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.