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The Associated Press
October 31, 2002

A FUND is being set up in New York to aid victims of the Bali nightclub bombing.

Australia's Consul General in the city, Ken Allen, said the Australia Bali 
Relief Fund (America) would be administered by the American Red Cross.

He said the October 12 bombing, which killed almost 200 people including many 
Australians, "was Australia's September 11, and I think of all the cities in 
the world that really understand how we in Australia might have felt, it's New 
York".

The fund will aid victims from all the countries that suffered losses in the 
bombing.

The Red Cross said the fund was being set up "in the spirit of 'mateship' and 
mutual support that binds Australia and the United States, to provide a way for 
Australian residents of the United States to help the victims of this tragedy". 

City Council Speaker Gifford Miller represented New York City at the 
consulate's offices in midtown.

"Since September 11, New Yorkers understand the terrible effects of terrorism 
and wanton violence across the world a little more personally, a little more 
forcefully than we did before," he said.

The fund is an initiative of the Australian consulate general in New York, the 
Australian American Association and Young Australian Professionals in America 
Inc.