'My poor boy! he had three children'<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
"How could a human being have the heart to do such a terrible
\nthing to us? What have we done wrong?" cried Tita, a victim of
\nthe JW Marriott bombing on Tuesday, at the Jakarta Hospital in
\nCentral Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Tita, 21, who was an intern employee at the JW Marriot hotel,
\nsuffered burns to her arms and lower legs in the blast.<\/p>\n
She was standing in front of the Sailendra restaurant, located
\na few meters from the hotel lobby door.<\/p>\n
Tita said that first she heard a loud bang, continued by a
\nseries of "Tac! Tac! Tac!" sounds and a very piercing "Prang!"<\/p>\n
In a matter of seconds she heard somebody yelling, "Get down!"
\nShe turned and saw a fireball coming her way from the lobby.<\/p>\n
"At that very moment, I told myself that it was a bomb.
\nInstead of lying down, I chose to run."<\/p>\n
The fireball was faster.<\/p>\n
The next thing she knew she was lying in an ambulance on her
\nway to Jakarta Hospital.<\/p>\n
The Trisakti College for Tourism student had just started her
\nsix-month internship at the hotel five days ago.<\/p>\n
She was calm when The Jakarta Post met her four hours after
\nthe blast. However, she was worried about what had happened to
\nher colleagues and the guests at the fully booked restaurant.<\/p>\n
"It was lunch hour, all the tables were reserved ... many of
\nthe guests were expatriates," she said.<\/p>\n
One of the foreigners was Patricia Pond, 54, a U.S. citizen
\nwho had been in Jakarta for two days to train employees from GE
\nIndonesia, beginning on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Diena Juniarti, external communication specialist for GE, told
\nthe Post that Pond's condition was stabilizing, despite the burns
\nshe had suffered.<\/p>\n
Australian Simon Leuning, who had just flown into Jakarta from
\nMedan, North Sumatra, was blown across his seventh-floor hotel
\nroom.<\/p>\n
Spoken to about an hour after the blast, a visibly shocked
\nLeuning, still clutching a melted money belt a gravely burned
\ntaxi driver had asked him to keep safe, said he had helped
\nevacuate the injured and dead from the hotel lobby and forecourt.<\/p>\n
"All the victim's were taxi drivers, innocent Indonesian taxi
\ndrivers."<\/p>\n
Leuning was later seen wandering about one kilometer from the
\nblast sight arguing over the possession of the melted hunk of
\nplastic with a police officer who considered it evidence.<\/p>\n
The Perth-based Edith Cowan University employee, who did not
\nspeak Indonesian, was taken away in a police car yelling, "Why
\nare you arresting bomb victims?"<\/p>\n
At Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM), Warsinah, in
\nher 60s, bravely attempted to identify her nephew Harna, a 37-
\nyear-old Silver Bird taxi driver who was killed at the scene.<\/p>\n
She cried upon seeing the corpse but was not sure if it was
\nreally Harna. When her husband checked the ID card found in the
\nman's clothes, she let out a wailing cry.<\/p>\n
"My poor boy! He had three kids ... Just kill them (the
\nbombers)!! Kill them!!!" she shouted.<\/p>\n
Many employees of the Blue Bird taxi company arrived at the
\nmorgue, mourning the loss of their colleagues.<\/p>\n
In the MMC hospital in Kuningan, South Jakarta, Ony Priyono,
\n40, husband of Dwi Welasis, 30, and brother of Andini, 25, said
\nthat the two were standing 50 meters from the scene and were
\ninjured.<\/p>\n
They were withdrawing money from an ATM at ITC Mega Kuningan.<\/p>\n
"Both hands, feet and face of my wife were burned, while my
\nsister broke her leg .... Meanwhile, my wife's driver did not get
\nhurt because he was still in the car," Priyono told the Post.<\/p>\n
"The driver took my wife and sister to MMC hospital right
\nafter the blast," he said.<\/p>\n
A devastated Priyono said the hospital had asked for a Rp 15
\nmillion (US$1,765) deposit.<\/p>\n
"After negotiating with the hospital, I only needed to deposit
\nRp 2 million," he said.<\/p>\n
He was not aware of Minister of Health Achmad Suyudi's
\nstatement that the government would cover the victims' expenses.<\/p>\n
Suyudi paid a visit to the victims at MMC hospital at around 4
\np.m. He said the blast was a disaster and therefore the
\ngovernment would cover the cost of the victims' treatment from
\nthe state budget.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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