Security forces are on high alert but for tourists to Bali it is business as usual as Indonesia prepares to execute the three Islamists convicted over the 2002 bombings.
Local survivors and foreign visitors are united in their determination not to dwell on that October night when 202 people, mostly tourists including 88 Australians, were killed when bombs ripped through packed bars.
And the overwhelming feeling on this mainly Hindu island of temples, rice paddies and tropical beaches is that the government should not wait another day before executing the bombers by firing squad.
“The execution will deliver a message that the government is serious about upholding the law and that will convince more people to come and visit,” tourist Paul Green from Australia said.
He said the imminent execution of the bombers, possibly next month after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, had not put him off visiting Bali for the first time.
Bombings “could happen in my home town in Australia at any time the terrorists want,” he said.
“So it’s almost pointless to avoid visiting such a beautiful place like Bali. I prefer not to join that kind of emotional roller coaster,” he said.
Tourists ambling around the cafes and souvenir shops of Kuta, Bali’s most famous beach, appeared unaware that the authorities have boosted security across the island as a precaution against reprisal attacks.
Bali police spokesman A.S. Reniban said more intelligence agents and anti-terror squad officers had been deployed to the island. Local fishermen had been asked to report any strange activities offshore, he said.
“We are preparing ourselves for the worst scenario, to detect any revenge attempt if the execution is carried out,” he said.
Uniformed officers are carrying out extra checks at entry points, especially Gilimanuk port, Ubung bus terminal, Ngurah Rai international airport and Padangbai port, he said.
As the secret police agents and fishermen keep a quiet vigil, life on Kuta’s tourist strip appears as relaxed as it was in the hours before the October 12 blasts devastated Paddy’s Bar and the Sari Club.
Paddy’s Bar has moved to another address on Legian street and the site it occupied at the time of the attacks is now a clothes shop. Sari Club has never reopened and its old address remains abandoned.
A large memorial engraved with the names of the 202 victims is a permanent reminder of the atrocity, but few tourists seemed to want to remember the carnage of that night or the terror threat that remains.
“Please don’t politicize this heartbreaking incident which has already broken so many hearts and lives,” Thai tourist Pactharin Supitchakul said.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
RSS