Australian survivors recall the Bali bombing

Australian survivors recall the Bali bombing

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

In a touching testimony here on Monday, three Australians gave
the judges in the trial of main Bali bombing suspect Amrozi a
glimpse at the torment the blasts inflicted on people of
neighboring Australia.

Out of the 202 innocent lives taken in the brutal terrorist
attack, 88 were Australian. It sent a chill through the nation,
whose people had for decades considered Bali their second home.

Stuart James Anstee, Jason McCartney and Peter Hughes told of
the terrible ordeal and suffering they endured during and after
the bombings. They were the first foreigners to testify in the
trial of Bali bombing suspects.

"It was like a very large fireworks display. A hissing orange
glow flew into the air and knocked me to the ground. I was
briefly blinded by the flash. When my vision came back, I could
not see because smoke engulfed everything. I grabbed somebody
next to me and struggled to find a way out," McCartney vividly
recalled.

Half of his body was burned and there were extensive shrapnel
wounds on various parts of his body. His lungs collapsed, sending
him into a comma for a week during medical treatment in
Australia.

Hughes and McCartney were in Paddy's Pub when the first bomb
ripped through the nightclub, while Anstee was in the Sari Club
when the biggest of three bombs exploded. They were all severely
injured and are still undergoing intensive physiotherapy.

Anstee, 24, from Tasmania, said he blacked out for several
minutes after a huge car bomb ripped through the Sari Club where
he was partying with five friends. Three of them died.

"When I woke up, I noticed blood spurting from my neck and my
leg and my left arm. I saw many dead bodies inside and outside
the Sari Club," a composed Anstee, an environmental scientist,
told the court with his hands clasped tightly in his lap.

"Australians are angry at the people who committed this crime,
angry at the terrorists," he said, staring at Amrozi, who looked
back but said nothing, Reuters reported.

The three all agreed that the pain went beyond physical
discomfort. Psychological counseling to ease the trauma had
became part of their lives.

"Emotionally, it almost destroyed me. I have to find a lot of
strength just to cope with daily life. But, I still have a lot of
fear and I have to learn to live with it," Hughes told the court.

Moreover, the survivors also had to deal with the financial
ramification of their injuries.

McCartney had to retire from the sport he loved, Australian
football, at the tender age of 29 and lose some A$150,000
(Rp 825 million) from his annual income.

Anstee, McCartney and Hughes were the last of the main
witnesses presented by the prosecutors. So far, 59 witnesses have
appeared in the trial. Amrozi's lawyers stated that they would
not summon any witness to testify.

"None of the testimonies by the prosecutors' witnesses have
incriminated our client in any way. In light of that fact we
think that summoning witnesses to speak in favor of the defendant
is unnecessary," the chief defense lawyer, Adnan Wirawan, said.

The trial will continue on June 30 to hear the prosecutors'
sentence demand.

Earlier in the morning, in the first trial of Ali Gufron alias
Mukhlas, prosecutor I Putu Indriati read the 30-page indictment
against the defendant, who was allegedly the regional leader of
the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network, which has been
blamed for the Bali bombings.

Mukhlas is being charged with planning, organizing and
committing an act of terrorism. Under the new terrorism law, the
offenses carry the maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment.

The prosecutor also revealed that in 1987, during the war
against Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan, the defendant
had met Osama bin Laden, the elusive leader of the international
terrorist group al-Qaeda, in the town of Joji.