Australia holds memorial service for Bali victims

Australia holds memorial service for Bali victims

Agencies, Canberra

Australian leaders and tearful families of the Bali bombing victims attended a national memorial service in parliament Thursday for those killed and wounded in the Oct. 12 terrorist attack.

"The deaths of so many Australians in such a cruel and cowardly act has touched our nation," said the Anglican chaplain to Australia's armed forces, Bishop Tom Frame, in opening the ceremony,

As bagpipes played a mournful lament, friends and relatives of many of the 94 Australians killed or missing and presumed dead in the bombing lit candles in memory of their loved ones.

They were joined by Prime Minister John Howard, heads of Australia's states and territories, religious leaders, military brass and diplomats, including Indonesia's acting ambassador, Imron Cotan.

One of the most heart-wrenching moments came when opposition leader Simon Crean read letters written by two of the children at the ceremony to their father when they still hoped he would be found among the survivors in Bali.

"Get well, Dad, and hurry up so that we can go fishing. Bye, Mathew. Get well," wrote Mathew Dobson, 11, to his missing dad Andrew.

His 13-year-old sister Tasha wrote: "When you get the chance could you please ring, because there are so many people, people who don't even know you, that are really worried about you.

"Talk to you when I see you next. Big hugs and kisses, Tasha Bear."

At the ceremony, Howard said the bombing by suspected religious radicals had left Australia "consumed with a national sense of grief and sadness and justifiable anger that in such a brutal way so many lives, especially young ones, should have been cut short."

He called the bombing, which targeted two night clubs packed with foreign tourists, a "brutal reminder" that terrorism could strike anywhere.

Following the ceremony, Howard met with state and federal government leaders and agreed on a series of new measures to fight terrorism.

Three mourners wore football jerseys to mark the loss of at least a dozen young Australian Rules players who had gone to neighboring Bali to celebrate the end of the season with their teams.

In the public gallery above, discreet security officers in somber suits and curly earpieces looked on, while tourists and schoolchildren lamented Australia's loss of innocence.

"It has brought home the reality of terrorism -- that it has come to our shores. September 11 was remote, distant, but this has come home," teacher Honi Reifler said after the service.