Melbourne builds garden for Bali victims

Melbourne builds garden for Bali victims

A garden memorial to victims of the terrorist bombings on the
Indonesian island of Bali opened in the southern city of
Melbourne on Monday, three months after the attack.

More than 80 relatives and friends of those killed in the Oct.
12 bombings at two nightclubs in Bali gathered near Victoria
state's Parliament House for a memorial service to open the site.

Thousands of floral tributes that were laid on the steps of
the Parliament in the weeks following the terrorist attack were
collected and turned into mulch to form the base for the garden.

Dave Stewart, whose son Anthony was one of 88 Australians
killed in the blast, said the garden would provide a place for
families to come and remember their loved ones.

"Hopefully they'll put a chair here so we can sit down ...
we're gonna miss them like hell, all of the families are,"
Stewart said.

More than 190 people died in the blasts.

Also Monday, Australian Federal Police confirmed Indonesian
police findings in December that DNA tests showed a man
identified as Iqbal detonated one of the two bombs that destroyed
two Bali nightclubs.

Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said tests at their forensic
laboratory in Canberra showed Iqbal had died at Paddy's Bar.

However, Keelty could not confirm whether Iqbal had purposely
detonated the bomb.

"The reality is that we will never be sure if Iqbal was a
suicide bomber," he said.

Authorities have blamed the attack on an al-Qaida-linked
terror group known as Jamaah Islamiyah, whose alleged goal is to
establish a pan-Islamic state throughout Southeast Asia. -- AP