Bali bomb site fury

Plan to build restaurant on sacred ground angers survivors

SURVIVORS and families of those killed in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings are outraged that a Bali government has approved plans for a restaurant on the sacred site of the Sari Club.

Construction of a planned five-storey complex on the former site of the Sari Club, in Kuta, is due to begin soon.

A sign outlining the proposal was erected yesterday, dismaying Australian and local victims who have worked for the past decade to have the plot turned into a peace park.

“People are absolutely outraged and disappointed and people are saying, I am never going back to Bali again,” David Napoli, the Bali Peace Park Association chairman said.

The land has remained vacant since the night, on October 12, 2002, when terrorists detonated a massive car bomb on the street outside the club.

That bombing, along with a suicide bomber who minutes earlier detonated himself inside Paddy’s Bar, just across the road, killed 200 innocent people along with two suicide bombers.

Among those killed were 88 Australians. In the wake of the bombings the Bali Peace Park Association was set up to raise enough money to buy the site from the owner. However for years the plans were stalled and the land has been vacant and used as a car park

A representative of the land owner, in a letter to the Bali Peace Park Association, says building will start on May 1.

The Balinese Government built a monument, on a plot directly across the road from the Sari Club which features the names of all those who lost their lives and which was opened on the first anniversary of the bombing.

The land owners had recently offered the Peace Park Association the opportunity to lease the 700 m2 fifth floor of the planned new building to construct a memorial. The 100-year lease was offered at the price of $5 million.