Table tennis tournament back in Indonesia
The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
After completing the Asian Championship, a number of Futsal (indoor soccer) players and officials from the region embarked on a two-day tour of Bali last week to offer moral support to locals in the aftermath of the bombings there.
The tour was organized by the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI), which acted as the hosting body of the championship.
"We want to send a message to the people of Bali that we, as Futsal and soccer players, are with them in their struggle to cope with the hardships brought about by the bombings," Tri Goestoro, PSSI secretary-general, said in Bali last Thursday.
"We want to show the world that Bali is safe to be visited. We want to convince the world that the Oct. 12 bombings should be the first and also the last (incident)," Tri said.
During their two-day tour, the players visited the Tanah Lot temple and the site in Legian where bomb ripped through the Sari Club and Paddy's Cafe, leaving about 200 people, mostly foreigners, dead.
The Futsal players also met with local leaders, including the deputy regent of Badung and local legislators.
"We were undergoing a training session when we heard about the bombing. We waited for an announcement from the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) whether the (Futsal) tournament would proceed. It did," Kim Yong-joo, manager of the South Korean team, said about his team's uncertainty in the wake of the bombings.
"I was a bit scared learning about the bombing. But I calmed myself by accepting that I had to try to trust the local authorities," he said.
Kim, who brought all 14 of his players to Bali, along with five other officials, said he didn't think there would be a repeat attack on the island.
"If there should be another bombing, it wouldn't be Bali. I don't expect it anywhere at all, of course," he said.
Tour organizers hoped that all of the teams that reached the semifinals of the championship, which ended last Wednesday at the Bung Karno Sports Hall in Jakarta, would take part in the tour.
However, eventual champion Iran, Thailand and Japan opted to stay away, preferring to go straight home from Jakarta. That left South Korea as the only full team to go to Bali.
"Iran could not go because of its flight schedule. Thailand said they had to take part in a local competition," Tri said.
The Japanese Embassy warned its team against visiting Bali, according to Takao Sakae, the only Japanese player to make the trip.
"When we told the players about the invitation to Bali, 90 percent of them refused to go," Sakae, who is director of the Japanese Football Association, said.
"They seemed traumatized by the news that two Japanese were among those who perished in the tragedy, while others were wounded," he said.
Sakae used the tour to tell the Balinese that the Japanese would not abandon Bali.
"I'm a symbol that the Japanese are here," he said. "When I return home I will tell them that Bali is safe."