Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Terrorist bombings - Bali again

I was in bed asleep last night at about 9pm when the phone rang. It was one of my sons calling to say there had just been at least three more terrorist bombings in Bali. He had been at a party near here where there had been a Balinese youth. The parents had phoned from Bali to tell him they were unhurt. They lived close to one of the explosions.

My wife checked the TV but the news hadn't been broken by the media - so we went back to sleep.

This morning when we awoke we saw The Sunday Times had managed to slip a short item on their front page, but had obviously been thwarted by their deadline. In the meantime the TV people had swung into full gear, but being a weekend they would still have had to do some ringing around to wake people up. Nine's Jana Wendt looked like she had been retrieved from a vacuum cleaner. The commercial TV stations will be rescheduling for the rest of the day, but I don't expect much from the drones at the ABC.

Most of the casualties seem to have been of Asian origin, and have included many Japanese and Korean tourists. But there are also some twenty Australians who have been injured or killed by the blasts - maybe three of the latter. At 9am no names have been released yet, but a sixteen year old male is thought to be amongst the Australian dead.

It's almost three years after the murderous October 12, 2002 terrorist bombings in Bali which killed 202 people, including 89 Australian tourists.

There may have been more than three explosions last night. A TV reporter said that at one hotel site it appeared that two had occurred. Secondary explosions seem to have come in favour with terrorists in order to wreak maximum effect.

I routinely receive alert-emails from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade on areas of the world which interest me. Anyone can subscribe to these.

One came through on 29 September. It read:

Australians are advised to defer non-essential travel to Indonesia. Australians in Indonesia who are concerned for their safety should consider departing. Australians who consider their presence in Indonesia to be essential should exercise extreme caution. The recommendation that Australians defer non-essential travel applies to Indonesia as a whole, including Bali.

We continue to receive a stream of credible reporting suggesting that terrorists are in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Western interests in Indonesia. Attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in Indonesia and could be directed at any locations known to be frequented by foreigners. The bomb attack outside the Australian Embassy on 9 September 2004 underscores that the threat to Australians in Indonesia is real. On 29 August, Indonesian President Yudhoyono called for heightened security in Indonesia during September and October due to the risk of terrorist attack.

The problem with such alerts is that people tend to not take them seriously. Tourists go to such places bubbling with goodwill, and cannot imagine that the seething hatred which festers in the minds of the religious zealots would ever be directed at them. But is not only tourists at risk. So to are the scores of humanitarian relief workers at places like Banda Aceh. That was the place which was flattened by the tsunami on 26 December last.

Well the shock and awe of nature has long passed for the Moslem terrorists up that way. The DFAT warning is as bad as anywhere for that area:

Australians are advised to avoid all travel to Aceh and Maluku province, particularly Ambon due to the unstable security situation. Australians in Aceh and Maluku should depart. As with elsewhere in Indonesia there is a risk of terrorist attack throughout Aceh and Maluku.

Australians are advised not to travel to Banda Aceh or other parts of Aceh to participate in humanitarian relief efforts unless under the auspices of a recognised aid organisation that has a security plan approved by Indonesian authorities to ensure the safety and security of its personnel. Australians participating in the tsunami relief effort in northern Sumatra should ensure they have a robust security plan in place. We advise Australians not associated with recognised aid organisations and who are not covered by an approved security plan to depart in the interests of their own safety. All Australians in Sumatra and Aceh should register with the Australian Embassy via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on-line registration service.

You can't expect speak more plain speaking than that. But I suppose there will still be people who ignore it. It would be much better to say home instead.

© MMV Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days.

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