Bombs Kill Almost 200 In Bali Tourist Nightspot

Hanabeth Luke assists Tom Singer outside the Sari Club. Sadly, Tom died a month later. /SCOPE FEATURES

By Dean Yates

KUTA, Indonesia, Oct 13, 2002 — (Reuters) Bomb blasts ripped through nightclubs on the resort island of Bali, killing at least 183 revellers, mostly foreigners, and triggering outrage and pressure on Indonesia to round up Muslim militants.

US President George Bush condemned what he called "a cowardly act designed to create terror and chaos", and offered Jakarta help to track down those responsible.

Twenty-four hours after the attacks near Kuta Beach, overwhelmed hospitals struggled to care for hundreds of injured, many with horrific burns from the explosions and inferno that followed. Volunteers reported a shortage of basic medical supplies, including pain-killers and saline solution.

Bodies of victims wrapped in white sheets filled the morgue of Bali's main hospital, and friends and relatives searched for missing loved ones in the wards.

Australia shuttled C-130 Hercules airforce planes to Bali to evacuate injured nationals able to survive the trip.

The most powerful of two blasts demolished the Sari Club, popular with young backbackers and surfers who flock to Kuta from all over the world, particularly Australia.

Asian neighbours have harshly criticised Indonesia, a moderate Muslim nation, for its reluctance to tackle Islamic extremists, despite evidence the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden has established a foothold in the sprawling archipelago.

"We would like to see a maximum effort on the part of the Indonesian government to deal with the terrorist problem within their own borders," Australian Prime Minister John Howard told reporters after speaking to Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri by telephone.

"It's been a problem for a long time," he said. Adding to pressure on Jakarta, the US embassy said it was considering plans to start scaling back the American diplomatic presence in the country.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was "horrified", a spokesman said. Britain offered to send an anti-terror team.

Megawati, who flew to Bali after an emergency cabinet meeting, said the explosions were a warning that terrorism was a threat to national security. But she offered no clues on who authorities believed might be to blame.

"The Indonesian government will continue cooperation with the international community to overcome terrorism," she said.

Her chief security minister said troops had beefed up security around oil and gas facilities, some operated by foreign multinationals including Exxon Mobil, as well as mines for fear of further terrorist attacks.

Accompanied by several ministers, Megawati visited the smoking ruins of the Sari before stopping briefly at the 770-bed Sanglah Hospital, where she donned a surgical mask and visited burn victims.

Mark Donovan, a volunteer at a missing persons desk at the hospital, said the bulk of those unaccounted for were Australians. "But we have people from South Africa, Holland, Peru - you name it," he said.

A noticeboard giving information on hospital admissions included a section called "Identity Unknown". One entry read: "Young girl in intensive care, 11-14 year old, face burned, in coma. Caucasian." Another read: "Girl in intensive care, 130 cm, fair skin, caucasian with reddish brown hair. She has a purplish belly button ring."

The explosions turned a throbbing strip of bars and discotheques near Kuta Beach into a scene of bloody carnage.

Badly burned youngsters in T-shirts and sandals stumbled dazed around streets scattered with bodies, severed limbs and the twisted wreckage of cars.

Another bomb went off 50 metres from the honorary US consulate in Sanur, another tourist area about 30 minutes from Kuta. No one was hurt in that explosion.

Before dawn yesterday, flames licked around the rubble of the Sari as tourists carried the injured away, many half-naked and moaning in pain.

Hospital staff said many dead were charred beyond recognition.

"It's nothing quite like anything I've ever seen - there was more blood, the smell of burnt skin and the pain that they were in, you can't really put that into words," Melbourne tourist Martin Lyons told Australia's Nine Network Sunday programme.

Police put the death toll at 182 and said the victims included nationals from Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden. Some 300 people were injured in one of the world's most devastating attacks against tourists.

Hanabeth Luke, a fair-haired 22-year-old from England, was mourning her boyfriend, a mechanic, killed as the two danced at the Sari.

"I was dancing to Emminem, enjoying the flow, when I heard the first bang. Many people stood still, then there was the second. It was an incredible force of wind and heat," she said.

"Somehow I managed to climb out through the roof. I was in the street in a complete daze, yelling out my boyfriend's name, but I had a strong feeling that he was dead," Luke said. Friends later told her his body had been found.

"I now have to ship my boyfriend home to England," she said.

Among those missing were members of rugby teams from Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia playing in an annual ten-a-side tournament.

Simon Quayle, coach of the Kingsley Football Club, an amateur team in suburban Perth, said eight players were missing after the team members had gone to the Sari club.

The blasts came on the second anniversary of the al-Qaeda linked attack against the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen. They followed a bomb blast in Finland that killed seven people and wounded dozens.

The United States and Singapore, which has detained dozens of people in a crackdown on what it says is a Southeast Asian terror network, Jemaah Islamiah, have been pressing Indonesia to arrest Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir they describe as a pivotal player in the group.

At a news conference yesterday, Bashir blamed the United States for the attacks.

"It would be impossible for Indonesians to do it," he said. "Indonesians don't have such powerful explosives."

"I think maybe the US are behind the bombings because they always say Indonesia is part of a terrorist network."