Internet buzzes with news of Bali's missing
Internet buzzes with news of Bali's missing
Pete Harrison, Reuters, London
Relatives and friends of those still missing after blasts tore through a strip of bars in the Indonesian resort of Bali have turned to the Internet desperately seeking some hope to cling to.
Australians, who account for the largest single group of victims with 22 confirmed dead and 160 still missing, posted poignant appeals for help, as did Britons who account for the second largest group with 17 thought dead and 13 still missing.
Some were survivors of the blast who told of their horror: "The sky was thick with smoke and flames," wrote Briton Paul Cerny. "I was terrified. Everywhere I looked people were injured or dying or dead... A dead man was carried passed me, burnt so he was unrecognizable."
Other messages appealed directly to the missing. "Jamie Wellington, on rugby trip, New Zealander living in Jakarta, please be okay, and go home to your beloved wife and daughters," wrote Rachel.
The messages appeared on a BBC Web site and on Indonesia's Bali tourism site.
Briton Peter Joyce appealed for help in finding his brother: "His name is Dan and he was with his Japanese wife Nobye in Kuta on Saturday night. I have not heard from them since the bomb."
A Londoner and former member of Hong Kong Rugby Football Club said he feared 10 of his former team mates were dead.
"Our only hope is that they spent their last moments living life to the full as we remember them," he wrote.
Some messages appealing for information went unanswered, perhaps because no one dared.
"Can anyone help locate Ian Findley, age 55, from the northeast of England, last seen in the Sari Club when the bomb went off?" asked a Briton who identified herself only as Julie.
She had clearly not seen an article in the Times on Tuesday in which Findley's friend Ian Stafford described the last time he had seen him among the carnage and confusion of the explosions.
"I have never seen anything like it in my life -- there were piles and piles of charred bodies," said Stafford. "Ian must have taken the full blast."
Ronaldo from Bali told of the loss of his Ecuadorian girlfriend Ana Cecila Aviles: "It has been very difficult at the hospital, with so many unrecognizable bodies, burned beyond recognition," he wrote. "I'm grateful that my Ana's body is still so beautiful."
But for every tale of loss, there were many more of hope and reconciliation. "Looking for news about best mate Joe Griffiths," wrote Roland from France.
"Roland in France, don't worry about Joe Griffiths," came the swift reply from Melanie Coene in England. "He is in Thailand and fine."