Howard to attend Bali blast service despite new fears

Howard to attend Bali blast service despite new fears

Mary Longmore, Associated Press, Sydney, Australia

Australia's prime minister vowed on Sunday to attend a service
for the victims of last year's bombings on the Indonesian resort
island of Bali, despite an attack on a Jakarta hotel this week
and warnings of more terrorist violence in the region.

"It would send a very bad signal if the Australian prime
minister didn't go," John Howard told Channel 9 TV. "It would
take a very big change (in security) ... to stop me going" to the
one-year anniversary service for the 202 people, including 88
Australians, killed in the Oct. 12 blasts.

Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, an Indonesian, was sentenced to death on
Thursday for his role in the Bali nightclub bombings. Two days
before he was sentenced, an apparent suicide bomber killed 11
people and injured 146 outside Jakarta's Marriott hotel.

The United States and Australia have since warned that
extremists may be planning more attacks against Western interests
in Indonesia.

Howard said on Sunday that Australia's national airline Qantas
is a potential target of terrorists firing heat-seeking missiles
from the ground.

Howard said concerns in the United States and Britain about
possible terrorist attacks on commercial airlines prompted
Australian authorities to launch intelligence-sharing talks with
London, focusing on Qantas flights in and out of London's
Heathrow airport.

"That's one of the things we're constantly in touch with the
British about," Howard said. He didn't disclose further details
about the concerns.

No one at the airline was immediately available for comment.
Qantas flies to Heathrow about 20 times a week.

The United States issued fresh predictions of more terrorist
attacks in the Asia-Pacific region following the Marriott blast.
Howard has not ruled out the possibility of attacks on Australian
soil.

Howard said all Western embassies and gathering points in
Indonesia were potential targets.

He said the latest intelligence showed the Marriott blast was
"almost certainly" carried out by the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI)
terror group, and possibly linked to al-Qaeda. Jamaah Islamiyah
copied al-Qaeda tactics and was a "menace" to Australia, Howard
said.

Howard said the Marriott bombing had hit the local Indonesian
population hardest -- only one victim was foreign.

"One of the perverse things is that these things are meant to
be done to 'avenge our Muslim brothers,' yet what they do is kill
our Muslim brothers," Howard told Channel 9. "It's a reminder
that terrorism is as much an enemy of Islam as it is of other
religions."

Howard dismissed fears that Amrozi -- who greeted his
execution sentence with apparent jubilation -- would become a
martyr if killed by authorities. He again stressed he would not
seek to intervene to keep the sentence from being carried out
despite Australia having no death penalty.

"People will think, well that's a bit odd, this man killed 88
Australians and has been sentenced to death and the Australian
government is asking that he not be executed," Howard said,
adding that Amrozi would probably be regarded as a martyr by some
whether he was killed or jailed for life.

Responding to a report by the Australian Institute of
Engineers that Australia was 18 months behind the United States
in its counterterrorism security measures, Howard said the risk
to Australia "while real" was nowhere near as great as that to
the United States.

He said the report failed to consider the government's new
antiterrorism unit, set up to coordinate intelligence and advice.