detachment 88 was established after the 2002 bombings on Bali that killed 202 people, mostly Western tourists, and has gained strong public support after claiming the scalps of some of the region's most-wanted extremists.
But last month a video emerged in which officers from the anti-terror unit interrogated a suspect writhing in pain after he had been shot in the chest and forced to strip to his underwear.
"Why did you shoot me? I surrendered," he screams, as police repeatedly yell back that he ask Allah for forgiveness. "You're going to die," they say, trampling on three other suspects, shooting into the ground to intimidate them.
The suspect who was shot in the video, Rahman Kalahe, survived the incident and was sentenced to 19 years' jail over his role in the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls and the murder of a priest in Poso.
However, the footage has prompted the National Human Rights Commission to reopen its investigation into the 2007 raid, while Islamic groups and members of parliament have made calls to disband Detachment 88.
"Detachment 88 has used torture, killings and intimidation, but they are never held accountable. The unit must be dissolved," said Din Syammsuddin, chairman of the nation's second-largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, who took the video to police.
The government insists that its security forces have great respect for human rights.
"There are standard operating procedures in the handling of terrorism. It is not true that Detachment 88 employs a shoot-to-kill approach," presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha told AFP.
"Any actions contrary to the law, including human rights law, will be processed. Without exception for anyone. This country upholds and enforces the rule of law," he said.
The Detachment 88 unit, which gets funding and training from the United States and Australia, has been successful in quelling the kind of militant attacks on civilian targets that rocked Indonesia in the past decade.
Indonesia's battle with terror is now being fought almost entirely between militants and police, much of it in Poso district -- a known hotbed for militant activity on Sulawesi island, where the videotaped raid took place.
This shift in the nature of terrorism in Indonesia has raised concerns that the unit's treatment of suspects is fuelling revenge attacks.
Since the establishment of Detachment 88, Indonesian police have killed at least 90 suspects in counterterrorism operations, the International Crisis Group reported.
But fully 50 of them have been killed since 2010, a year after the last major deadly attack in the nation.
"You can see why people get angry when the police start shooting people just because they have a copy of a book on jihad in their rooms," Todd Elliot, Jakarta-based terrorism analyst with Concorde Consulting, told AFP.
"When we haven't seen a major attack in years and police are killing terror suspects every two months, you can understand why people are asking questions."
National Anti-Terror Agency chief Ansyaad Mbai denies the unit is trigger-happy, saying the deaths happen because terror suspects rarely surrender and are often armed.
The numbers seem to support his argument -- in the same period that 50 suspects were killed, 21 police were slain trying to make arrests or investigate extremist activity.
In October, two officers investigating an alleged terrorist camp in Poso were found dead and buried in a hole with their throats slit.
"Terrorism is an extraordinary crime that requires extraordinary operations," Mbai told AFP.
"They don't respect Indonesians' rights, so why are we suddenly so concerned with theirs?" he said.
"Since Detachment 88 was established, we have captured 850 terrorists. Yes, dozens have been killed, but most were taken alive."
Mbai sees the video as the latest tactic in a long-standing campaign against the unit, likely from political factions or hardline Islamic groups that regularly paint Detachment 88 as anti-Muslim.
The rights commission has recommended Detachment 88 employ a more transparent evaluation process and the unit be held accountable for any extra-judicial killings.
But Mbai said: "I don't agree with these calls to hold officers to account through legal procedures. This will just demoralise the unit."
Problems within Detachment 88 are not unique to the unit. The UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture in 2008 found that torture and abuse of suspects during arrest and police detention were widespread in Indonesia.
"The video indicates a definite need for better human rights training. The whole police institution in Indonesia is still in need of reform," Elliot said.

Indonesia foils terror plot on tourist spots

Jan 8th, 2013
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Indonesia foils terror plot on tourist spots

JAKARTA: Terror suspects killed or captured in raids last week were planning to launch attacks on tourism spots in Indonesia, national police said Tuesday.
An anti-terror police squad shot dead seven suspects and detained four others on Sulawesi and Sumbawa islands in central Indonesia last week.
"An investigation revealed that tourism spots in the town of Bima (on Sumbawa) and Tana Toraja in south Sulawesi were targets," said national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar.
Tana Toraja, whose population is mainly Christian, is one of Sulawesi's most popular tourist destinations.
"We're lucky we managed to prevent the attacks from happening," he said, adding that a Bima hotel, places of worship and police offices were also targets.
Police have said the men were connected to a militant training camp and had been involved in killings of police in Sulawesi's Poso district, a known hotbed of militant activity.
In two raids on militant camps in Sumbawa on Saturday, police seized five pipe-bombs and materials to make explosive devices, such as nitrate urea powder, scores of nails and batteries.
They also shot dead five men from the group led by the country's most-wanted terror suspect Santoso, who has allegedly trained young militants to launch attacks on security forces.
Two suspects were shot dead at a university mosque Friday in southern Sulawesi.
Police have strengthened security in Poso since late last year after two police officers investigating a camp were found with their throats slit. Several small bomb plots were subsequently foiled.
Indonesia was rocked by a series of deadly terror attacks targeted at Westerners during the last decade. Most -- including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people -- were blamed on the Al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah.
A crackdown on terrorism has weakened key militant groups and only low-impact attacks have been carried out in recent years by networks targeting law enforcement officers.

Source: MOLE

Bali struggles to revamp hell-hole Kerobokan prison

Dec 6th, 2012
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KEROBOKAN: The sound of male inmates singing a hymn of repentance as others play tennis in a lush garden would have you believe Indonesia's most infamous prison has been radically transformed.
But those who spend time in Kerobokan prison on the holiday island of Bali say the jail is still a cesspool of bribery, drugs and clandestine sex, despite a management overhaul aimed at cleaning up its image.
"You can still get anything you want if you have the money," an Australian prisoner told AFP outside the prison church. "Nothing's really changed."
New management was installed in February after the prison warden and Bali police commander were sacked following days of jail riots, triggered by a gang-war stabbing, further tarnishing the prison's already gritty reputation.
Around 1,000 police were deployed, firing water canon and rubber bullets to contain the grossly overcrowded facility after the prison guards fled unable to control the mayhem.
Order has been restored, but last month two mysterious deaths were reported in the prison and volunteers who work with the inmates say drug use and bribery are still rampant.
"Inmates tell us of drug deals being done at church and on the tennis court, and guards are still taking money to allow sex in toilet cubicles," Indonesian Prisoners Association chair Ida Ayu Made Gayatri said.
"We know that people are still throwing drugs over the prison walls and some are even coming through the front gate with staff."
Like many prisons in Indonesia, Kerobokan struggles with space -- it is three times over capacity, with 1,015 inmates, including 68 foreigners and nine children.
It has been home to Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby since 2004 and the Bali Nine -- a group of Australians found at the island's airport with heroin strapped to their bodies.
While the women sleep on mattresses brought in by an NGO in neat but cramped rooms that resemble university dorms, the men are packed tighter into larger cells, many sleeping up to 70 on a concrete floor with little room to stretch.
The new prison chief, I Gusti Ngurah Wiratna, is determined to strip Kerobokan of its reputation, which hit rock bottom in 2009 with the publication of "Hotel Kerobokan" by Australian author Kathryn Bonella.
She described the prison as a hell-hole where cash-rich inmates -- thanks mostly to money brought in by visitors -- enjoy a life of relative luxury beside their poor peers living in squalor.
The book portrayed the prison as Bali's drug hub, describing paid-for sex parties, murders and suicide.
Wiratna's first step in cleaning up the colossal mess at Kerobokan is the zero rupiah programme to ensure prisoners cannot pay for special treatment and to curb the bribe culture that feeds hungry prison guards.
"This kind of violence happens because rival groups here form around money and they fight over payments," Wiratna said, explaining that the bulk of the gang members have been moved to another facility.
"Bribes used to happen in the open. Visitors used to have to pay to come in and prisoners would pay guards to do activities that should be free. That's all stopped now."
But a foreign woman recently imprisoned, struggling to adjust to life inside, said she was unable to go to church until she paid the guards for a pass.
"I don't have anything to do here. I'm trying to get a punching bag brought in just so I can exercise. I'm still waiting to be able to go to church," she said, tears welling in her eyes.
"I don't know what to do here or how the system works."
While money can still buy just about anything inside, prisoners in Block W, the women's block, complain the usual cash flow has slowed since Wiratna took over.
"Things in Block W are okay, but the economy's not great," a 24-year-old Indonesian woman convicted for drug possession told AFP.
The woman who washes fellow inmates' and guards' clothes in Block W for a dollar or two said people had been short of cash recently.
Block W is indeed an economy -- a dozen women in the kitchen were frying glutinous sesame balls while others sewed handbags they hoped to sell on the outside somehow -- but it is one in which the guards retain the power and wealth.
"The women cooking in the kitchen are paid by the guards, who sell the food back to the prisoners for a profit," another foreign woman convicted for drug possession said.
The prisoner holds up a plastic bag with a slice of bread, a banana and two pieces of papaya.
"That's all foreigners get to eat each day. The kitchen is supposed to be ours, but the guards use it to make money. Any other food we want, we have to buy," she said.
"In the end, no one starves, but you spend a lot of your time working out where to get money just to feed yourself."

Year-end travel deals by Malaysia Airlines

Dec 2nd, 2012
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Year-end travel deals by Malaysia Airlines

KUALA LUMPUR  – Malaysia Airlines is offering exciting airfares through its Year End Sale (YES) from Dec 3, 2012, Dec 17, 2012 for travel from Dec 5 this year till Sept 30 next year.

This is a great opportunity for travellers to start planning in advance for their 2013 holidays and business travels as the Malaysia Airlines Year End Sale will be offering economy class airfares discounted up to 30 per cent off current market fares for various domestic and international travels.

Likewise, business class fares will be discounted up to 45 per cent for domestic and international, MAS said in a statement today.
 

These offers cover fares from Malaysia to various Malaysia Airlines’ destinations in South East Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. 

Malaysia Airlines Regional Senior Vice President Malaysia ASEAN Region, Muzammil Mohamad said, “This year has been a great year for Malaysia Airlines.

2012 marks 40 years of Malaysian Hospitality that we have been reputed for since 1974.”
 

“It is also a year with many significant milestones especially the entry of the A380 into service. At Malaysia Airlines, we celebrate our joy with our customers and avid travellers and our YES offers are structured to delight all travellers,” he said.

This sale will enable customers to pre-plan their vacations way into the second half of 2013 as the travel period has been extended to end of September.

Muzammil said, “Our YES economy class all-inclusive fare to London starts from only RM3409.”

All Malaysia Airlines flights to London are now on the flagship A380 aircraft with the introduction of the twice daily A380 Kuala Lumpur-London-Kuala Lumpur services.

“This is a promotional fare for travel on our latest flagship product where customers can look forward to experiencing our premium services on-board the A380,” he added.

Malaysia Airlines is also offering good deals to many destinations in the South East Asian region. The all-in return fare from Kuala Lumpur to Bali starts from only RM679 on economy class while the same on business class starts from only RM2279.

All-in return economy class fares from Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi, Saigon, Yangoon and Manila start from RM779, RM569, RM679 and RM869 respectively.

On business class the fares start from RM1779, RM1879, RM2279 and RM2479 respectively.

Tourism in mainland China, its special administrative regions and Taiwan has greatly expanded over the last few decades and these regions have always been the holiday favourites for Malaysians.

Starting from only RM879, customers can book an all in return economy class seat to Hong Kong from Kuala Lumpur.

All-in return economy class airfares to various destinations in China from Kuala Lumpur such as Guangzhou, Xiamen and Kunming are priced starting from only RM1179, RM1279 and RM1379 respectively.

Business class fares to Shanghai and Beijing are priced starting from only RM3179. Travel to Taipei on economy class is available from as low as RM1159 and at RM3179 on business class.

The national carrier also has value deals to the Indian sub-continent. Customers can choose to fly economy class to Mumbai at fares from RM1609 and to Chennai for an attractive fare starting from only RM1169.

Business class fares to Mumbai starts from RM5529 and to Chennai, fares are up for grabs from RM2439.

Attractive offers for travel down under is also available. All-inclusive economy class fares to Sydney and Brisbane starts from only RM2189 and fares to Melbourne start from only RM2169. Business class fare to Sydney starts from RM6979.

On the home-front, flying out from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, Langkawi, Johor Bahru or Kota Bahru on economy class is possible at affordable fares from only RM244, RM274, RM254 and RM274 respectively.

On business class, return fares to Penang, Langkawi, Johor Bahru or Kota Bahru from Kuala Lumpur starts from only RM768.

Likewise, flights Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Sibu or Miri from Kuala Lumpur is possible with return fares starting from only RM458. On business class, return fares to the same destinations start from only RM1568, RM1968, RM1868, and RM1768 respectively.

The fares to Tawau from Kuala Lumpur on a return economy class flight starts from only RM558 and business class fares start from only RM2268.

Intra travel within Sabah and Sarawak is also affordable with fares from Kuching to Sibu and Miri starting from only RM274.

On business class, the all-in return fares start from only RM768 for flights from Kuching to Sibu and Miri.

Muzammil said that “there are more offers to practically every Malaysia Airlines destination via this sale and we urge customers not to miss this opportunity to travel and explore the world.”

These offers are available to customers at all Malaysia Airlines distribution channels mainly www.malaysiaairlines.com, 24 hours toll free number 1 300 88 3000, MH Buddy in Malaysia Airlines Facebook, MHmobile, Malaysia Airlines ticket offices and appointed agents throughout Malaysia. BERNAMA

Source: MOLE

A dozen killed, 1,600 displaced in Indonesia violence

Oct 31st, 2012
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The elite anti-terror squad stormed a house here, the same district where two policemen were found murdered this month after going missing while investigating a suspected terror training camp.

 

It came after police at the weekend arrested 11 members of an Islamic group across Java whom they said were planning an attack on the US embassy.

 

The anti-terror squad, in an operation with local police, killed a man and arrested two others early Wednesday, said provincial police chief Dewa Parsana.

 

National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told a local radio station the three men were linked to terrorism activities.

 

Police said 10 pipe bombs, a pistol, and chemicals which they believe could be used to prepare bombs were seized in the raid in Kalora village. There have been two failed bomb attacks here this week.

 

Poso was the site of sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians between the late 1990s and mid-2000s that left thousands dead. It has since been described by police as a hotbed of terrorism.

 

The two policemen were found with their throats slit and buried in a hole after disappearing while investigating an alleged militant training camp linked to Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), according to a police source.

 

JAT, declared a terrorist organisation by the US in February, was founded in 2008 by cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. He is considered the spiritual leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah, which is blamed for the deadly 2002 Bali bombings.

For Egypt, there’s help from Turkey

Oct 31st, 2012
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Ankara cosying up to Cairo with billions in loans and gifts.

Ever since Angelina Jolie sent her son Alexander off to conquer the known world in the fourth century BCE, there has been a natural geostrategic competition between Turks and Egyptians. At least that’s when folks could have begun seeing it as such. Of course Alex was a Macedonian Hellene, not a Turk, but the Ottomans governed, or misgoverned, Macedonia for several centuries.

Only three major countries can claim to span two continents — Russia preeminently. But a second, Turkey, is separated by the Bosphorus into a European and Asian power. Ever looked at Mongolian names? On the other side of Asia they look like Turkish names, because they are. For four centuries the Ottomans who conquered Byzantium in 1453 — just as Islamic forces drove the Hindu Javanese kingdom to Bali — spread their power on a path mainly eastward, and are trying to pick up where they left off before the Ottoman Empire began to crumble. For that matter, they got pretty far west, and only with the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and some skirmishes near Vienna, drawing in all the European powers in the 16th century, were they contained. Sorry for the European point of view; Western civilisation wouldn’t otherwise have prospered.

Egypt is mostly in Africa but sees itself and truly is more of the Middle East. During Nasser’s time a variety of fictional paper “unions” were proclaimed, Egypt with Syria and others lying east by northeast. But nowhere on earth does strategic location give a country greater leverage than Egypt with its Suez Canal. In the 20th century, it’s been Egypt that has done more of the talking than Turkey.

For remember that the Ottoman Empire imploded after World War I, and Kemal Ataturk drew from the ashes a new, secular and modernising state, what we now know as Turkey. He ordered fez and burqa out, but now along with other relics they are coming back — religiously and politically (though women can’t run for office or even work in a government office wearing a headscarf). Even Ataturk, whom every coup-making colonel on a white horse has dreamed of imitating, couldn’t eliminate history.

But the fact is that Egypt was a sullen satrap of the Ottomans for several centuries. It even had an imported Albanian king, the last of whom, a klepto who famously stole a priceless watch from Winston Churchill, pored over his porn rather than helping his people. He lost out in 1952.

So one would expect Egyptians to want to play getting-even or at least catch-up. But that’s the opposite of what’s happening. Because the Arab Spring changed everything. Firstly of course Egypt lost its hammer. Did you notice that at the funeral of Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Sadat, the only heads of state attending were the three living American presidents or ex-presidents? Wonder why? Mubarak was a puppet and when the masters want to move the puppet, they do it on their own schedule. By definition a puppet is replaceable.

Come the Arab Spring. Egypt is not fully Arab but it’s still the centre of the region’s gravity. And no longer need Egypt’s nationalists be embarrassed that its regime sheltered Israelis and assaulted Palestinians. Israel is losing all its almost-puppet neighbours. Will the Jordanian Hashemites, whom London and Paris placed on the throne after World War I, be the next to go?

Meantime the Syrian civil war started, copying Egypt as much as the rebels could manage. Syria’s Bashar Assad was a convenient ally to Turkey. Now Ankara gives a back door to the rebels — of necessity for reasons of Kurdish politics alone — and manages the pace of the civil war. Bashar will go, when Ankara decides it’s time.

It has paid a price. It needs new friends. So Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who crushed the Ataturk-worshipping generals, cosies up to Cairo. And, within limits, blesses its Arab Spring advocates. Now Turkey isn’t even a little bit Arab, but when it found it was unwelcome in Europe after decades of trying to please Bonn and Paris, where else could it find new friends, but east and southeastwards?

So now Turkey, which is richer by five times than Egypt — looking at per capita income of relatively equivalent populations — is offering loans, gifts, and the usual bribes to help Egypt get out of its Arab Spring aftermath, adding up to low billions in dollars. Turkey has humiliated Israel for its show of force in Mediterranean waters two years ago: eight mostly Turks lost their lives but Israel lost an ally. Egypt has reassured Washington and Israel that it will honour its agreements with Israel, but no one is fooled. Step-by-step it is distancing itself from the Jewish state. Washington can’t use all its diplomatic capital to protect Israel from its own miscalculations. It won’t, can’t, and isn’t.

By W.Scott Thompson, Tufts University, US.

Ten years on, Bali remembers bomb dead

Oct 12th, 2012
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Ten years on, Bali remembers bomb dead

Jimbaran, Indonesia, Oct 12, 2012 (AFP) – Hundreds of survivors and relatives of the dead remembered the 202 people killed in the Bali bombings on Friday, in an emotional ceremony to mark 10 years since the atrocity.

 

On October 12, 2002, suicide bombers attacked two packed nightspots, pitching Indonesia into a battle with Islamic militancy and dealing a massive blow to Australia, which lost 88 people.

 

Families and survivors shaded themselves under Australian flags as they listened solemnly to a seemingly endless roll call of the dead, some crying or leaning on loved ones’ shoulders as they observed a minute’s silence.

 

In a poignant address, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard recognised the terrible legacy of the attacks, saying “wounds and scars abound, healed and unhealed, but nothing can replace the empty seat at your table”.

 

She recognised “the faultline that will always divide your lives into two halves: before Bali and after Bali” but praised the resilience of her people and said Indonesia and Australia “drew closer” than ever before.

 

The strike against the Sari Club and Paddy’s Bar by the Al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, which also left scores with horrific burn wounds, came one year after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

 

Indonesia, which has the world’s biggest Muslim population, won praise for its response to the bombings, and was also lauded for its actions after subsequent attacks in 2005 in which 20 people were killed on the island.

 

In the 10 years since the 2002 attacks, all of the leading Bali perpetrators have either been executed, killed by police or jailed.

 

Delivering remarks to the thousand-strong crowd of mourners, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said his country was unbowed and remained committed to fighting extremism so that “humanity prevails over hatred”.

 

“The terrorists sought not only to kill and maim, their attack was nothing less than an assault on humanity,” he said.

 

Under sunny skies, the ceremony in a large cultural park heard moving tributes from families of the victims, who died as bombers hit the two nightspots on Bali’s party strip in Kuta, and readings and prayers from Christian, Hindu and Muslim leaders.

 

Thirty-eight of those killed were from Indonesia, which was stunned by the atrocity on the resort island.


Bali’s fortunes bounced back after a massive slump in tourist numbers following the attack, and the deadly bombing in 2005, with record numbers of Australians returning to the its beaches.

 

Reflecting on the legacy of attacks, John Howard, the Australian prime minister at the time, praised the “Australian spirit” and said terror had brought Indonesia and Australia together in grief and a determination to recover from the assault.

 

The ceremony was held under the watch of 2,000 police and military personnel, including snipers, after Indonesia issued its top alert due to a “credible” terror threat to the island, although authorities moved Thursday to ease fears of an attack.

 

Many in Australia felt the 2002 bombing was directed at their country and emotionally charged remembrance ceremonies took place across Australia Friday, with Foreign Minister Bob Carr praising the nation’s response to the atrocity.

Source: MOLE

Bali bombing victims search for closure 10 years on

Oct 11th, 2012
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KUTA: A decade after suicide bombers brought carnage to Indonesia's resort island of Bali, survivors have returned to the scene for a commemoration service with many determined to finally banish memories of an atrocity that left 202 dead.
Australian Peter Hughes, 52, suffered more than 50 per cent burns after a bomber detonated a device in Paddy's Bar, forcing dazed survivors into the street where many were hit by a second explosion from a minivan parked on the opposite side of the road.
The blasts, which killed 164 foreigners including 88 Australians, changed Hughes's life forever. Burn scars creep across his limbs and face, a brutal testimony to the horrors of that night.
He spent two weeks in a coma and was declared dead three times before medics revived him -- a remarkable survival he attributes to a desire to live for his son, who has accompanied him to Bali for Friday's memorial service, which will be attended by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
"I was at Paddy's Bar with three of my mates. I was walking to the bar to pick up my Bintang beer when I heard the explosion and saw flames coming at me," he told AFP.
As he ran out off the blast, the second more powerful explosion outside the Sari Club knocked Hughes back along with a woman he had helped up off the floor, scorching his body with flames and showering him with glass and shrapnel.
Hughes has recounted the events of October 12, 2002, regularly, including during trials of several terror suspects in Indonesia, something he believes the courts welcomed because his scars tell a story beyond words.
But now Hughes is ready to put the past 10 years behind him.
"It hit me in the last six months that I just don't want to play a part of this anymore," he said.
"I've been watching 9/11 (memorials) intently every year, and when it came to 10 years, it seemed to be the major closure point.
"I watched a lot of people suffering, but I also saw a lot of people walking away, saying 'that's it'. And that's what I plan to do this year. Walk away and just concentrate on my private time."
While he is ready for a new chapter in his life, he has no interest in forgiving those who carried out Indonesia's deadliest terror attack.
"Three were sentenced to death, and frankly, I think they should all get the same."
For Sandra Thompson, 62, who lost her son Clint Nathan Thompson in the blasts, forgiveness is not the issue.
"God gave me the gift of mercy. My family could never understand that," she said.
Her son was in Bali with a team of rugby league players from Sydney's Coogee Dolphins football club, which lost six young men in the bombings.
But Thompson says she wants to end a decade of mourning, which she believes tore her marriage apart.
"I've been to two other memorials here in Bali, and this is my last one. I'll probably never come back to Bali again."
While much focus is put on the foreigners who died on October 12, 2002, 38 Indonesians also perished in the blasts.
The Balinese who depend on tourism for their livelihoods also suffered, with their businesses decimated in the years following the terror strike and another deadly bomb attack in 2005.
I Nyomankayana, 37, who was working in a money exchange window when the nightclub bombers struck, was put out of work as tourist numbers plummeted.
Although business has now rebounded with holidaymakers again flocking to the island's pristine shores, he remains furious with the bombers for ruining paradise.
"We've not felt safe in Bali since," he said.
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