Bombs in Indonesian tourist resort kill 21

[Pekka]

The Aussies seem to have it a lot worse than we did .
My thoughts are with them today.

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Mr. President
That's interesting, Hueij, but Megawati is dependant on conservative Islamic support. A crackdown could threaten her control over the country. She's now in Musharraf's position: if she cracks down, many of her own people will declare her the enemy, but if she fails to crack down, the West will declare her the enemy.

But that's the whole point. It's not in the interest of the army that Indonesia's president (in this case Megawati) is in a strong position. And think of the American suport the army will get for joining the War on Terrorism. Who do you think is behind the religious violence on the Moluccans? The fanatic Islamics are just pawns in the hands of the army. The last thing they need is a stabilized and democratic Indonesia...

[Case]

Seeing as the Indonesian army carefully planed the destruction of East Timor after the 1999 independance vote, I certainly wouldn't put it past them.

However, IMO this is more likely to have been the work of a terrorist group then the Indonesian Army as the Army has an awful lot to lose if they are held responcible for this by Australia and the US.

[Alexander's Horse]

Very sad, at least a 100 Australians dead, more than 200 total. Hundreds injured. Mostly young people, football teams on end of year trips and so forth. The car bomb was timed to go off just as the dance clubs closed and people were milling in the street.

The army is flying out the critical cases by Hercules. 2 planeloads so far, a third on the way.

A reporter said that wounded were so pitiful that no media called out any questions as they were carried right past the international media scrum at Darwin airport.

Its the little things that get you - it was mentioned that one person on the first cas evac plane died. You wonder if they might have survived they could have got to an Australian hospital sooner

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Hueij

But that's the whole point. It's not in the interest of the army that Indonesia's president (in this case Megawati) is in a strong position. And think of the American suport the army will get for joining the War on Terrorism. Who do you think is behind the religious violence on the Moluccans? The fanatic Islamics are just pawns in the hands of the army. The last thing they need is a stabilized and democratic Indonesia...

Surely the army recognizes the rising power of Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia. If they staged this to force the Presifent into taking an unpopular position in the hopes of toppling him, then in what position will they be when they step into power? They will still either have to yield either to the West or the fundamentalists.

[Mr. President]

More than 220 Australians are unaccounted for. What if it was a deliberate strike at Australia in retribution for East Timor? It may not have been by the military (Laskar Jihad is still livid over John Howard's intervention in East Timor) but there is a lot of bad feeling in Indonesia over that affair.

[Felch]

**** Indonesia. Australia did the right thing in East Timor. Stopping people from brutalizing folks who want independence is a good thing, and only a rotten bunch of ****s would take it out on y'all.

This really pisses me off. It's mostly young people who got killed also.

[Mr. President]

That may be so, but in their eyes we caused the dissolution of a recognized country, something we opposed in Northern Ireland and Israel. That doesn't make blasting a nightclub with incendiary explosives right, of course; nonetheless I have it on good authority that many people in Indonesia spoke of "getting back at Australia, in some way" just after the East Timor affair.

[Frozzy]

My friend is in Bali at the moment. The insurance companies wont give him the money to fly back because they took out the cover post Sept. 11. Also, 312 Kiwis are missing in Bali.

[Gatekeeper]

The folks in Indonesia's government and/or military had better not have done this because of East Timor.

Gatekeeper

[Frozzy]

New Zealand had a part in East Timor, and a LOT of Kiwis were in the incident. 312, not many less than the Aussies.

[phoenixcager]

Apparantly a number of the people who where caught in the blast were members of Rugby teams who had gone to Bali for an International competition. There are seven members of the Singapore Cricket Club team who are still missing and thought to have been in the blast area.