No subject

cashier at a local McDonald's restaurant, watched investigators at work in the 
wreckage. "It's a very dangerous time now," Agus said. "This could create a 
religious war. It's happened elsewhere in Indonesia and I'm scared it will 
happen here."

In the past four years, religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians have 
erupted in several Indonesian areas, in particular the eastern regions of the 
Moluccas islands and in Poso in central Sulawesi. These battles have left more 
than 5,000 people dead, according to official estimates. Another 1,200 people, 
mainly ethnic Chinese, were killed during 1998 rioting in Jakarta, the national 
capital, shortly before the ouster of President Suharto.

Bali has remained immune to such turmoil. Literally an island of stability in a 
turbulent region, Bali and its mythic Indian Ocean beaches last year drew 
nearly 1.5 million foreign tourists, about 40 percent of Indonesia's total, 
according to the Bali Tourist Authority. That revenue helped make the island 
among the richest places in the country.

But now tensions are rising. Since the attack, traditional Hindu security 
guards, clad in sarongs and batik hats, have been making the rounds of Muslim 
neighborhoods and dormitories, demanding to see identification papers, local 
residents say. Small Hindu communities have been convening traditional councils 
in local open-air halls to discuss the bombing and how best to respond.

"We're starting to get suspicious" of the Muslims, said I. Made Satvika, 18, an 
economics student in a college in Denpasar. "We are very angry because the name 
of Bali has been ruined."

Investigators have yet to provide evidence that any of Bali's Muslim residents 
were involved in the attack. And like most of Indonesia's Muslims, those on 
this island are largely moderate in both their politics and their religious 
practices.

But religious resentments are not entirely new to Bali. Native Balinese have 
criticized the influx of Indonesians from outside and complained about the 
construction of mosques on the island. They had been accustomed to seeing few 
signs of religion to compete with the countless Hindu temples and carved stone 
Hindu shrines that dot the roadsides.

Native islanders have also complained that many outsiders have become 
aggressive merchants and street peddlers, hassling tourists and fostering petty 
crime. In recent years, native Balinese have sought to clear the streets of 
these hawkers by destroying dozens of their kiosks, according to local 
residents.

Since the bombing Saturday, thousands of red-and-white Indonesian flags, 
displayed at half-staff, have suddenly appeared along Bali's traffic-clogged 
main roads and narrow back alleys, mounted in front of homes, stores and even 
meager stalls selling fried rice. This is more than a show of national unity, 
say the Balinese, who have been strong supporters of the Indonesian state and 
its current leader, President Megawati Sukarnoputri. They say it is also a show 
of rage.

Top Indonesian religious leaders, including Muslims, Hindus, Christians and 
Confucians, met Monday in Jakarta and appealed for calm, urging believers not 
to blame any specific religion for the terror attack. Several national 
religious leaders said they were planning to visit Bali this week to 
demonstrate their concern.

But some Balinese wondered whether everyone would heed their call. "It could be 
that the Balinese will expel the non-Balinese," said Made Suparta, 41, a native 
Balinese elementary school teacher wearing a traditional sarong as he waited 
for a ride outside the modern Duta shopping mall in downtown Denpasar. "It 
would be extraordinarily violent if that happened."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Australia struggles to cope with lost lives in Bali blasts 
16 October, 2002 13:50 GMT+08:00  
By Phil Smith 
SYDNEY (Reuters)

The illusion that indiscriminate attacks on civilians are something that 
happens elsewhere has finally been shattered in Australia, its security blanket 
of distance left in bloody shreds. 

As the death toll from the bomb blasts on the Indonesian resort island of Bali 
rises, Australia has sunk into deep grief not only for the victims but for the 
loss of a once safe, peaceful and idyllic holiday paradise that the nation felt 
it was its own. 

"In this situation this is grief over the loss of friends or loved ones, but at 
a broader level it is grief over the loss of innocence, in the way that Bali 
was a playground for Australians," said David Mutton, a University of Western 
Sydney forensic psychologist. 

"It was almost a rite of passage for a lot of young Australians to go there. 
Somehow that loss of innocence is also a grief," Mutton said on Wednesday. 

More than 180 people were killed in the blasts that destroyed the popular Sari 
nightclub and several other adjoining night spots. Many of the badly burned and 
dismembered bodies have yet to be identified but officials believe the vast 
majority are Australian. 

Thirty Australians have already been confirmed dead but 140 are still missing. 

Australians, who traditionally feel isolated from traumatic world events purely 
by dint of distance, have felt deep shock before but it was homegrown. 

In April 1996, the nation stood aghast when Australian Martin Bryant shot dead 
35 people at a popular tourist spot on the island state of Tasmania. 

But what happened in Bali brought the horrors of the outside world into the 
home of every Australian. 

To help people come to terms with the disaster, churches of all denominations 
opened their doors on Wednesday, offering a place to grieve and unite as a 
nation. 

"The scale of this tragedy in Bali is beginning to sink in and I think we're 
all feeling very shaken, we're in grief and I think we need an opportunity to 
come together," said David Thomas, dean of Brisbane's St John's Cathedral. 

Trauma 
Reception areas staffed by doctors and grief counsellors have been set up at 
airports. Salvation Army chaplains patrol passenger lounges wearing bright 
yellow bibs, giving comfort to tearful passengers returning from Bali by the 
thousands. 

Psychologists said the trauma felt by those on the island falls into three 
broad groups. Those in the thick of it but unscathed or with only minor 
injuries, those still languishing in hospital trying to recover from injuries 
and those in the vicinity but not necessarily at the heart of it. 

"They are going to have traumatic reactions in terms of reliving the event, 
unwanted intrusive recollections, disturbing dreams, feeling numb and 
disconnected and a lot of them may withdraw into themselves," said Mutton, who 
has served with police as chief psychologist at Australian domestic disasters. 

Those more seriously injured may not yet be reacting at all because of 
medication and with their resources devoted to physically recovering. A 
psychological reaction will kick-in, but it may be weeks or months down the 
road, said Mutton. 

Mission Australia, which offers free crisis counselling, said so far they had 
received only a few calls but expected many more over the next few days. 

"The effect will go out as a ripple. As well as the people who are affected 
themselves there will be the friends and families as well as members of the 
public who are struggling to come to terms with what has happened," Mission 
Australia spokesman Greg Pankhurst said. 

The deaths have struck communities across Australia, and flags remained at half-
mast for a second day on Wednesday. 

One Sydney school community was mourning the loss of six mothers who were 
killed as they danced with their teenage daughters in the Sari club. Their 
daughters are safely home, but some sit quietly in foetal position grieving. 

"After these sort of events...people will often ring up talking about 
nightmares and being unable to sleep or do the sort of things they normally 
do," said Pankhurst. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Rosalind Wall <rosalind.wall at asbiss.com>
Subject: RE: Bali bomb
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 13:50:11 +0100
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21)

Dear All

By now, I think you must all have read with horror of the events on the 
Indonesian island of Bali over the weekend. Over the last few days, no doubt, 
you have all seen the terrible pictures of Australian tourists in bloodstained 
sarongs, of burns victims  being carried through rubble, and heard stunned 
survivors tell stories of a holiday literally exploding into unimaginable 
terror.

You may, however be rather less aware of one thing: that up to 40% of the 
victims were in not in fact Australia, America, British or Canadian. They were, 
in fact, local Balinese.

These victims, it goes without saying, are also burned and bleeding. But while 
Australian and other international victims were wheeled into specially 
commissioned aircraft to take them to the best medical care Australia has to 
offer, the Balinese victims are left in the capital Denpasar's chaotic and 
hopelessly overstretched hospitals.  Just like the international victims, over 
the weeks and months to come they will struggle to recover – but unlike them, 
they will have no medical insurance, no government support and few facilities 
to help. Nor will there be assistance for the thousands who saw the bars and 
hotels and cafes that are their financial lifeblood blown apart on Saturday, or 
for the thousands of Balinese who over the next few months will slide into 
poverty as the tourism industry collapses.

This is doubly unfair for the Balinese, because whoever planted this bomb, this 
is not their tragedy. Until Saturday, Bali was famed for its Hindu culture of 
tranquility and peace, and its people are some of the most gentle and tolerant 
I have ever met. The ones I have spoken with over the last couple of days have 
been shaking with shock and bewilderment, unable to comprehend why anyone would 
want to blow such a haven, their home, apart. This is not in any way a 
catastrophe of their making, but it has destroyed their lives. To have their 
suffering ignored in the way it has been is a massive insult added to appalling 
injury.

If any of you are interested in helping these people, whether as a simple 
humanitarian gesture or an individual attempt to counterbalance the media and 
political apartheid that sees the suffering of those who are not Western as of 
no consequence, then perhaps you will consider getting in touch with those 
Balinese residents - Indonesian and expats - who are co-ordinating the relief 
effort for locals on Bali. They are desperate for help: from for such simple 
immediately necessary things as antibiotics and burn creams to facilities that 
can support the families of those injured and killed.

This relief effort has been organised by a friend of mine, Petra Schneider.  If 
you want to help, you can do one of several things. First of all, you can 
simply forward this email to everyone you know. Secondly, you can email her at  
idep at dps.centrin.net.id to ask how you can best help. Or thirdly, you can 
donate money via this bank account:

Account Name : I Gusti Ngurah Dharma Putra Bank Name : BCA Denpasar, Jl 
Hasanuddin Acct No : 0400249466 Bank tel No: + 62 361 431 012 Bank fax
No: + 62 361 421 429 SWIFT CODE : C E N A I D J A

At the very least, please forward this to everyone you know, and let's at least 
do a little to counterbalance the unspoken racism that is rendering nearly half 
of the victims of this tragedy effectively invisible.
Imogen