Hope, wariness in Australia as Bali trials start

Hope, wariness in Australia as Bali trials start

Michael Christie, Reuters, Sydney, Australia

Australian survivors of the Bali bombings and relatives of the dead hope the trials of the accused bombers will help them heal, but for some the hearings also promise to bring more pain, and possible disappointment.

Amrozi, an Indonesian mechanic whose laughing appearances before the media last November enraged Australians, goes on trial on Monday for plotting the Oct. 12 bombing of a Bali nightclub in which 202 people were killed, 88 of them Australians.

"When it happened, I never thought any of them would get caught," said Erik de Haart, a member of the Coogee Dolphins rugby league club whose legs still bear the scars of the flames that killed six of his teammates.

"I just thought it'd be a case of, 'they were foreigners, they were in the wrong place, that was their bad luck'. I'm glad the trial's begun. It will enable us to move on."

Amrozi will be the first leading suspect to appear in trials Indonesians expect will shed light on Jamaah Islamiah (JI), a Southeast Asian Islamic group suspected of links to al-Qaeda -- blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Bali, long regarded by Australians as an extension of their backyard, represented for many the island continent's own Sept. 11 in that it drove home a stark realization that there was no safety in geographic isolation.

Australian police, who helped Indonesia track down the suspected bombers, have advised Australians not to go to Bali for the trials because they are likely to be lengthy and hard to follow.

But several say they need to be there.

"I've got to go and visit the site of the bombing, it's one of those things," said Adelaide magistrate Brian Deegan, who lost his 22-year-old son Josh.

"I've never seen his body... I don't think I could ever get over that but I've at least got to go and be where some of his spirit is I guess, and then I've really got to see the site where they kept him for two weeks before they brought him home."

Deegan hopes the trial will help him to come to terms with the loss of his son. But he is wary of disappointment.

Many Australians were furious when an Indonesian shop owner, who sold the chemicals allegedly used to make the Bali bombs, was sentenced to just seven months jail on May 1.

Some also suspect the masterminds remain at large.

"They certainly have gone out like the true Mounties and caught their man. I query though whether they're the true men?" Deegan said.

The suspects face the death penalty in Indonesia if found guilty, a prospect Australians, whose country opposes capital punishment, have mixed views on.

"A lot of people would be happy with that," said the president of the Dolphins' club, Alby Talarico.

Talking to Reuters by a memorial overlooking the pub where the dead Coogee Dolphins rugby players drank, the fields where they played and the beach where they swam, de Haart said he was not one of those who favored capital punishment.

"Hoping that they will die, it will never bring the guys back," he said.