Relatives of bomb victims arrive in Bali for memorial
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
Over 1,200 relatives of the Bali bombing victims have arrived in Bali to participate in the ceremony commemorating the tragedy slated to be held on Sunday evening.
"We believe the number will increase because the ceremony is still a day away," chairman of the commemoration committee Bagiana Karang said on Friday.
He revealed that out of that figure, 700 were from Australia, 136 from New Zealand, 66 from Britain, 16 from Japan, 14 from Germany, six from Sweden, five from Canada, four from Denmark and the remaining 261 from host country Indonesia.
"They have registered here and we have issued a special identity card to each of them," Karang said.
With the ID cards the relatives of those killed in the Oct. 12 Bali bombings will be able to enter the ceremony location on Jl. Legian, Kuta, unhampered.
The street will be closed to motorists for 24 hours starting at 6 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12.
However, the victims' relatives will be allowed to drive along the road and park their vehicles in two designated parking places north and south of the location of the ceremony, Karang said.
He urged locals not to flock to the venue so as to maintain the solemn atmosphere of the commemoration and to provide as much space as possible to the victims' relatives.
"Priority will be given to the relatives and to those who want to pray at the site. Those who want to come only to watch the event are advised to stay home instead," he stated.
The ceremony will take place at the new commemoration monument, which stands on the site of the old Sari Club, where the most powerful of the three bombs exploded, killing at least 202 people and injuring 300 others, mostly foreigners.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, along with scores of high-ranking officials, is slated to attend the ceremony.
In anticipation of the ceremony and Howard's visit, there will be tight security involving more than 2,000 Bali Police officers. Some 500 officers will be deployed in and around the site of the ceremony. Sixteen officers from the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres) will also be present to guard the ceremony.
Moreover, the traditional villages of Kuta, Seminyak, Legian and the Denpasar Council of Customary Villages have also readied their traditional Pecalang security guards.
"At least 500 Pecalang will be assigned to secure the area around the monument," said Karang.
Howard is expected to arrive in Bali at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Later in the evening Howard will bestow honorary Order of Australia awards on Indonesian National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, chief of the Bali bombing inquiry team Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika and the inquiry team's chief investigator Brig. Gen. Gorries Mere in a ceremony at Sheraton Lagoon, Nusa Dua.
The officers played significant roles in the Bali attack investigation that led to the arrests of 33 perpetrators of the bombings, of which three have been sentenced to death and the remainder given heavy prison terms.
On Sunday morning, Howard will visit the monument to lay a wreath and lead a moment of silence in remembrance of 88 Australians who perished in the cowardly terrorist attack.
Bali photo exhibition called off after protests
A photo exhibition on the Bali bombings featuring 70 works by 14 photojournalists was called off at the last minute on Friday afternoon after a series of incidents involving distressed relatives of the victims.
The exhibition was slated to be held from Oct. 10 through Oct. 17 at the new Paddy's Pub. The original Paddy's Pub was destroyed in the bloody 2002 terrorist attack in which at least 202 people were killed, mostly foreigners.
However, on Thursday night, a number of relatives of the bomb victims, apparently overwhelmed by grief and anger, became upset and took down four of the photographs from the wall.
One of them threw a picture onto the floor. Three of the photographs depicted those convicted for the bombings while one showed body bags.
"This morning, another relative of a victim took the photograph of convicted bomber Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and ran away with it, forcing the pub's security guards to chase after him to retrieve the picture," photojournalist Lukman S.B. said.
The participating photojournalists, saying they did not want to burden the Pub's security staff with unnecessary problems, eventually decided to cancel the exhibition and take down all the photographs.
"Actually the Australian Consulate's people insisted that we continue the exhibition and they said they would select what photographs could be displayed. Of course, we rejected the offer," a photojournalist said.
Veteran photojournalist Joko Sugianto, who organized the event, said the participants had carefully selected the works to be displayed so as not to offend the victims' families.