Sydney - Survivors of the 2002 terror bombing in Bali are
shocked that developers are set to build a multi-storey restaurant on
the site where 202 people were killed, it was reported Thursday.
For years survivors have been trying to establish a peace park on the
site with a memorial to those who were killed when a car bomb
exploded outside the Sari nightclub in Kuta on the Indonesian island.
But the Australian national broadcaster ABC reported Thursday a
building permit has been issued by local authorities.
Shopkeepers who have been using the site of the Sari nightclub as a
parking lot have been told to vacate so construction can start on May
9.
With development details shrouded in secrecy, Australian bomb
survivor Gary Nash fears the development will end up as a
multi-storey nightclub with a memorial on the fifth floor.
Radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, centre, inspired the Bali bombers. Picture: Dita Alangkara/AP
"That's an insult to everybody. Not only the Australians who were
killed there but everybody... all the other nations who had people
killed there... that land should be sacred, it should be kept apart,"
Nash told the ABC.
Nash survived a suicide bomber attack inside Paddy's Pub, which
caused patrons to flee outside to near the Sari nightclub where the
seconds massive car bomb was detonated seconds later.
The smaller Paddy's site has been turned into a memorial for the 202
victims including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons, seven
Americans, six Germans, five Swedes, four people from the Netherlands
and France, three Danes and Swiss and 21 from other countries.