Hardship persists for Bali bomb victims
Updated
On Sunday, survivors as well as family and friends of those killed in the Bali bombings marked the sixth anniversary of the devastating terrorist attacks.
For Indonesians touched by this tragedy, the pain remains raw and the past few years have brought more hardship. Yesterday Indonesia's Attorney General announced that next week he'd reveal when the Bali bombers would be executed. For many of the victims that day cannot come soon enough.
Presenter: Gavin Fang
Speakers: Gusti Anom, bombing victim; Ni Wayan Rastini, bombing victim
FANG: When he plays with his children Gusti Anom can sometimes forget about the now infamous October night six years ago that changed his life forever. The security guard should never had been in Kuta when the bali bombers struck. But a few blocked streets put him in harms way. On his way home from work the 38-year-old was forced to take a detour. He stopped his motorbike outside Paddy's bar to buy some water and it was then that the world turned black. Waking up he found himself lying face down on the street .
GUSTI: I felt a pain on my face and I couldn't open my eye. I got up and ran to a nearby hotel.. There was a lot of bodies lying around. I asked for a drink but there was no drinks so I found a tap outside. I went to wash my face because my eye was hurting and and then I felt blood coming down my face.
FANG: The 38-year-old had a piece of glass lodged in his eye, burns to his arms and back from the blast and fallen power cables, and a shattered ear drum. Even now after several operations he still can't see properly from his left eye and his hearing will never fully recover. His injuries make it difficult to get work.
GUSTI: It's been 6 years and everyday I think about that night. Sometimes I think about how different my life would have been if there was no bombing. When I talk to my daughter I can forget… but not for long, maybe the memories won't disappear until I die.
FANG: Like Gusti Anom, Ni Wayan Rastini is haunted by the Bali bombings. Her husband was one of the 38 Indonesian's killed in the terrorist attack. He was a taxi driver waiting in the street. Now Rastini works with four other widows at a clothing company called Adopta that they set up together.
RASTINI: I joined Adopta because I have to get money to feed my two daughters, I have to have a job because I don't have a husband anymore. We all have a shared destiny and here we can share our problems and support each other.
FANG: Between them these five widows are raising ten young children. And its been difficult, not only getting enough money to survive but also explaining to their children what happened.
RASTINI: My oldest daughter understood that her father had died but my second daughter didn't know. I told her that her dad had died but she didn't believe me, she said that he was working in America and she believed he would come back. I tried to make her understand, but only recently did she understand after she saw Amrozi on TV Sometimes she yells at Amrozi on the TV.
FANG: For Rastini and others touched by the bombings this is an especial painful time of year. On Sunday, for the sixth year running the survivors of the terrorist attacks made their annual pilgrimage to Bali's ground zero. For every name on this memorial there are many more victims living everyday with the nightmare of the Bali Bombings. Many of those now feel angry at what they see as a lack of justice for themselves and the bombers
Prison has done nothing to silence the three men on death row for the 2002 attacks. In recent weeks Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Sumudra again defended their murderous actions. And the delay in executing the men has left the victims angry.
GUSTI: I ask the Government, don't keep promising to the Balinese people, to the public and to the world that they will execute them and then not do it… as a victim that hurts, the Government they defend the perpetrators but as a victim no one asks about my life.
FANG: Ni Wayan Rastini also wants the bombers to be killed and like many other victims her anger isn't just for the men who committed the terrorist attacks.
RASTINI: I feel really upset because the execution of Amrozi has been delayed. He is a coward, he did not stand by his word that he was ready to die, I feel really upset with the Government for the delay. I am ready, if they told me to kill Amrozi I am ready for it, all the victims are ready to kill them.
FANG: So for many of the victims of the Bali bombings justice can't come soon enough for the men who brought such pain to their lives six years ago.
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