ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police officers today inspected the ruins of a nightclub destroyed by an explosion yesterday in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia, killing at least 182. Another bomb exploded about 300 feet from the island's U.S. consulate, but there were no casualties.
Hawaii residents Linda Tseu thought the first bomb blast she heard, about 11 p.m. yesterday, Bali time, was an earthquake.
worry about effects
of Bali bombs
Death toll risingBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com
She went outside and "saw fire in the Kuta tourist district," said her husband, Ed, who is in Oahu and talked to his wife by phone from Bali yesterday.
"She then heard a second explosion and saw a second explosion, near the U.S. consulate," Tseu said. "She called me. I told her, 'Please be safe; stay home.'"
In the wake of a deadly nightclub bombing that killed more than 180 and wounded hundreds more, "I think everyone else in Bali is doing the same," Tseu said.
The Tseus live on Oahu, but also have a home in Bali and make frequent trips there for their business, Baik Designs, which imports Indonesian furniture.
"I'm just devastated by what has happened," Tseu said. "I feel it's a very sad day."
Tseu said he has always felt safe in Bali and finds the bombings "very disturbing."
The Kuta area where the bomb went off is a "very popular tourist beach, particularly for young people," said Richard Baker, an adjunct senior fellow at the East-West Center who served in the U.S. Foreign Service in Indonesia from 1972 to 1976.
"The area would have had a lot of mostly young people doing their Saturday night clubbing thing," Baker said, with a mix of Europeans, Australians and some Japanese and Americans. "That would account for the number of casualties."
Baker said his "informed speculation" about the incident is that "it looks like a double hit aimed at Australia and the United States, by somebody who doesn't care about the economic impact on Bali."
"My guess would have to be a non-Balinese-based group or individuals who were trying either to exact revenge or send a message," Baker said.
The possible motive, he said, could be resentment by some radical Indonesian nationalists over Australia's role, both military and diplomatic, in allowing the former province of East Timor to become independent from Indonesia.
"The Australians are seen by some fervent Indonesian nationalists as ... being behind what they saw as effort to dismember Indonesia," Baker said. "That feeling has continued to this day."
The grudge against America could be based on the perception that the U.S. war against terrorism is a war against Muslims and that the United States might try to invade Indonesia, Baker said.
The island of Bali is a province of Indonesia with a population of 3 million. It is mainly Hindu and has the bulk of that country's tourism. Indonesia's 17,508 islands are home to 207 million people, the majority of whom are Muslim.
"One would hope the Indonesian government, in a very straightforward way, will condemn the event and announce an all-out effort to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice," Baker said.
"This is the most significant attack involving foreigners in Indonesia in living memory," he added.
Debbie Mitchell, who also makes frequent trips to Bali for her business, Bali Imports, said she is fearful about the number of casualties because of lax building codes and a lack of infrastructure for disaster.
"It's almost like the ambulance is some guy in a pickup truck," she said.
In more than 30 years of traveling to Bali, Mitchell said she never felt uncomfortable or felt any hostility.
With Bali so dependent on tourism, the economic effects could be severe, Mitchell noted.
"The Gulf War affected the tourism. Sept. 11 affected tourism," she said. "Now, if they're actually blowing up customers, it's not going to be good."
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police officers today covered the burned body of a victim of yesterday's bomb blast at the ruins of a nightclub in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. At least 182 people were killed.
BALI, Indonesia >> A car bomb destroyed a crowded nightclub on the tourist island of Bali yesterday, sparking a devastating inferno that killed at least 182 people and wounded 300 -- many of them foreigners. Officials said it was the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history. Bomb kills 182
It is not certain if any Americans
were killed; the U.S. consulate
was also a bombing targetStar-Bulletin news services
Authorities said a second bomb exploded near the island's U.S. consular office. Police said there were no casualties in that explosion, but the U.S. Embassy was on edge today after its recreation club in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, was evacuated because of a bomb threat.
The blasts came three days after the State Department issued a worldwide alert for terror attacks and highlighted fears of the United States and others that Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation, is becoming a haven for terrorists and that al-Qaida operatives are active.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing in the Sari Club at the Kuta Beach resort, which officials said killed Indonesians, Australians, Canadians, Britons and Swedes. More than 300 people were injured, at least 90 of them critically, officials said.
"This is the worst act of terror in Indonesia's history," Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, the national police chief, told reporters at the site of the blast.
Bachtiar said the bomb exploded in a Kijanj, a jeep-like vehicle.
And earlier, a suspected homemade bomb knocked over the gate and smashed windows in the compound of the Philippine consulate in the Indonesian city of Manado.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri flew to Bali and a security alert was declared nationwide.
Megawati said today the latest information showed 182 people were killed.
"The government strongly condemns the blasts in Kuta, Bali and in Manado," the president told reporters after an emergency Cabinet meeting.
The Bali explosion went off about 11 p.m. and left a huge crater at the entrance to the club, which was located in the center of Kuta. It is Bali's biggest tourist area and a maze of clubs, restaurants, shops, hotels and beach bungalows. It caters to a younger crowd of tourists.
The blast ignited a huge blaze, apparently caused by exploding gas cylinders, that collapsed the flimsy roof structure, trapping hundreds of revelers inside. Footage from Associated Press Television News showed several bodies strewn among the rubble.
"The place was packed, and it went up within a millisecond," Simon Quayle, the coach of an Australian rules football team, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Quayle, whose team was visiting Bali, said he made it safely out of the building but eight of his 19 players were missing.
The blaze then engulfed a nearby nightclub before racing through about 20 other buildings on the block, heavily damaging many of them.
The second explosive detonated a few minutes after the first in the nearby city of Denpasar, Bali's capital, about 300 feet from a U.S. consular office, officials said.
A bomb squad was investigating both blasts, but Indonesian officials declined to provide a motive or blame any group.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer blamed it on terrorism. He said he believed the Sari nightclub was targeted because it was popular with Australians and other foreigners.
White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said Washington was monitoring the situation and working with Indonesian authorities. U.S. officials said they didn't know if there were any Americans among the casualties.
The blasts occurred on the second anniversary of the al-Qaida-linked attack on the USS Cole off Yemen that left 17 sailors dead.
Australia has also been one of the United States' staunchest allies in its war on terror and has 150 elite troops serving in Afghanistan.
Indonesian officials have denied the claims that terrorists are using Indonesia as a base. But the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta closed Sept. 10 and remained shut for six days due to what U.S. officials said were threats possibly linked to al-Qaida. Americans traveling in central Java were warned to be vigilant.
Authorities in Malaysia and Singapore have alleged that members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group said to be seeking to set up an Islamic state in Southeast Asia, are based in Indonesia.
