Bali has
marked the 10 year anniversary of the 2002 nightclub bombings with an emotional
ceremony. Some 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed in the attack.
Australian
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, pictured on the left above, joined survivors and
relatives of the dead who gathered on the Indonesian island on Friday to
remember the victims of twin blasts.
"This
is a day of contesting emotions from anger and unamended loss to forgiveness
and reconciliation with a bitter past," Julia Gillard said. "Perhaps
there is a grim reassurance in knowing that the terrorists did not achieve what
they set out to do," she added.
The Padi club was a target of the blast ten years ago |
Addressing
mourners at the emotional ceremony, Indonesian embassy charge d'affaires Wiwiek
Setyawati Firman said all Indonesians felt anger "as to why this happened
and why this happened in Bali".
"Ten
years on the pain of the loss still remains and we will remember them
forever," she said.
Also in
attendance were the Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, on the right
in the picture above, and John Howard, the Australian prime minister at the
time of the attack. Separate ceremonies were held across Australia in Perth,
Melbourne, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, and the capital, Canberra.
On October
12, 2002, suicide bombers targetted the island's Kuta party strip, killing 202
people. Among the dead were 164 foreigners from 21 nations. For Australia, the
Bali bombs were the worst peacetime attack on its citizens.
The al Qaeda-linked
South-East Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for the
atrocity. In 2003, 23 people were handed sentences ranging from five years to
death for their role in the bombings. Three were executed in 2008.
Security
was tight in Bali in the days leading up to the anniversary amid concerns of a
possible terrorist attack. Police warned Wednesday that they had received
"credible information" that the ceremony may be targeted.
ccp/av (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
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