Downer says he was safe at Bali despite report of bombing plan

Downer says he was safe at Bali despite report of bombing plan

Rod McGuirk, Associated Press/Canberra

Australia's foreign minister said on Friday he believes he was safe when he attended a service on Bali last month to commemorate the third anniversary of terrorist bombings, despite a report that Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) had planned to attack the ceremony.

Indonesian police have found details of a plan to target the Oct. 12 service on a computer disc carried by an associate of JI master bomb maker Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in an Indonesian police raid on Nov. 9, The Australian newspaper reported Friday, citing unidentified Indonesian intelligence sources.

The plan was only abandoned because of the high level of security, the newspaper said. Authorities have said an offshoot of JI killed 23 people in bomb attacks on Bali on Oct. 1.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was among the 300 people who attended the memorial service at Kuta, Bali, where 202 people including 88 Australians were killed by truck bombs on Oct. 12, 2002.

Downer said on Friday he believed the 50 Australian relatives of victims had always been safe because of the tough security measures put in place by both Australian and Indonesian authorities.

"Everybody knew that there were risks involved, we were all aware of that," Downer told reporters. "But Australians are a courageous and robust people and they are not going to be dictated to by terrorists."

While refusing to explicitly confirm the authenticity of the plan, he said it showed the terrorists had no regard for human life.

"The people who would consider attacking mourners, the families of victims, are just depraved," he said. "These people are complete barbarians."

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, who is responsible for Australia's top secret service, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, did not confirm the reported plan but said it was consistent with the government's assessment of the threat in Indonesia at the time.

"All of that of course is consistent with the travel warnings that we have given in relation to Indonesia, terrorist attacks were certainly possible," Ruddock told reporters.

"And what we now have is the evidence that affirms that advice that this group, Jamaah Islamiyah, operating in Indonesia had identified a large number of targets and they would have posed considerable risk to Australians," he added.

Canberra has long advised its citizens to defer nonessential travel to Indonesia including Bali.

The newspaper said Azahari had also been considering mounting attacks on a range of other Bali targets including the airport, the Ubud art market, temples and the zoo.