Hundreds gather to honour Bali dead

12 Oct 2012, 6:00 pm   -   Source: AAP

A moving service has been held in Bali to remember the 202 people killed in the twin terror bombings 10 years ago.

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Ten years on from the horror in Bali, hundreds have gathered at a moving service on a hill high above Kuta to honour the many lives lost in the 2002 bombings.

The Sari Club, in the bustling tourist area of Kuta, was levelled when a massive bomb loaded into a van parked outside was detonated just after 11pm on October 12, 2002.

About 20 seconds earlier, a suicide bomber had detonated a backpack loaded with explosives inside Paddy's Bar.

The co-ordinated attacks, which were partly funded by al-Qaeda, killed mostly foreigners, including 88 Australians, and injured scores more.

At the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park in Jimbaran, survivors and the loved ones of those killed came together on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the outrage that shattered so many lives.

The service began to the music of a gamelan orchestra - a sound synonymous with Bali - and was followed by a multi-faith service attended by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and other dignitaries from some of the 22 nations that lost people in the bombings.

Ian Whitley, a serving chaplain with the Royal Australian Air Force, flew to Bali the day after the bombings and spent many hours in the morgue at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, caring for the victims' friends and families.

On Friday, he called on those gathered to "remember this event and reflect on our loss".

"Some of you come bearing an irrevocable grief and loss, and this is one of those occasions where it is fitting and appropriate to express those feelings, to cry, and join with others who share a similar loss," he said.

Candles placed on the edge of a pool of remembrance were then lit, one each for the 22 nations that lost people; another six were lit to represent the major faiths.

Made Bagus Aryadana was just 18 months old when his father, Gede Badrawan, the head waiter at the Sari Club, was killed.

Now 12, he delivered a heartfelt reading on Friday in the form of a letter to the father he never had a chance to really know.

"I didn't understand the meaning of the tragedy.

"Now I am standing here, the same date and month when Daddy left us.

"I read this letter for you, Daddy, for all your love and sacrifice."

Danny Hanley, whose two daughters died as a result of the blasts, also reflected on his loss.

"My eldest daughter, Renae, was right at the front door of the Sari Club when the blast occurred. She was one of the first to lose her life."

His youngest daughter, Simone, was already inside the club and was the last Australian to die after fighting for her life for 58 days in Perth Hospital's Burns Unit.

"When I hear of the 88 Australians that died, I shed a tear. My beautiful daughter Simone was number 88."

John Howard, the Australian prime minister at the time of the attacks, said those responsible for the horror of Bali had sought to divide Australians and Indonesians.

But they had failed.

"Ten years ago, 20 million Australians in a sense extended their arms of comfort to those who had lost so much on that terrible night, and who were in other painful ways victims of a foul and evil act of mindless terrorism," Mr Howard said.

"Today, a decade on, we renew that offer of comfort and compassion."

Ms Gillard said there would always be a fault-line dividing the lives of those affected by the bombings: "Before Bali and after Bali".

"They had come to a place loved for its sunshine and its uncomplicated joy, a place like London and Gallipoli where something of the Australian spirit dwells upon another shore," Ms Gillard said.

"This is what the Bali bombers struck at.

"Here, on these bustling streets, they inflicted searing pain and grief that may never end. But even as the debris fell, it was obvious the attack on our sense of ourselves, as Australians, as human beings, had failed."

The governor of Bali, Made Mangku Pastika, who was chief of police then and led the investigation into the bombings, urged those gathered at Jimbaran to embrace forgiveness.

"Those who died are also heroes," he said.

"It is the time to forgive, so we can face a brighter future."

Floral tributes were laid and the names of the 202 people killed were read out.

A minute's silence was then observed.

A separate service was also to be held on Friday night at the memorial in Kuta, across the road from where the Sari Club once stood.

Just after 11pm (0200 AEDT Saturday), at the time when the bombs struck and tore apart so many people's lives, there will be one more minute of silence in honour of those lost.

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