Survivors recall Bali scars
JAKARTA: Australian and US survivors of the 2002 Bali attacks relived the horror of seeing burning victims and their friends killed as they testified in the Indonesian trial of the alleged bomb-maker.
Prosecutors accused Umar Patek, who was arrested last year in the same Pakistani town where US commandos later killed al-qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, of building the bombs that killed 202 people on Bali, mostly Western tourists.
Jason Mccartney, an Australian sportsman who became a national hero for his fighting spirit after he survived burns to nearly half his body, rolled up his sleeves and trouser legs to show judges his scars yesterday.
Two bombs exploded in Bali’s Kuta tourist strip on Oct 12, 2002, one at Paddy’s Irish Bar and the second shortly after in a van outside the nearby Sari club.
Mccartney, an Australian rules football star before the attack, recounted the agony of his burns, the financial burden of hospital bills, and the pain of not being able to return to professional sport.
“I do still have a great love for Indonesia, and Bali in particular. But I also have sadness about what happened, not only to me, but many other innocent people – and anger,” the 38year-old from Victoria told the court.
Steven Cabler, an American rock musician from California who was on a surfing trip in Bali at the time of the attack, recalled the devastation and death at the Sari club.
“When the explosion happened, it was big, it was massive, and I hit my head very hard against my friend’s head, and had some fluid on me, and (it) exploded my eardrums,” said Cabler, who lost the hearing in his left ear.
Two other Australian survivors, Peter Hughes and Stuart Anstee, also recalled scenes of horror in their testimony.