Bali Terror Victims Mourned on 10th Anniversary

Families defy terror threat to attend memorial service
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 12, 2012 3:22 AM CDT
Bali Victims Mourned on 10th Anniversary
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard lays a flower at a memorial pond at a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Oct. 12, 2002 terrorist attacks in Bali.   (AP Photo/Bay Ismoyo, Pool)

A decade after twin bombs killed scores of tourists partying at two nightclubs on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, survivors and victims' families braved a fresh terrorism threat today to remember those lost to the tragedy. Security was tight with more than 2,000 police and military, including snipers, deployed to guard the memorial services after reports involving the "certain movement" of terrorists were announced two days earlier, raising the security alert to its highest level. The 2002 bombing by al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah killed 202 people—including 88 Australians and seven Americans—and injured more than 240 others.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and former premier John Howard attended the memorial service in Bali. Services were also held across Australia. In Canberra, surgeon Fiona Wood, who led a team of Australian doctors that treated victims horribly burned in the attack, spoke of the survivors' bravery. "A young woman whose injuries were beyond comprehension. The first thing she said when she came out of her coma was, 'I'll never run; will I walk again?'" Wood recalled. "I said, 'You will walk, you will run, you will race.' And in 2008, she beat me in an Ironman." (More Bali stories.)

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