Australian fund for Bali victims set up

Australian fund for Bali victims set up

An Australian official announced the establishment of a fund on Wednesday to aid victims of the Oct. 12 bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Consul General Ken Allen said the bombing, which killed almost 200 people including about 90 Australians, "was Australia's Sept. 11, and I think of all the cities in the world that really understand how we in Australia might have felt, it's New York."

The Australia Bali Relief Fund (America) will be administered by the American Red Cross and will aid victims from all the countries that suffered losses in the bombing.

The Red Cross said in a news release that the fund was set up "in the spirit of 'mateship' and mutual support that binds Australia and the United States, to provide a way for Australian residents of the United States to help the victims of this tragedy."

City Council Speaker Gifford Miller represented New York City at the consulate's offices in midtown.

"Since Sept. 11, New Yorkers understand the terrible effects of terrorism and wanton violence across the world a little more personally, a little more forcefully than we did before," he said.

The fund is an initiative of the Australian consulate general in New York, the Australian American Association and Young Australian Professionals in America Inc. --AP